LaRose

“La Rose” is a bittersweet novel in Louise Erdrich's usual vein. It a story as much about a family coming apart and together as it is about the present and past.

There is not much plot or action in “La Rose” after the gut-wrenching first chapter, but the human drama is as thick as an iceberg. The characters are uninteresting and unlikable individually but the dynamics they create with each other are sweet, somber, and believable. The heart of this story is these interactions and watching the characters fit all their separate broken pieces together into one mosaic.

There are many flashbacks and stories that help give the culture and history of the Native American heritage of the characters more context. Some give the story a sad show more but beautiful symmetry. A few feel inconsequential and tacked on, but overall these stories and histories work to bring the “whys” of the characters into focus.

The writing is clear and fits the tone well. More than once, Erdrich paints a beautiful picture only to overcast it with somber reality. Through her words, we truly feel the insanity and delights of these characters as they come together.

“La Rose” isn’t pleasant, but it is a wonderful read. It is at once oppressive and delightful, mirroring its themes of family dynamics. This realism being both the thing that breaks us and saves us, also lends the novel added power. If you are looking for a book with action or lots of plot this might not be for you. For anyone interested in different cultures or family dramas, give it a try.

This novel, while not as concentrated as The Round House, is a bit more varied in tone. It has many threads, which do lead back to the center death of the novel, but you get to see these characters traced out in all directions and can’t help but wonder how much more moving the book would’ve been if the author had focused on fewer members of this fictional world. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, and are trying to define their tenuous place in the world, with the reservation always looming wide on the horizon of their lives. Their tales are moving, charming and even quite disturbing.

This is one of the author's more challenging or ambitious or scattered novels. It is well chiseled, but it is like a Laocoon when it might have been a statue of David. You can tell you are in the hands of a master but it is filled with pointed wrath and lovely ironies. What you get in the end is a memorable montage. As a novel it was very modern in its storytelling, but its fragments vary in tone and make it a bumpy roller coaster ride through troubled lives. show less

An incredible premise got this book off to an amazing start, but after the first 20 pages I felt like I had come down from the first hill of a roller coaster and found my car diverted onto a street trolley route with various members of the family and community getting on and off at frequent stops murmuring to me about their domestic drama and lives of quiet desperation. Or at least I think they were murmuring; without quotation marks to signal my simple brain about dialogue, I could have just been reading their minds.

I set the book aside after 70 pages, bogged down in the sadness. I returned after three months and found it to still be a slog as the story noodled around and delved into magical realism. But I found myself growing so fond show more of the characters despite the difficulty I had finding the energy to turn the next page that I was able to see their journey through end and am happy for it.

Turns out this is the last book in a trilogy linked by locale but featuring different main characters in different times. I may check those first two books out sometime, but I doubt it will be anytime soon. show less

From the moment in the opening of this powerful novel, when Landreaux accidentally shoots and kills his neighbor's child, the lives of two families are irrevocably changed. Landreux is filled with grief; the boy is the same age as his own son, LaRose. Following native tradition, Landreaux and his wife give LaRose to the grieving family - a sacrifice to make the family whole again. But will either family be whole again? Blending native custom with human grief, the story of their lives unfolds.

We learn that LaRose, the title character, has special powers, passed down from his ancestors, but it's not clear to me how those powers helped him play his part in the story. I felt there were other characters who are better developed - Nola and show more Emmaline, the two mothers; Maggie, the sister of the dead son; Romeo who puts in play a dangerous scheme. These and a few others provide the narrative's propulsive energy.

As all Erdrich's books do, the novel illustrates the struggles of today's Native Americans to live in a modern world and yet remain true to traditions. It's not my favorite Erdrich novel - that would be [b:Love Medicine|91440|Love Medicine|Louise Erdrich|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442951349s/91440.jpg|1524121]. But it is still a very powerful story told by a master storyteller. show less

Louise Erdrich is a rich, encompassing writer, so it's no surprise that her novels contain so much to digest. She gives a kernel of a plot and then unfolds it over a broad canvas. LaRose does not deviate from this formula. At first, the plot seems simple: a man accidentally shoots and kills his neighbor's son, and as an act of restitution, offers up his own son as a surrogate child. But the ripples this act creates will generate impact upon impact in the community, especially on the child, LaRose, himself.

Erdrich invokes Ojibwe culture, character study, and elegant prose in this novel. While I still believe that The Round House might be my favorite, this one is also very good. 4.5 stars.

August 11, 2017: Because I've read the book and show more know what happens, I could focus this read on some major themes and ideas. And this read was all about finding the theological ties to this book. While its spirituality is more focused in ancestry and mythology, there are so many Christ-oriented and sacrificial symbols hidden all over the book, and I don't think it's an accident. It's interesting to see Erdrich playing out the John 8:36 statement "And if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" through the story of LaRose becoming integrated into two separate families.

And while I will not spoil anything for you here, this time around, the denouement brought a rush of tears to my eyes. This is a beautifully written book. Erdrich immerses you so deeply into her fictional world that it's disorienting to have to leave it behind. I change my rating: 5 stars, and I think this is my actual favorite Erdrich novel. It has the beauty and the craft of her others, but there's a bit more redemption in this one, and that's something we could all use much more of. show less

Like most of Erdrich's books, LaRose keeps a foot in two worlds, western and Ojibwe, Catholic and Midewiwin, living and dead, stoned and sober, self-destructive and healing. The book centers on the lives of two of its youngest, LaRose, whose name connects him to five generations of ancestors, and Maggie, also led to hold her family together with a wisdom far beyond her years. Her wildness is reminiscent of a young Fleur Pillager. Around these two, the lives of parents, siblings, relatives, even the Rez priest, are in various stages of fracturing and healing. There is a tremendous amount of hope by the end but it is a hope that has been hard earned.

Not a spoiler, because it occurs in the first chapter of this book--Landreau Iron is hunting, stalking a deer, and accidentally kills his neighbor’s 5-year old son, Dusty. To atone for his role in the accident, Landreau resorts to “the old ways” and gives to his neighbor’s family his own son. The premise of this book, that a man can atone for his accidental killing of a child by giving to the victim’s family his own 5-year old boy, is a difficult idea to process. My initial reaction was that this man, in order to clear his own conscience, was subjecting his wife and his son and his other children to an inhuman and unnecessary deprivation. Like Abraham sacrificing Isaac on the altar, it is the worst punishment that could be show more required, but I could not help thinking it was visiting the sins of the father upon the son, and grossly unfair. I wondered how it could help the other mother to have this child filling the place of her own son, as if one child could ever replace another.

That was my initial reaction. Deeper into the book, I saw this in a different light. I felt that LaRose, the child who is given away, had a great purpose and was the key to having all the members of both families survive this tragedy. In his person is embodied the way of healing the unhealable loss. The grief that runs through this story is palpable. It flows like a river around all the characters and it sweeps them along and plunges them down rapids that they cannot escape or navigate. Only LaRose seems to know how to deal with each of them and the dead boy head on. I loved this child, whose old-soul wisdom made his spiritual lineage believable and sweet.

Louise Erdrich incorporates Indian mysticism into the novel without breaking the credibility of the story. I enjoyed the parts of the book that dealt with the five previous generations of family members named LaRose. But, I particularly liked the side-story of Romeo and Landreau. Romeo seemed to be a character outside the main story, but Erdrich connected the dots and made him an important piece of the main plot. It would have been so easy to see him as a worthless person, but the threads of his story reveal him slowly and caused me to redefine my initial assessment. I think one of the strengths of this novel is the way it makes you continually rethink your feelings and understanding of these people and their relationships to one another.

This is my first Erdrich and I know now that I must go back and read The Round House, which is purported to be her finest work. I appreciate the authenticity of her writing and the depths to which she can plumb this culture and make me feel both how different and unique this culture is and at the same time how universally human. show less

From the synopsis, so this is not a spoiler, we know that there is an accident that causes the death of a child. In Native American culture this requires an act of atonement, so Landreaux Iron, the perpetrator convinces his wife Emmaline to give their young son Larose to Peter and Nola, the parents of the dead child. This act sets off armchair of events that will take years to overcome.

Mixing Native American culture with some magical realism, Indian folklore, customs and some beautiful prose is a hallmark of Erdrich's work. She takes a heartbreaking scenario and uses a broad reach to show the reader the impact on all involved. This young LaRose is a very special person, actually the fifth Larose in his bloodline as we learn in various show more back stories of the other LaRoses. Loved reading the stories of this families lineage, the wonderful characters who bore this name and their amazing abilities. In the present day this young man will try to overcome the obstacle of belonging to two different families, trying to save everyone involved and becoming the unifying presence in their grief. Grief is very much a theme in this novel, grief and its effects on all. In the end a act to prevent a tragedy will prevent a larger tragedy later in the book.

The characters change throughout this book, both families but also a man named Romeo who was at a boarding school with Landreaux. He gave his own son to the Irons to raise and has much to forgive and atone for himself. All these separate stories are pulled together masterfully by books end. A book where there are really no bad guys, just people who have made bad decisions or have been touched by fate.

ARC from publisher. show less