LaRose: A Novel
Written and Narrated By: Louise Erdrich
Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
Yeah, it ends really quite abruptly. But oh my, the journey to get there!!!
Dunno what my problem’s been but, as with the Rachel Joyce review this go-round, ‘twould appear that this is my first Louise Erdrich audiobook also. Two prolific writers whom I’ve never quite gotten around to listening to.
And from the get-go, I was a trifle twitchy as this is narrated by Erdrich herself, and an author reading his/her own work is sometimes NOT a joy to behold. But… uhm, well, uhm: I read the Publisher’s Summary (Which makes TWICE in a week!), and I was absolutely smitten with the premise. So here we go, and I’m soooo happy to be able to say that Erdrich’s voice is so very lovely, and she performed her story just as it should’ve been. I was able to see and hear each character, the flow was smooth, and the action and tension grew in just a manner as I’d hoped—keeping me glued to my iPhone and skipping meals so that I might continue with this Listen. So, PHEW! AWEsome job, and as I liked this story so much and thought it written well, I’ve been looking at her other works but see them narrated by different people. Uhm, so like, total squid’s eye as I ponder someone NOT Louise Erdrich doing Louise Erdrich. But I get ahead of myself.
Landreaux Iron is hunting and he has a massive buck in his gunsights. He smoothly shoots, thinks he’s bagged it, only then does he realize the buck moves off and something topples from a tree branch. Landreaux has shot and killed his friend and neighbor’s youngest child and only son, Dusty. Instant sickness and horror.
After consulting Father Thomas, but mostly after a go in a sweat lodge to consult the spirits, Landreaux and his wife Emmeline (Half-sister to Nola, Dusty’s mom) go the tribal way for justice and redemption: They give their young son, LaRose, to Nola and Peter Ravich, to make up for their lost son. They’re brokenhearted, but it is The Way.
So we have two stories of two families as they navigate grief, despair, and fury. Tho’ the Raviches take in LaRose, their grief has not ended, their anger: In one absoLUTEly memorable scene, Peter starts the alcoholic Landreaux in on beers, for communion and “togetherness”, but actually he knows that with just one more beer, Landreaux could take that final step, be lost and unforgiven in an alcoholic haze of a destroyed life. There’s a struggle, much pain, so very much anger and grief… stunning.
Nola, who was never very stable to begin with, continues to struggle, and LaRose and new sister Maggie juggle trying to cope and trying to stave off suicide attempts. Maggie is crushed and as devastated as anyone else by the tragedy, and Erdrich writes it so that she finds family with Landreaux’s family, with his daughters. All the kids in this story are confused by the set-up, but it comes down to a sharing of LaRose, a stretching by each family. And LaRose has a secret magic of his own that he discovers when trying to see Dusty again, to connect with the afterworld.
There’s also the story of the first LaRose, a girl sold by a drunken mother to a brutal rapist of a man and of her schooling whereby all things native to her are forbidden. There are tales of tuberculosis. There’s more on government schooling that Landreaux rebelled against, and the introduction of the story’s devil of a character. So there’s strife and building tension as the story unfolds itself to the listener, and one is never sure of what one CAN forgive, CAN let go of. There’s also love, as brutal, as painful, as accepting as that can be.
The book ends soooo abruptly, and ‘twould appear this had some peeved. But I saw it as a nice wrapping up, tho’ redemption, while hard-sought, hard-fought-for, does seem to come rather quickly. Still, I liked how things wrapped up open-ended. Cuz life goes on, glimmering here, ugly as hell there.
Totally had me looking at The Round House which has been sitting in my Library since I picked it up on sale eeeeeons ago. S’posedly, this book rounds out as the third in a trilogy on the themes of trespass, forgiveness, redemption maaaaybe, held anger. NATurally I’ve come to this party late and started on book three where The Round House is book two.
Book one? The Plague of Doves. Don’t have it, but considering how lovely the writing is…?
Oh, dude! It is soooo in My Wish List now.
A duo of narrators NOT Erdrich, however?
Oh, dude! A writer as singularly observant as Erdrich?
I’m THERE!!!
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