Book: The Round House
Author: Louise Erdrich
Pages: 321
How long it took me to read: 2 days
Plot Summary: The Round House is a story based in a North Dakota Native American Reservation in the late 1980s. The voice of the book is a 13-year old boy called Joe, who lives with his parents on the Reservation. His father is a Native American judge and his mother works with the Reservation's genealogy department. The story starts with Joe and his father pulling out seedlings out of the foundation of their house during Joe's summer break. While father and son are de-weeding their home's foundation, Joe's mother gets brutally raped near the Reservation's, now defunct, ceremonial structure, called The Round House. What is also interesting about the Round House is that it falls smack in the middle of Native, State and Federal land, basically, making it a no-man's land legislation-wise. This presents challenges in the investigative process as everyone and no one has jurisdiction. Joe's mother is in shock and is unwilling to speak and the investigation is not going anywhere. Joe decides to take matters into his own hands and he and his gang of friends go about trying to find out what happened to his mother that morning and who did it.
Characters: There is, of course, Joe- our key protagonist and the voice of the book- a 13 year old Native American boy, for whom this summer is when he leaves his childhood far, far behind as he goes about trying to find his mother's attacker. Then there are Joe's friends, his grandfather- Mooshum- a man who still believes in the old ways of crime and punishment and is a wonderful character to read about. Joe's dad- Bazil- presents an interesting contrast to Mooshum and even Joe's thirst for justice and revenge. Bazil is a man of the law is dependent upon the law to take its due course and his struggles in dealing with his wife's attack and its traumatizing aftermath are very real. His helplessness further fuels Joe's drive to investigate his mother's attack. Then there is Joe's mother- Geraldine- who is struggling to come to terms with her normal life post her rape and how she can't really be the wife and mother that she was before.
Other characters that are important to the plot are Linda Wishkob- a white woman, whose family had disowned her because she was deformed and who was adopted by a Native American family and whose story is so heart-breaking but also full of hope.
What I Liked: I liked the way in which the coming-of-age theme was handled in this book. It was not in the cutesy, often, sweet way in which other Young Adult books depict it, but rather in a more brutal and direct way. A 13 year old's mother is raped and he is coming to terms with understanding not only the nature of the assault but also how red tape and complicated legalities mar the investigation. As Joe unearths more of what happened that morning, the more he moves away from his world of childhood pursuits into adulthood. The writing is beautiful and so, it is great to read about the Native American community, rituals, beliefs and life.
What I didn't like: The book was a bit rambly in parts. I wish it were more taut and tight- there were way too many aunts and other random characters that didn't really bring much to the story.
Will you like it? If you enjoy reading about different cultures, then you will enjoy this book. Also, if you are looking for a slightly different coming-of-age story, then this is a good book to pick up.
Rating: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment