LaRose
Summary (from the publisher): In this literary masterwork, Louise Erdrich, the bestselling author of the National Book Award-winning The Round House and the Pulitzer Prize nominee The Plague of Doves wields her breathtaking narrative magic in an emotionally haunting contemporary tale of a tragic accident, a demand for justice, and a profound act of atonement with ancient roots in Native American culture.
North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence—but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he’s hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor’s five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich.
The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux’s five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux’s wife, Emmaline, is half sister to Dusty’s mother, Nola. Horrified at what he’s done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition—the sweat lodge—for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. “Our son will be your son now,” they tell them.
LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. His fierce, rebellious new “sister,” Maggie, welcomes him as a co conspirator who can ease her volatile mother’s terrifying moods. Gradually he’s allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches’ own. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal.
But when a vengeful man with a long-standing grudge against Landreaux begins raising trouble, hurling accusations of a cover-up the day Dusty died, he threatens the tenuous peace that has kept these two fragile families whole.
Inspiring and affecting, LaRose is a powerful exploration of loss, justice, and the reparation of the human heart, and an unforgettable, dazzling tour de force from one of America’s most distinguished literary masters.
North Dakota, late summer, 1999. Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence—but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he’s hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor’s five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich.
The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux’s five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux’s wife, Emmaline, is half sister to Dusty’s mother, Nola. Horrified at what he’s done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition—the sweat lodge—for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. “Our son will be your son now,” they tell them.
LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. His fierce, rebellious new “sister,” Maggie, welcomes him as a co conspirator who can ease her volatile mother’s terrifying moods. Gradually he’s allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches’ own. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal.
But when a vengeful man with a long-standing grudge against Landreaux begins raising trouble, hurling accusations of a cover-up the day Dusty died, he threatens the tenuous peace that has kept these two fragile families whole.
Inspiring and affecting, LaRose is a powerful exploration of loss, justice, and the reparation of the human heart, and an unforgettable, dazzling tour de force from one of America’s most distinguished literary masters.
Review: I received an advance reader's edition of this book from HarperCollins.
This novel opens in North Dakota in 1999 with Landreaux Irons aiming for a buck along the edge of his property. He misses the deer, but his shot hits his neighbor's five year old son, who was hiding in a tree, killing the boy. In the aftermath, Landreaux and his wife Emmaline decide to practice an ancient custom of their Ojibwe tribe and give their youngest son, LaRose, to Peter and Nola as retribution for their loss. LaRose is quickly assimilated into his adopted family and becomes close to his new sister Maggie and works hard to keep his new mother's dark, suicidal thoughts at bay. In time, he begins to alternate between his two families, becoming the shared link and beloved son of both that helps them heal from their loss.
This novel beautifully captures a family in tragedy with understated but deeply moving prose. The pain of the two families is eloquently conveyed, such as Landreaux's simple apology to Peter saying, "I'd give my life to get Dusty back for you, said Laundreaux. LaRose is my life. I did the best that I could do" (68). Or Landreaux's simple explanation of his love for his wife, "Oh well, you know. We tried each other out, I guess. No, it was more like we disappeared into each other for a while. Vanished out of the ordinary world" (254). At heart, this novel is about how a community is all fully connected and every choice has an impact on everyone else, including subsequent generations.
This novel has numerous subplots, including chapters that go back in time to 1839 and the original member of the family named LaRose. The house that Landreaux and Emmaline live in is a family cabin that dates back to 1846. "They had lived and died in what was now the living room, and there had always been a LaRose" (87). Indeed, the boy LaRose who is given to Peter and Nola is the fifth LaRose in the family. The interwoven chapters reveal the family history and origins that shape the home's current occupants. Another subplot is the tension between Landreaux and his childhood friend-turned-rival Romeo. Romeo spends much of the novel trying to pry information and prescripton drugs off of people in order to get revenge over Landreaux. Romeo's plot for revenge contributes greatly to the suspense of the novel and his character contributes to the sense of grief and loss that pervades the novel. The children of the two families also feature prominently in this book, particularly Maggie. The teenagers' struggles to deal with both regular teenage problems as well as their families' sorrow is a strongly written element in the novel.
My greatest complaint with this book is that it is overextended in the number of subplots, characters, and issues it attempts to address. This novel tries to take on grief, loss, love, fidelity, revenge, tradition, heritage, loyalty, sexual assault, family ties, addiction, prescription abuse, politics, friendship, thwarted love, suicide, chronic pain, aging, and storytelling. There are too many characters and too many subplots to fully address everything going on in this novel in one review. For example, there is a priest who is silently in love with Emmaline, creating a love triangle strand to the many issues rattling around in this novel. While these gave the book depth and history, they also distracted from the main storyline and many of these side issues were left very unresolved.
Stars: 3.5
My greatest complaint with this book is that it is overextended in the number of subplots, characters, and issues it attempts to address. This novel tries to take on grief, loss, love, fidelity, revenge, tradition, heritage, loyalty, sexual assault, family ties, addiction, prescription abuse, politics, friendship, thwarted love, suicide, chronic pain, aging, and storytelling. There are too many characters and too many subplots to fully address everything going on in this novel in one review. For example, there is a priest who is silently in love with Emmaline, creating a love triangle strand to the many issues rattling around in this novel. While these gave the book depth and history, they also distracted from the main storyline and many of these side issues were left very unresolved.
Stars: 3.5
Comments
Post a Comment