Books : The Plague of Doves: A Novel

Rating: - native American tales
there were wonderful tales, but it was difficult to follow the plot and keep track of the characters. It is a great book for short stories, but more difficult as an ongoing tale. Maybe she intended for it to simply be a collection of stories of her home town and extended family.

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Rating: - The Plague of Doves
The Plague of Doves is an astounding book. Louise Erdrich weaves in thoughts that make me stop and travel within them before reading on.
You will care about the people and stay in fascination as you delve into the events of their lives.
My favorite of her books, along with her children's books, is The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. 'The floorboards wept (while being washed) at the playing of Chopin'....
I give Erdrich's The Blue Jay's Dance to every woman I know who is having a baby. Truly beautiful and valuable.

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Rating: - Short stories tied together by lynching
The reader should be forewarned that THE PLAGUE OF DOVES is more of a collection of short stories than a traditional novel. The "novel" is only loosely constructed around an early 20th century murder of a farm family near fictional Pluto, North Dakota, after which three Ojibway men were wrongfully accused and lynched.

Many of the same characters move in and out of the various stories. The Milk family is the most compelling. Seraph Milk or "Mooshum," and his brother Shamengwa were alive at the time of the lynchings. Mooshum's granddaughter, Evelina is a modern-era voice. Mooshum was almost hanged along with the other three Ojibways. He has turned into a loveable old man who offers comic relief in his dealings with the local Catholic priest. At one point, when his brother Shamengwa dies, the Catholic priest gets them mixed up and delivers a eulogy for Mooshum who is sitting in a pew grinning at the clergyman.

Evelina appeals more to our heartstrings. She's a college student and parttime waitress at one of the few remaining businesses in Pluto. She has a boyfriend, Corwin Peace, who is related to Cuthbert Peace, one of the three Indians lynched after the farm family was murdered. He turns to taking and selling drugs, but is saved by Shamengwa's violin, which has mystical properties. One of her teachers, Sister Mary Anita Buckendorf, is a descendant of one of the German farmers who hanged Cuthbert and the other two Indians. Evelina nicknames her "Godzilla" because of her unfortunate protruding chin, but regrets it when Corwin begins to antagonize the nun as well. Evelina eventually goes to work at an insane asylum where she falls in love with one of the female patients, complicating her relationship with Corwin. Evelina's plot line is never fully resolved. Perhaps it will be in a future edition of the NEW YORKER.

Erdrich works hard at establishing connections between the tormenters and the abused over three generations. One of the tormenters' progeny even marries a descendant of one of the hanged Indians. Erdrich manages to tack on an ending during which we find out who really killed the farm family. The town doctor's identity also furnishes a surprising twist.

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Rating: - Back again to Yoknapatawpha County North
I've been reading Ms. Erdrich for over 20 years now, and each time I pick up one of her books, I am amazed how consistent she is in her talent. As I've said in other reviews, she's created her own Yoknapatawpha County in North Dakota, peopled with her mixed ancestors, and continues to delight. The beautiful review above from the Washington Post lays out the story without any spoilers. Erdrich creates haunting novels woven together of seemingly disparate stories that coalese in the end to make a satisfying whole. Almost a web of short stories, but each involving and intriguing in its own right, necessary to the integrated whole.

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Rating: - A multigenerational and memerizing Native American novel
This book is my first by Louise Erdrich. While it is not written as a thrilling murder mystery, it does greatly hold one's interest in the telling about an unsolved murder of a farm family that haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The capture and punishment by hanging of three Indians, who were wrongly accused of the crimes, interweaves with the lives of everyone connected to these long ago murders and makes for a great Native American read.