hold on to the land

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Review: Louise Erdrich wrote this book to honor the work of her grandfather, the titular night watchman of a jewel bearing plant, was also a Chippewa tribal chairman who took the fight against the Indian Termination Policy all the way to Washington DC in 1954.  Thomas, his fictionalized counterpart has a great story to tell.  I only wish Erdrich has let more of his voice through, and not muddied the water with so many ancillary characters.

To be fair, the other characters give a fuller picture of life on the reservation.  Perhaps if this book had been presented as a series of interlinked short stories, with Thomas's story to anchor it at the end, it would have worked better.  Instead, we jump from one person to another, or see the characters interact in stilted, forced tones and situations.  The pieces all add up to a picture of the fragility of life on the reservation, and the danger posed by the Indian Termination Act, but it's a choppy picture, and one that doesn't make for a very satisfying story.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

go with the flow

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Fans of Mandel's Station Eleven are right to be excited about her latest book, but should be warned that this book is very, very different.  The book opens with a drowning, told in almost movie-like flashes of Vincent's physical and mental experiences as she drowns.  I found myself returning to these first few pages repeatedly throughout the book as more and more of Vincent's life leading up to her drowning is revealed.  So, nominally, this book is an answer to the question of why Vincent was drowning.  Was she pushed (murdered), and if so by whom?  Or did she fall?  And what was she doing there in the first place?

Really, though, this book is about far more than that.  Reading Vincent's story takes us to a remote corner of Canada (home of the eponymous glass hotel), the inside of a Ponzi scheme, and, as a direct consequence, jail.  Each setting, each character is rendered almost like a fine painting, with depths and shadows you don't notice at first glance.

The narrative jumps around a bit, from character to character and back and forth in time, and it's not always clear where or when you are, but it works, if you go with the flow.  Mandel is a powerful and flexible writer, has more than enough ability to pull off a very different kind of book than Station Eleven (although I wouldn't say no to a sequel!).  Station Eleven may have put her firmly on the literary map, but The Glass Hotel makes clear that she is not going to bound by any one genre.  I wonder which one she'll choose next.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

a challenging discussion

Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
Rated: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Read 20 in 2020 Challenge Category: book by an author from Africa, Asia, and Oceania
Review: I read this book for the library-sponsored book discussion group that I lead, and as I was reading, I was thinking to myself "however am I going to lead a discussion about this book with a group of middle- and upper-middle class white women without all of us choking on our own hypocrisy?"  And I realized that the only possible way was to get that issue out of the way right up front.  So we started out our discussion by owning our own perspectives and acknowledging that each of us came to this book with our own set of assumptions.

I'm pleased to report that my tactic of putting it out there allowed us to have a frank and honest conversation about this book, perhaps one of the best book discussions we've had (YMMV).  And there's a lot to discuss in this book!  Adichie does not pull her punches in describing the thoughts of Ifemelu, her main character, on racism and classism and immigrants and love and going home again.  Ifemelu has a blog on which she explores many of these issues, and her blog posts punctuate the narrative, creating a different way of sharing her insights than the typical internal monologue.  Ifemelu's reflections may provoke you to examine your own beliefs on these topics.  I think she would hope so.