the night watchman by louise erdrich review

It’s about a financial Ponzi scheme (similar to Bernie Madoff) but in the same way that Station Eleven wasn’t just about the apocalypse, it’s really about the characters. It’s a strange, meandering story, and like Station Eleven, it has a lot of different characters and covers many years. They both take jobs at a luxury hotel, but Paul is fired for vandalism, and Vincent leaves to become the wife of a New York financier. The book centers around two half-siblings, Vincent and Paul, in British Columbia. This book is quite different from her other novel, Station Eleven, and in the end I can’t rave about it quite as much, but it was still quite good. Mandel has written another complicated, thoughtful drama that isn’t quite what you expect. It’s a fascinating book made even more interesting by the historical aspects and the author’s own connection to the story. She isn’t ready to settle down and marry or have kids, and she has trouble relating to many of the other girls at the factory.Įrdrich’s portrayal of these and the other characters is so thoughtful I really admired the bravery and strength of the characters. She faces abuse and poverty at home but is also steeped in the traditions she’s learned from her mother. Patrice is torn between her traditional life on the reservation, her desire to go to college, and her need to find her sister. Patrice leaves the reservation to find her sister, who moved to Minneapolis and hasn’t been heard from since. The story also focuses on Patrice Paranteau, the valedictorian of her class and a worker at the factory. Erdrich notes in the afterword that this is something that happened to many tribes.

The bill would eliminate the federal protections on the land and would eliminate all benefits to the tribe, devastating the entire community, who would be forced to move and scatter, losing their traditions and their history. Thomas is a scholar and an advocate, so when he hears that a bill has been introduced in Congress to “emancipate” Turtle Mountain, he rallies the community to fight back. Erdrich is telling a fictionalized story about her own grandfather, who is the title character, a night watchman at a jewel bearing plant. I loved this book, which tells the story about the Turtle Mountain tribe and their fight to maintain federal tribal status in the 1950’s. But given limited time, all three were really great reads so I wanted to share my thoughts. All three of these books deserve a full review. You may know I’m not a huge fan of mini-reviews.

The night watchman by louise erdrich review