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Four souls begins with Fleur Pillager's journey from North Dakota to Minneapolis, where she plans to avenge the loss of her family's land to a white man. After a dream vision that gives her a powerful new name, Four souls, she enters the household of John James Mauser. A man notorious for his wealth and his mansion on a hill, Mauser became rich by deceiving young Indian women and taking possession of their ancestral lands. What promises to be a straightforward tale of revenge, however, show more slowly metamorphoses into a more complex evocation of human nature. The story of anger and retribution that begins in Tracks becomes a story of healing and love in Four souls. show lessTags
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In this novel Erdrich picks up Fleur Pillager's story just about exactly where Tracks left her...packing up and moving away from the reservation to find and avenge herself on the man she holds responsible for destroying her family's land. We know that Fleur has strange powers, and a store of elemental knowledge, which have combined in the past to keep her alive, to punish those who would take advantage of her, and to join her to the man she desires. Now, leaving her home, her man, and her child behind, she intends to harness those powers to cure, and then kill the sickly wealthy lumber baron who has cheated her people. Story-telling doesn't get much better than this. It's brilliant, and unpredictable, and totally right. And as soon as I show more finished it I went back to page 1 of Tracks, and read that straight through again. I simply hate to leave these fascinating characters behind. Not the place to start with Erdrich's family saga, but not to be missed when the time is right. show less
After a slow start, Erdrich rewards the patient reader with a rich and wonderful tale reminding us that evil can never be redeemed by more evil.
Fleur Pillager travels to the 1920s era city of Minneapolis, seeking to retrieve the land swindled from her by a wealthy white man -- or to take his life in return. What appears to be a straighforward mission of revenge and retribution is twisted into something far more complex.
The multiple narrators reveal things bit by bit, bouncing between Fleur's life in the city and the lives of her extended family members still living on the reservation, including most notably old Nanapush, who is having his own struggles with keeping Margaret, the wife of his heart, out of the clutches of an old enemy and show more former brother-in-law.
Nanapush and Margaret's relationship, frankly, is much more interesting than Fleur's with James Mauser. The old man's battle with a pesky fly (who may be the shape-changed spirit of his rival for Margaret) is much reminiscent of parts of Erdrich's "Love Medicine", with its same sweet humor.
There's also a layer to the story dealing with language, with the power of names, and with the power of women to channel healing through their labors. Women, Erdrich says through Margaret, "turn things inside out and set them right." Including, eventually, Fleur. show less
Fleur Pillager travels to the 1920s era city of Minneapolis, seeking to retrieve the land swindled from her by a wealthy white man -- or to take his life in return. What appears to be a straighforward mission of revenge and retribution is twisted into something far more complex.
The multiple narrators reveal things bit by bit, bouncing between Fleur's life in the city and the lives of her extended family members still living on the reservation, including most notably old Nanapush, who is having his own struggles with keeping Margaret, the wife of his heart, out of the clutches of an old enemy and show more former brother-in-law.
Nanapush and Margaret's relationship, frankly, is much more interesting than Fleur's with James Mauser. The old man's battle with a pesky fly (who may be the shape-changed spirit of his rival for Margaret) is much reminiscent of parts of Erdrich's "Love Medicine", with its same sweet humor.
There's also a layer to the story dealing with language, with the power of names, and with the power of women to channel healing through their labors. Women, Erdrich says through Margaret, "turn things inside out and set them right." Including, eventually, Fleur. show less
If we're living in a moment about power and privilege, here's one way to move the discussion forward. It's a tale about am Ojibwe woman's plan for revenge on the lumber baron who took her land. Once embedded in his home, he becomes not her victim but her possession, and possessions prove to be tricky things. The main narrators are a spinster in the household who turns from greed to generosity, and a tribal elder who makes himself the butt of a comic subplot about rage in relationships. It's complicated, in other words, and beautifully told.
Set in 1920s Minnesota, Ojibwe woman Fleur Pillager takes the name Four Souls and travels from North Dakota to the Twin Cities area to take revenge on the lumber baron who stole her family’s land. It is told by three narrators. Nanapush is a tribal elder attempting to keep his wife, Margaret, away from one of his old enemies (and former brother-in-law). His storyline is humorous in places. Polly Elizabeth is the former sister-in-law of the lumber baron. She provides the backstory of the nefarious ways the Ojibwe lands were stolen and deforested. Margaret narrates a few chapters toward the end, tying several storylines together.
Key elements include different manners of revenge (and unforeseen complications), the power of names, Objiwe show more spiritualism, and anger in relationships. Erdrich excels at assembling a tapestry that gradually provides the pieces needed to assemble the big picture. I enjoy the way she incorporates the many emotions of a life experience and does not dwell solely on suffering. It is part of the Love Medicine series, but I read it as a standalone. show less
Key elements include different manners of revenge (and unforeseen complications), the power of names, Objiwe show more spiritualism, and anger in relationships. Erdrich excels at assembling a tapestry that gradually provides the pieces needed to assemble the big picture. I enjoy the way she incorporates the many emotions of a life experience and does not dwell solely on suffering. It is part of the Love Medicine series, but I read it as a standalone. show less
Astonishing.
The novel opens in stunning form, moves on to exceptional and moving and then tapers off into just run of the mill fantastic with surprises and delights waiting for the reader like something just round the corner of the trail.
Let’s start with the exceptional. There is a sequence, early on in the novel, were Erdrich is describing a house built for a lumber baron. You’ll have seen houses like this in films and, if you live in the States, you may even have seen one in the flesh, or the brick (although after reading Erdrich, you learn that it’s very much the same thing).
Erdrich describes, in loving, hateful detail, a grand house, built for a lumber baron, built by an architect, to be grand, imposing and a statement. And it show more is. It’s a statement about the greed, the misery and the desperation that it takes to build a house like this. To get a house like this.
The sequence only lasts a few pages, but it’s spellbinding. She describes how the wood to construct the house has been stolen and tricked from Indians who are now wondering, with all the trees gone, how the hell they are going to stay warm this winter. They are not worried about cooking because when the trees went all the animals that they hunted buggered off too. Even the squirrels. There’s a gruesome description of how the bricks have blood baked into them, which sweats out when they are used to build a fireplace.
And of course all of the craftsmen are cheated out of their wages.
This house could not be more cursed if it had been built on an old Indian burial ground. Indeed, it’s worse, because the house is built of the death of Indians, the theft of their land, trees and living and the consequent misery. In building the house, the lumber baron constructs a curse around himself.
The owner of the house then, is something of a bastard and yet as the book progresses one cannot help but grudgingly like him. Realising the extent of his sins, he has damned himself and this house is a penance.
While wrongs are righted and vengeance is extracted from the swindling swine (although it’s had to extract vengeance on somebody who is bent on self destruction, as will become apparent), life back on the reservation, now bereft of trees, is a picture of domesticity. The contrast is stark. In the city, the rich white man sits in his mansion, wracked by horrors and living in a curse he has woven for himself, wishing his own end, while on the Indian reservation he has deforested, folk live in shacks and trap their lunch (and occasionally stranger game) yet strive for domesticity.
One of the central characters in the novel is Nanapush, an ancient old man who has the truly remarkable ability to fuck things up that any bloke will recognise instantly. Any man, ever, who has had the ‘ohno’ moment, be it sending an indiscrete e mail via ‘copy all’ or assembling Swedish furniture back to front, will smile and cringe simultaneously.
More importantly, if you are a bloke, and have ever thought ‘this will really please my significant other’, then proceeded to, for instance, produce two tickets for a forthcoming rugby international while simultaneously remembering that the day of the match is when you’re supposed to be going to a wedding fayre (always ‘fayre’, don’t ask me why) and realising that the tickets are going to be more use to you than the wedding fayre, judging by her expression, then this is the book for you.
At once hysterically funny and cringe-making, Nanapush’s activities are the perfect comic offset to the dark and terrible deeds happening in the cursed house.
Because Nanapush is a corking example of that most common of males: the type who believe that if they can just keep their fuck-ups concealed long enough, they can put enough good deeds in the bank to offset the wrath of the woman when stupidity is exposed, at the same time ensuring that one is not too attentive and thus arousing suspicion, then everything will be alright. Not true. show less
The novel opens in stunning form, moves on to exceptional and moving and then tapers off into just run of the mill fantastic with surprises and delights waiting for the reader like something just round the corner of the trail.
Let’s start with the exceptional. There is a sequence, early on in the novel, were Erdrich is describing a house built for a lumber baron. You’ll have seen houses like this in films and, if you live in the States, you may even have seen one in the flesh, or the brick (although after reading Erdrich, you learn that it’s very much the same thing).
Erdrich describes, in loving, hateful detail, a grand house, built for a lumber baron, built by an architect, to be grand, imposing and a statement. And it show more is. It’s a statement about the greed, the misery and the desperation that it takes to build a house like this. To get a house like this.
The sequence only lasts a few pages, but it’s spellbinding. She describes how the wood to construct the house has been stolen and tricked from Indians who are now wondering, with all the trees gone, how the hell they are going to stay warm this winter. They are not worried about cooking because when the trees went all the animals that they hunted buggered off too. Even the squirrels. There’s a gruesome description of how the bricks have blood baked into them, which sweats out when they are used to build a fireplace.
And of course all of the craftsmen are cheated out of their wages.
This house could not be more cursed if it had been built on an old Indian burial ground. Indeed, it’s worse, because the house is built of the death of Indians, the theft of their land, trees and living and the consequent misery. In building the house, the lumber baron constructs a curse around himself.
The owner of the house then, is something of a bastard and yet as the book progresses one cannot help but grudgingly like him. Realising the extent of his sins, he has damned himself and this house is a penance.
While wrongs are righted and vengeance is extracted from the swindling swine (although it’s had to extract vengeance on somebody who is bent on self destruction, as will become apparent), life back on the reservation, now bereft of trees, is a picture of domesticity. The contrast is stark. In the city, the rich white man sits in his mansion, wracked by horrors and living in a curse he has woven for himself, wishing his own end, while on the Indian reservation he has deforested, folk live in shacks and trap their lunch (and occasionally stranger game) yet strive for domesticity.
One of the central characters in the novel is Nanapush, an ancient old man who has the truly remarkable ability to fuck things up that any bloke will recognise instantly. Any man, ever, who has had the ‘ohno’ moment, be it sending an indiscrete e mail via ‘copy all’ or assembling Swedish furniture back to front, will smile and cringe simultaneously.
More importantly, if you are a bloke, and have ever thought ‘this will really please my significant other’, then proceeded to, for instance, produce two tickets for a forthcoming rugby international while simultaneously remembering that the day of the match is when you’re supposed to be going to a wedding fayre (always ‘fayre’, don’t ask me why) and realising that the tickets are going to be more use to you than the wedding fayre, judging by her expression, then this is the book for you.
At once hysterically funny and cringe-making, Nanapush’s activities are the perfect comic offset to the dark and terrible deeds happening in the cursed house.
Because Nanapush is a corking example of that most common of males: the type who believe that if they can just keep their fuck-ups concealed long enough, they can put enough good deeds in the bank to offset the wrath of the woman when stupidity is exposed, at the same time ensuring that one is not too attentive and thus arousing suspicion, then everything will be alright. Not true. show less
Holy cow--I just counted up and found this is the 13th book of Louise Erdrich's I've read. Lucky 13, eh? I will say that the pacing was kind of clunky and it wasn't as seamlessly nuanced as some of her other books, but I also kind of didn't care. This still got me smiling and laughing and holding my breath in parts. This is Fleur's story--or more of it--but it's easy to lose sight of it. Nanapush and Margaret still reign supreme, and in a way, their moments felt like a little extension from The Last Report..., which I absolutely welcomed. That end, though. *low whistle*
This is Fleur's story as told by Nanapush, her adoptive father, and Polly Elizabeth, the sister of her Anglo husband's ex-wife. Fleur may be the most enigmatic of Erdrich's characters -- the "witch" of the Ashinabaage -- the Morgan le Fay of Erdrich's North Dakota tribe. I am fascinated by Fleur -- her passion, her connection to the land, her neglect for human relationships. She is, at once, in modern parlance, a sociopath, and in ancient practice, a shaman. She may be Erdrich's most enduring creation.
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Karen Louise Erdrich was born on June 7, 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota. Erdrich grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where both of her parents were employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Erdrich graduated from Dartmouth College in 1976 with an AB degree, and she received a Master of Arts show more in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1979. Erdrich published a number of poems and short stories from 1978 to 1982. In 1981 she married author and anthropologist Michael Dorris, and together they published The World's Greatest Fisherman, which won the Nelson Algren Award in 1982. In 1984 she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Love Medicine, which is an expansion of a story that she had co-written with Dorris. Love Medicine was also awarded the Virginia McCormick Scully Prize (1984), the Sue Kaufman Prize (1985) and the Los Angeles Times Award for best novel (1985). In addition to her prose, Erdrich has written several volumes of poetry, a textbook, children's books, and short stories and essays for popular magazines. She has been the recipient of numerous awards for professional excellence, including the National Magazine Fiction Award in 1983 and a first-prize O. Henry Award in 1987. Erdrich has also received the Pushcart Prize in Poetry, the Western Literacy Association Award, the 1999 World Fantasy Award, and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2006. In 2007 she refused to accept an honorary doctorate from the University of North Dakota in protest of its use of the "Fighting Sioux" name and logo. Erdrich's novel The Round House made the New York Times bestseller list in 2013. Her other New York Times bestsellers include Future Home of the Living God (2017). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Four Souls
- Original title
- Four Souls
- People/Characters
- Fleur Pillager; John James Mauser; Nanapush; Margaret Kashpaw
- Important places
- North Dakota, USA
- Epigraph
- She threw out one soul and it came back hungry.
- Dedication
- Kaanish inaa indinaawemaaganitog,
Asemaa ingii pagichige chi otaapin aawat atasookanag. Aya ii onji wegonen ina pichi tazhimag kaaye pichi ozhibii'wag kaagi aaya sig.
Kaawiin wiin aawiya nibaapinenimaasi. Pepekaan in... (show all)enimishig.
Miigwech, Weweni sago. - First words
- Fleur took the small roads, the rutted paths through the woods traversing slough edge and heavy underbrush, trackless, unmapped, unknown and always bearing east.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Even our bones nourish change, and even a people who lived so close to the bone and were saved for thousands of generations by a practical philosophy, even such people as we, the Anishinaabeg, can sometimes die, or change, or change and become.
- Original language*
- Anglais (Etats-Unis) (Etats-Unis)
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.54
- Canonical LCC
- PS3555.R42
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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