"Tracks" by Louise Erdrich

Tracks by Louise Erdrich

A March Read

Her works as listed in LT.

How many have you read??

Love Medicine
The Round House
The Master Butchers Singing Club
Tracks
The Birchbark House
The Plague of Doves: A Novel
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse: A Novel
The Beet Queen
The Painted Drum
LaRose
Shadow Tag: A Novel
The Bingo Palace
Future Home of the Living God: A Novel
Four Souls
The Antelope Wife
Tales of Burning Love
The Crown of Columbus
The Game of Silence
The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year
The Porcupine Year
The Best American Short Stories
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of my…
The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories
Chickadee
Jacklight
Native American Literature Course Pack
Grandmother's Pigeon
Original Fire: Selected and New Poems
Makoons
Baptism of Desire: Poems
The Range Eternal
The Night Watchman
Conversations with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris
Selected from Love Medicine
Four Souls / Tracks
The Years of My Birth
The Flower {short story}
Le Mooz
A Reader's Guide to the Fiction of Louise Erdrich
Matchimanito
Knives
Commemorative
Old Man Potchikoo
Tracks / Love Medicine / The Painted Drum
Erdrich Louise
The Plague of Doves (in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story
Snares (in The Best American Short Stories 1988 - RAVENEL)
Scales {short story}

I'm in! Thanks for setting up the thread, Kim. The only other Louise Erdrich I've read is The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. I didn't realize she was so prolific; I have some catching up to do.

I'm in the middle of another book right now but I'll start Tracks as soon as I finish it.

Just added this thread to the group wiki to make it easy to find. Have fun!

I've read most except for the young readers. I have also missed some of the poetry.

I've read 13!! They may not even all be in my LT books....yet!

Awesome! I'm going to put the link in the group read thread of the Category Challenge in case anyone wants to join in. Thanks for setting this up.

>3 lauralkeet: Ha! Getting caught up on books. Never gonna happen. But have fun trying. :)

>4 drneutron: >7 luvamystery65: I always forget to do that. Thanks!

>5 BLBera: I don't think I have read any of her poetry. And it's funny because I like writing poetry, just not reading it so much.

http://www.startribune.com/in-louise-erdrich-s-night-watchman-tribal-and-persona...

Article/interview about her new book, which comes out Tuesday. Hey Twin, don't you wish you could visit Birchbark and pick up one of those autographed copies??

My copy looks like this.

I have this one, and I just started it last night.

Thanks for setting this up, Kim!

I'm in, but it will be a few days (a week?) before I am able to start.

I've read 4: Love Medicine, The Round House, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse and one of her children's novels, The Birchbark House.

Besides Tracks, I have her newest one The Night Watchman sitting on Planet TBR as well as Tales of Burning Love.

That's an amazing list in >2 Berly: ! We could do an Erdrich-a-month for years!

My cover is the same as Beth's.

I was supposed to see Erdrich and Colum McCann speak about their new books in the city tonight, but Erdrich had to cancel and I may not make it in due to work stuff. I was really looking forward to hearing her speak :(

>13 katiekrug: Oh no! :(

>13 katiekrug: that's a bummer, both that she cancelled and that you might have to miss it too. Boo to the work stuff!

The McCann book was reviewed very favorably in yesterday's NYT Book Review, so I promptly submitted a library request.

Too bad Erdrich had to cancel. I've seen her speak, and she is usually good.

>9 BLBera: TwinB--Thanks for the link. My Tracks copy is from her very own store Birchbark and I got it when I was visiting you in MN!!!

And I wish I could get her new one with you too. Sigh.

>11 lauralkeet: My cover. : )

>13 katiekrug: Bummer!

>17 Berly: I know TwinK - I made you buy it, remember? How is it going? Are you loving it? If you need any clarification, I have read this about ten times, so can probably answer any questions you have.

I'm here! I have the same one as >11 lauralkeet: Laura.

I've read:
Love Medicine
The Beet Queen
Tracks (yes, this is a reread)
The Round House
The Master Butchers Singing Club
The Birchbark House
The Plague of Doves
La Rose

>18 BLBera: Did that sound arrogant? I apologize. I get in teacher mode sometimes.

I'm so glad to see this thread! Louise Erdrich is one of my favorite authors. I've read Tracks before, more than once, but am excited to read it again.
And I've read 14 of her books. Still need to read: The Master Butchers Singing Club, The Painted Drum, LaRose, The Antelope Wife, and the new one.

Maybe I will start this tonight.

>21 AnneDC: She's one of my favorites as well, Anne. I am eagerly waiting for her new one. I haven't read The Painted Drum either, or the new version of The Antelope Wife.

One of the reasons I love Tracks so much is Nanapush. He has to be one of my favorite characters. He adds humor to what was a pretty grim time. I think Erdrich has a perfect balance with the reality and the humor.

>18 BLBera: >20 BLBera: xoxo : )

>21 AnneDC: Hi Anne!! Welcome!

So, I finally finished my book for RL bookclub and I can get going on this--can't wait!

>23 BLBera: I read this so long ago that I don't remember the story. Looking forward to reintroducing myself to Nanapush.

It's my first time reading Tracks and I finished it yesterday. A couple of years ago an LT friend sent me The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse and I really enjoyed it. It was a pleasant surprise to see some characters from that book in Tracks. I had to get *Last Report* off the shelves and compare the family trees to confirm they were the same people, and now I have a bit more of their back story. I love that.

There are some parts of the book I'd like to discuss, so I'll just plump up the pillows and get comfortable until folks are ready.

>26 lauralkeet: Laura there are many of the books that incorporate the same characters and families--it is one of the things I love about her work. If you enjoyed the connections between Tracks and Last Report there is much much more to explore!

>27 AnneDC: that's good to know!

>26 lauralkeet: Laura, are Tracks and Last Report your only two Erdrich novels so far?

I need to finish my current read so I can dig into Tracks -- I don't want to miss the discussion. :-)

>26 lauralkeet: What would you like to discuss, Laura? I'm ready.

>26 lauralkeet: >30 BLBera: Dang, girls!! Give me the weekend to catch up! LOL

>29 EBT1002: Yes they are, Ellen. But I feel like I now need to read more ...

>30 BLBera: >31 Berly: LOL look at you two. I have some incoherent thoughts which may need time to crystallize but I'll start with this:

Pauline.

I had a difficult time figuring her out. And the chapters she narrates were so different, stylistically -- a bit like magical realism, maybe? -- that I feel like I might not have fully grasped what was going on.

So, Pauline witnessed Fleur being raped in Argus and I can understand that would have a psychological impact. Events that occur later, like the birth of her child and her visits to Fleur when she was a nun were so bizarre. Is this all attributable to the earlier trauma?

I always think that a major part of Pauline's problem is her rootlessness. She has lost all contact with the land, family and culture. She denies her heritage, the fact that she is Native American, and that destroys her. We can see that in the end, when they are forced to rely on government food vs. hunting, that Fleur loses her power as well..

Curiously, Erdrich denies that she is a magic realist. She claims that she merely depicts the belief system.

>33 BLBera: that's a great point, Beth. Thanks!

Also, I have now posted a review both on the book page and my thread -- here it is:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Set in early 20th Century North Dakota, Tracks is a portrayal of an Ojibwe community on the brink of crisis. Traditions, land, and livelihood are all threatened by government policies and the white people charged with carrying them out.

Chapters are narrated alternately by Nanapush, a community elder, and Pauline, a woman barely coping with the effects of trauma and loss. Pauline’s chapters are told in real time, while Nanapush’s chapters are stories being told, several years later, to his granddaughter, Lulu. Their narratives often present the same or overlapping events from their radically different perspectives. Another significant character is Fleur, a strong and self-sufficient woman who has chosen to live apart from most of the community. She is the subject of considerable suspicion, rumor, and gossip, but also much loved by Nanapush and others.

The encroaching presence of white people is like a drumbeat underneath the main storyline. Over the novel’s twelve-year timeline this drumbeat becomes louder, as the native community is suddenly expected to pay fees and taxes to hold onto their land, and as the lumber industry begins destroying natural resources.

The non-linear structure of this novel requires the reader to piece together fragments in order to understand the broader story, while also realizing the narrators may not always be the most reliable. It’s a rich tale that whetted my appetite for reading more of Erdrich’s work.

La, la, la. Not looking, busy reading....

; )

>32 lauralkeet: Yep, I think you might. Of course, Love Medicine and The Beet Queen are the first two in the sort-of-trilogy along with Tracks (Tracks being "third"), but as Beth said, various characters appear here and there in multiple works by Erdrich. The Master Butchers Singing Club, Bingo Palace, you just can't go wrong. And I particularly loved LaRose.

>35 Berly: Yes to La, la, la, not looking. Not yet reading, though, either.... I'll get there.

>36 EBT1002: Ellen, LT shows a Love Medicine series which includes the books you mentioned in a "sort-of-trilogy" plus The Bingo Palace, The Last Report of the Miracles at Little No Horse, and The Painted Drum. This same series also shows Four Souls as #3.5 in the series, whatever that means.

I've found some of the series in LT a bit suspect, not always what I would call a "real" series, so I'm interested in everyone's thoughts on this one.

>37 lauralkeet: I would not call them a series. I would call them an interrelated set of novels (with some stories thrown in) with shared themes, some characters in common, and set in the same area in North Dakota.

>38 EBT1002: well that's okay too! I take it they could be read in any order then? Which is a good thing ... because I've read #s 3 & 5 already LOL.

>39 lauralkeet: Any order at all (imo).

Yup. Any order! : )

I agree; you can read them in any order. I think, actually, chronologically, Tracks might be the first one, at least on the rez. The ones set in Argus, I'm not so sure about.

>34 lauralkeet: Great comments, Laura.

Thanks Beth!

I've read the first three chapters. Nanapush is such a wonderful storyteller and Fleur Pillager a delightful character. I'm loving the novel all over again!

Y'all are making me sad I won't get to the book until I'm back from my trip!

Okay, sharing some of my favorite quotes:

Chapter 3, p. 46 my version. Nanapush.
"During the years of sickness, when I was the last one left, I saved myself by starting a story...I got well by talking. Death could not get a word in edgewise, grew discouraged, and traveled on."

Chapter 3, p. 48 my version. Nanapush and Margaret Kapshaw. This made me laugh so hard!! What a great put-down. LOL
She hissed. The words flew like razor grass between her teeth.
"Old man," she scorned, "two wrinkled berries and a twig."
"A twig can grow," I offered.
"But only in the spring."

Chapter 5, p. 104. Nanapush. What an amazing image.
"He (Eli) glowed, for the meat strapped to them had frozen marble blue...I severed the rest from Eli's body and stashed it outside, in the lean-to. The meat stood on its own in pieces, a moose transformed into the mold of Eli, an armor that would fit no other."

Chapter 5, p. 110. Nanapush and Father Damien. Regarding hard church benches.
"You must think of their unyielding surface as helpful," he offered. "God sometimes enters the soul through the humblest parts of our anatomies, if they are sensitized to suffering."
"A god who enters through the rear door, " I countered, "is no better than a thief."

That exchange between Nanapush and Margaret totally cracked me up.

Okay, last one from me.

2nd to last page. Nanapush.

"...once the bureaucrats sink their barbed pens into the lives of Indians, the paper starts flying, a blizzard of legal forms, a waste of ink by the gallon, a correspondence to which there is no end or reason. That's when I began to see what we were becoming, and the years have borne me out: a tribe of file cabinets and triplicates, a tribe of single-space documents, directives, policy. A tribe of pressed trees. A tribe of chicken-scratch that can be scattered by a wind, diminished to ashes by one struck match."

Well, I continue to love Erdrich. Anyone else have a favorite quote or a favorite character? : )

I love the dry Indian humor and Nanapush is a master of it.

As he says, he 'could wound with pointed jokes'. (p117)

But he was also very thoughtful and wise. In his revenge against Clarence, when Clarence was caught in the snare and at their mercy, he didn't kill him. Instead he faced Clarence and said to Nector "You see this man? He never thought this hard before". p 122

Indian humor can be very uncomfortable when it feels pointed against you. I heard Sherman Alexie talk a few years ago and he did a bit about how white woman love his books and throw themselves at him. It made me rather tongue tied when he signed my copy of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir after his lecture. I remember telling him I was just another white woman who enjoyed his books.

I finished this a while ago but thought I'd just check in. I love chapter five when Eli straps the moose meat onto his body to transport it back for winter storage.

>51 streamsong: Yes, loved the humor!

>52 EBT1002: That was one of the images I quoted in >47 Berly:! Unforgettable.

Checking in to say I really liked this book and I plan to read more by Erdrich. I've been working a lot so I haven't been by to comment. I think Nanapush is my favorite. He is so funny.