Louise Erdrich's 'The Night Watchman': A Gripping Tale of Love and Loss

Client d'Amazon: Conforme à l'annonce- délais de livraison respectés

France on Feb 03, 2024

Feli-Mar Barbero: Like it

Canada on Dec 07, 2023

Hestia Rose: The look into reservation life in The Night Watchman is utterly fascinating and captivating from beginning to end. The characters’ relationships with each other as both community and family grabbed me, and I really cared about them and cheered at the surprisingly happy ending. The look into indigenous culture and its connection to nature, among other things, was also a treat. The book was also surprisingly funny and vulgar at times in ways that served the story and really helped the characters feel alive. I also loved Patrice’s brief section in Minneapolis. I was terrified the whole way through for her and her sister’s safety.

The one criticism I have (spoilers from here) is that I was underwhelmed by the conclusion to Vera’s storyline. She just found some random old guy and made it home completely independent of Patrice’s search for her. Her relationship with Wood Mountain also gets little to no buildup, so their plans to get married come almost out of nowhere.

I enjoyed the rest of the book so much, however, that it still gets five stars from me.

United States on Nov 26, 2023

Vicky: Eye opening read about treatment of Native Americans in this country. Never knew about the plan to integrate them into middle American society so that federal government could basically cut cost for managing services provided to the native community. During this fictional telling of the plan, the characters provide a glimpse of life on and around a reservation that pulls strongly at the heartstrings. It is a time when straddling the new and the old culture played out. The beliefs of the ancestors are definitely contrasted with Catholic and Morman teachings and provides complexity to the key players.

United States on Nov 06, 2023

Carol: Historical fiction from the point of view of a minority: this is a Pulitzer-winning, best-selling novel by a big-house publisher, by an acclaimed author, and "The Night Watchman" lives up to the acclaim.

Erdrich captures sensory details, family history, tribal traditions, politics, friends, neighbors, relatives, hardships, deprivations, resourcefulness, despair, and more. It's endless, the list of all that Erdrich does right as a writer.

Having survived a few years of fiction workshopping, I can attest that a lot of critics would complain about too many characters, POV (Point of View ) "violations," omniscient narration, some trivial syntax issues (involving commas + and in a series, but I may be the last editor on the planet who cares), perhaps excessive use of sentence frags (at some point, incomplete sentences became trendy and acceptable), but the vast majority of readers do not care how well a novel is written. Do we like the characters? Do we care about them?

Thomas is 100% lovable. Patrice ("not Pixie!") is harder to love, but she earns our respect, she who can chop wood and verbally eviscerate men. Wood Mountain, the young boxer, is endearing. Every...

United States on Oct 25, 2023

mrs j a reilly: Ok. It took me some time to get into this book and the people. I almost gave up but I kept going and I’m so glad I did. I think it was me not reading enough of the book in the evening because I was tired - rather than the book itself. I’ve been so interested in looking into the Native American people and their unique way of thinking. Their attitude towards nature and other people. Their kindness and compassion. It’s just a beautiful way to look at life. Thank you to the author for telling me thru a story about their history and the harmful way they have been treated. It’s just terrible and we do have to acknowledge that these things happened. I’d like to say a big thank you to the author in educating me in so many ways.

United Kingdom on Sep 09, 2023

Eef B: This is the first Louise Erdich book I've read. I found the story as compelling as it was calming. The emotions and personalities of the many characters shine through and the descriptions of even very violent or disturbing scenes are delivered in so moderate and soothing a tone that the story just enveloped me.

I've already started another of her books!

Germany on Oct 05, 2022

Mary Wyly: This book is the best work I have read by Louis Erdrich. The experiences are gritty, human, deeply lived. Nature writing captures place, terrain, climate, beauty and terror all at once. Some chapters are short poetic gems of emotion.

Mexico on Aug 17, 2021

Laura: Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 5/5

I’m grasping for words to express how much I loved this book but all the good words — profound, brilliant, amazing, etc. — have been rendered meaningless through overuse. So just think about what they used to mean and apply here.

The novel is based on the experiences of Erdrich’s grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, in his determined fight against the proposed termination of his Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa named in House Concurrent Resolution 108 passed in August of 1953. Gourneau is fictionalized as Thomas Wazhashk.

While that is the overarching plot line, the story is told as a set of short chapters from various character viewpoints. While the termination fight touches everyone, much of the content covers the progression of individual lives in the community. Pixie Paranteau supports her family with earnings from a job at the new jewel bearing plant; her sister, Vera, has disappeared in the Cities and has been caught in the underbelly of the beast; Wood Mountain is becoming a top boxer, training with Barnes, a local white coach with eyes glued on Pixie; Millie Cloud is in Minneapolis and has authored a study of...

United States on Jul 05, 2021