The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

Yesterday, I finished listening to the unabridged audio version of The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, which is narrated by the author. 

I had previously finished reading The Sentence by Louise Erdrich last month for Native American Heritage Month. I enjoyed The Sentence so much that I decided to follow it up with another novel by Louise Erdrich. The Night Watchman didn't disappoint! 

After reading two back to back novels by Louise Erdrich, I can safely say that I have a new favorite novelist. I look forward to reading more books by Louise Erdrich.

What can I say about The Night Watchman? The writing is spectacular! The characters are amazing, well rounded, and a full bodied in a way that is very satisfying to the storyline. The storyline is very captivating and well paced. There isn't a dull moment to be seen in this novel.

There's so much to convey about The Night Watchman that I am not sure where to begin first. I don't want to over share the plot details either that I end up giving away too much of the plot details! 

I will keep my review very simple to prevent too many spoilers. The Night Watchman takes place in the 1950s and is set mainly in rural North Dakota on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. The night watchman of this novel is Thomas Washashk. Thomas's last name means muskrat and there'e a lot of Native American Folklore surrounding the muskrat that is touched upon in the novel. Thomas Washashk is based on the author's own grandfather. 

I love that Louise Erdrich focuses on Native American history and issues/themes in her novels. I also enjoy that she incorporates real life events and real life people into her novels as well. In The Night Watchman, we read about Thomas Washashk's fight against Native dispossession which takes him all the way to Washington DC. All the while, Thomas tries to sustain life for his family through farming and as a night watchman at the local jewel bearing plant.

Another main character is Pixie/Patrice. She's a young women who works at the jewel bearing plant making the jewel bearings along with several other Native American women. We see Pixie/Patrice and others on the reservation struggle with poverty and the Native American identity.

Each character in The Night Watchman is very nuanced. How these characters mingle together to make a cohesive story is magic on Erdrich's part. The readers are provided a snapshot into life on the reservation and what the new 'emancipation' bill would mean for indigenous groups across the USA if it should pass.

Below is the plot summary for The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, which I discovered on Amazon's website:

Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

New York Times Best Seller

Washington Post, Amazon, NPR, CBS Sunday Morning, Kirkus, Chicago Public Library, and Good Housekeeping Best Book of 2020

Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, DC, this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.

I am giving The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich a rating of 5 stars out of 5 stars. 

In fact, The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich may be my favorite novel of 2024. The writing is incredible! I fully understand why it won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize.

Until my next post, happy reading!

An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo

 

With the month of November being Native American Heritage Month, I decided it would be a very worthwhile endeavor to read at least one book written by a Native American. 

I've been interested in reading a book of poetry written by Joy Harjo for sometime now. Reading a collection of Ms. Harjo's poetry seemed especially pertinent considering that she is the current Poet Laureate of the United States and is the first Native American to hold this esteemed position. 

As a quick side note, I had the honor of hearing Joy Harjo speak virtually last November through the University of Iowa's 'Chat From the Old Cap' event where I learned that Joy Harjo earned her MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1978. This virtual event was awesome and further sealed the deal in my resolve to read something written by Joy Harjo.

So, I decided to listen to the unabridged audio version of An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo and narrated by the author. I prefer hearing poetry read aloud (especially by the author) verses reading it myself as I feel hearing poetry read aloud is more powerful.

I liked many of the poems written and read by Joy Harjo, but three of the poems that stood out were 'Granddaughters', 'For Those Who Would Govern', 'Advice For Countries, Advanced, Developing and Falling'.

Below is a YouTube of Joy Harjo reading 'For Those Who Would Govern':

Listening time for An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo is 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Below is the publisher's summary for An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo from Audible:

A stunning new volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, informed by her tribal history and connection to the land.

In the early 1800s, the Mvskoke people were forcibly removed from their original lands east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, which is now part of Oklahoma. Two hundred years later, Joy Harjo returns to her family’s lands and opens a dialogue with history. In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of her homeland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous families, essentially disappeared. From her memory of her mother’s death, to her beginnings in the native rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo’s personal life intertwines with tribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings. Her poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living in the ruins of injustice. A descendent of storytellers and “one of our finest - and most complicated - poets” (Los Angeles Review of Books), Joy Harjo continues her legacy with this latest powerful collection.

I am giving An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo a rating of 4 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!

Joy Harjo Just Became The First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate

Yesterday, I came across an exciting article on Bustle's website titled, Joy Harjo Just Became The First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate Since The Position Was Created In 1937 by Kerri Jarema. In the article, Kerri Jarema wrote the following information:

Writer, musician and poet Joy Harjo has been named the very first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate since the position was created in 1937.

The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress —more commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate — serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the Poet Laureate celebrates the reading and writing of poetry and works to share their love of the literary form with the nation.

Harjo, who was born in Oklahoma and is a member of the Muskogee Creek Nation, is known for centering Native American stories, lives, and legends in her work, which includes eight poetry collections, her 2012 memoir Crazy Horse, two children's books, and four music albums. Her 1990 collection, In Mad Love and War, won the American Book Award, and her work has garnered various other prestigious awards, including the PEN Open Book Award, the American Indian Distinguished Achievement in the Arts Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowship. She has also taught at UCLA and the University of Tennessee.

Click on the top link to read the full story. 

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot

I first learned about Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot in February of this year. I'd read great things about Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot in the articles I'd discovered online. So, I decided to buy a hardback copy of it in March. 

Additionally, Sherman Alexie wrote a glowing introduction for Heart Berries: A Memoir. The afterward features Joan Naviyuk Kane interviewing Terese Marie Mailhot about Mailhot's memoir... And both Roxane Gay and Lidia Yuknavitch praised Heart Berries: A Memoir. 

November is Native American Heritage Month here in the USA. With that in mind, I decided it was time to read Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot as the author is Native American and grew up on the Seabird Island First Nation reservation in British Columbia.

I was excited to read Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot. I was expecting great things from this memoir from all the praise I'd read about it. Sadly, reading Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot was a huge disappointment to me. I wanted to love this memoir. Listening to various interviews of the author talking about her memoir, Heart Berries, has me appreciate the message she has to share in her memoir... But Heart Berries: A Memoir in and of itself, simply didn't do it for me.

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot is written in chapters that read like essays and are epistolary in nature. This memoir also felt very 'stream of consciousness' in nature to me as well.

Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot also felt raw to me. I do like many of the sentences and paragraphs that impart very vivid imagery that does make one pause and give thought to what the author is saying in her memoir. Additionally, I felt like the way in which Heart Berries is written was at times depressing, very depressing. At other times, I felt it was frustrating to read Heart Berries as I felt it was too artistic and took too long for the author to make her thoughts and feelings known... And at other times, I didn't understand what the author was trying to say at all. For example, the last chapter in Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot titled, Better Parts, left me wondering what the author was trying to impart to readers. 

Below is a video of Terese Marie Mailhot speaking about the idea of role models.

When all is said and done, I felt like Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot was simply an okay read. I am giving Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot a rating of 2 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!