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Loading... The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel (Erdrich, Louise) (Hardcover) (original 2003; edition 2003)by Louise Erdrich (Author)
Work InformationThe Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich (2003)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. My mother’s family is German, immigrating to Australia well before World War 1, and I sing in a community choir, so I was looking forward to reading this book. It tells the story of Fidelis Waldvogel as he makes a new life in America after World War 1, and also of the enigmatic Delphine Watzka, a North Dakota local. I found the story quite melancholy, but well crafted. There wasn’t enough singing! The title of the book is a bit confusing. There was a master butcher and he did have a singing club but for me it didn't seem to play a main part in the story. I thought the story revolved around a compassionate female character, Delphine, and all the horrible things that happened to her over the course of her life. I kept hoping for some deeper understanding of other characters or for happiness for any of them (especially Delphine) but it ended up being page after page of betrayals, sadness, sickness and death. Too grim for me. Louise Erdrich is best known for novels that explore her Native American heritage and are set in the Dakotas. In The Master Butchers Singing Club, Erdrich reaches back into her European ancestry with a sprawling saga featuring German and Polish immigrants. Central to the story is Delphine, a young woman who returns to her hometown after a stint performing in a vaudeville act. Delphine befriends Eva, the wife of the town’s German butcher, and she assists Eva in running the shop, and her life becomes increasingly entwined with Eva’s family … and to avoid spoilers, I’ll stop there. Delphine’s story unfolds over a period of about 20 years. A large number of characters come and go, and family secrets are ever present in the background. Erdrich is an amazing storyteller, able to juggle a complex web of subplots and make it all work out in the end. That said, the last third of the novel was told in less detail, with larger gaps of time between chapters. Some characters were abruptly written out of the story, with insufficient detail and emotion. The last chapter is perhaps the most beautiful part of the novel, almost as if Erdrich wrote this first and then created a novel to showcase it. The journey was worth it. Fidelis, a former WWI German sniper, marries Eva, his deceased friend’s pregnant fiancé, and emigrates from Germany to Argus, North Dakota, to establish a butcher’s shop. Delphine, daughter of an alcoholic single father, meets Cyprian, a former WWI US Marine, and they create a traveling acrobatic act. They eventually return to Argus and pretend to be married to avoid gossip. Delphine and Eva become fast friends, and the storyline follows their converging lives from WWI to several years past WWII. The strengths of this novel include deeply drawn characters and an unusual plotline. The characters are complex, filled with internal contradictions. For example, Fidelis is a butcher so he seems rather unfeeling in his work of constantly killing animals, but he possesses a beautiful singing voice and treats his family with tenderness. Even the minor characters exhibit a unique identity and emotional depth. War and its ongoing impact are recurrent themes. Initially, war affects Cyprian and Fidelis, but the next war wreaks havoc on Fidelis’s sons. The plot includes such diverse elements as the discovery of three bodies in a cellar, a sexual identity crisis, and a tie-in with the Wounded Knee massacre. There are a few brutal scenes, mostly involving animals. Several mysteries get set up and are not always resolved. It is rich in period details and beautifully written. By the end, the author has taken the reader in unexpected directions and several secrets are revealed.
Amazon.com Review Louise Erdrich's The Master Butchers Singing Club is a powerfully told story of love, death, redemption, and resurrection. After German soldier Fidelis Waldvogel returns home from World War I to marry his best friend's pregnant widow, he packs up his father's butcher knives and sets sail for America. .... Belongs to SeriesLove Medicine (related) AwardsDistinctions
Returning to his quiet German village home after World War I, trained killer Fidelis Waldvogel, accompanied by his wife, leaves to start a new life in America and finds his life irrevocably changed by a new relationship. No library descriptions found. |
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