Shadow Tag

I got this book as part of Powell’s Books amazing Indispensable subscription club that delivers exciting new titles to your door. Usually the book is a signed first edition in a custom slipcase and they’ll pack a bunch of other loosely related goodies in the box. Very cool way to get titles you might not pick yourself but have been carefully vetted out by people I trust to know a good book.

Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag is one such book. I probably would not have purchased this book even though it sounds interesting on the back and has a Native American connection. I love books about Native Americans and have increasingly been interested in literature by them as a glimpse into their culture and current issues. This book did not show more disappoint.

One issue explored by this book is the relationship between an artist and his muse. What happens when that person is also your wife and lover? Gil had been warned against using Irene as his model by another artist early in his career but became famous for his revealing, provocative, obsessive representations of her. He thought it would be alright since “…Hopper had painted Jo, Rembrandt had painted Saskia, then Hendrickje. Wyeth had painted Betsy and of course Helga; Bonnard had painted Marthe; there was the limitless and devouring Picasso; de Kooning and Kitaj and John Currin painted their wives.”

This family has some serious issues and the ominous writing (no pun intended) is on the wall from the first paragraph when you see Irene keeping two diaries. One is a manipulative dummy since she has realized that Gil is reading her diaries. The other is the real diary kept in a safety deposit box at the bank. There three children watch everything unravel: Florian is the boy genius at 14, Riel the 11 year old that decides that when a disaster strikes she will have to be the one to save the family, and the oblivious 5 year old Stoney who takes comfort with his stuffed animals whenever the violence and abuse gets too acute. Florian, obsessed with physics, describes his dad as a black hole and his mom as approaching the Schwarzchild radius, that distance from the black hole from which no light can escape. This turns out to be a brilliant analogy of Irene’s orbit around Gil. DTMFA, Irene! She tries half-heartedly and co-dependently but the physics are physics.

This can be a raw book if you have gone through the dissolution of a marriage with kids but the writing is powerful and the narrative drives inexorably towards it’s conclusion. Thank you Powell’s for introducing me to Louise Erdrich.

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What would you do if you caught someone reading your diary? If you caught your spouse snooping in your inner-most thoughts, how angry would you be? In Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag, Irene America is a woman in an abusive marriage, who discovers that her husband has been reading her diary. Instead of lashing out, she takes advantage — she starts a secret journal and uses her diary to manipulate her violent husband, Gil.

Gil is an artist and Irene is his muse. His iconic paintings of his wife have brought him tremendous success, but they have also pigeonholed him as a Native American artist:

“Don’t paint Indians. The subject wins. You’ll never be an artist. You’ll be an American Indian artist…Still, Gil had no choice. He painted show more Indians when he painted his wife because he couldn’t help it — the ferocity between them, the need. Her blood ancestors came out in Gil’s paint as he worked.”

There is certainly ferocity between them. There is evidence of great passion, but it is passion that has turned sour and gone wrong. Irene has fallen out of love with Gil and I am never really certain whether Gil adores Irene or despises her. He goes out of his way to antagonize her, buying her expensive gifts she doesn’t want and throwing parties that she will hate. He ridicules her in person and on canvas — he paints her nude, in demeaning positions — but she continues to model for him. They are locked in a sort of mortal combat; they hurt each other terribly but they just can’t break away.

“Here is the most telling fact: you wish to possess me. Here is another fact: I loved you and let you think you could.”

I love the way that story is both subtle and jarring. There are hints of violence and unhappiness, then there is a sudden slap. Gil dotes on his children, praising their unique qualities, then he slams his son’s forehead into the table. The family orbits around Gil, pandering to his mercurial moods — especially the children — knowing when to pull away, when to hide. Even the dogs are sensitive to it, milling around and putting themselves physically between Gil and the children. The children seem too wise, too knowing, and then Erdrich sneaks up on you with something shocking.

Read my full review at Alive on the Shelves. show less

Gil and Irene America are married with three children, living in Minneapolis. Gil is an artist, made famous and successful by painting a series of Irene which ran the gamut from sexual to lovely. Now, their marriage is falling apart: Irene starts a second, hidden diary and starts using the one at home to manipulate her husband, since she knows he's secretly reading it.

This is one of those stories where the writing/themes takes center stage, the characters come next, and everything else is incidental. The dynamics of Gil and Irene's relationship are complex, and Erdrich uses them to explore this idea of a "shadow" and how the representation of a person may steal his/her soul. Irene, in a way, is also trying to get out of Gil's shadow and show more his image of her, and trying to keep a part of herself separate and private. I found it both compelling and painful reading, and I never really loved any individual part. It was like a train wreck, knowing everything was unraveling and being unable to walk away. show less

A brilliant, gorgeous portrayal of a codependent marriage told from multiple perspectives. It would have been perfect if not for an epilogue that too neatly explains the author's technique.

The prose is incredible, the relationships are complex and nuanced and utterly believable. Gil is drawn a tad two dimensional, but also with sympathy and compassion, though he is a monster. The layering of painting against their relationship, and against the act of writing, along with the story of the cultural underpinnings in this family, are amazingly done. Numerous notes taken in the book, numerous underlining. Her metaphors and analogies are powerful and rich. An opus, though a small story. So emotionally draining to read.

I was blown away by this one. Such a powerful, disturbing story, written in a sharp, poignant manner that took my breath away. Not a story that I can easily recommend as it touches on some issues that some readers may not be comfortable reading, but that is exactly what made this such an amazing read for me. Erdrich gets under the skin of her characters and brings to the surface their troubling personality and control issues, depicting a manipulative relationship as the damaging and destructive force it can be for all caught within its vortex. I seem to appreciate disturbing, shattering reads like this one. Not sure what that says about me but I think it says a lot about Erdrich's ability as a writer to unflinchingly paint a picture, show more draw me in as a reader and keep my attention while the subject matter continues to disturb and then throw me over the precipice like she did with that ending. A brilliant portrayal, but as I mentioned, not a book that is easy to recommend to others. show less

I liked but didn't love this novel. The characterization felt incomplete given that it's more of a character study of a family than it is a plot driven novel. That said, I really liked Erdrich's writing and I would read more.