Louise Erdich's THE NIGHT WATCHMAN

Louise Erdich (b Amer. 1954) is an award winning novelist.  Her young adult novel "The Round House" ('12) won the Nat'l Bk Award and "The Place of Doves" ('09) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in literature.  Erdich's beloved & literary novels all contend with Native Americans; their history of brutal annihilation and pervasive oppression by the US govt. intent on eviscerating their livelihoods and culture.  Erdich writes fictitious Native American characters that resonate with their humanity and struggles to survive and maintain their self-sufficiencies & dignities.  The factual events in the novel set in the 1950s in ND pit the Turtle Mt. Band Tribe of Chippewa Indians v. US legislation led by Sen. Watkins (Rep. UT) designed to displace, assimilate or annihilate them entirely.  "The Night Watchman" ('20) is Erdich's most recent novel.  Her novel deviates from her previous works as the protagonist, Thomas is based upon Ms. Erdich's own maternal grandfather.  Erdich is a member of the Turtle Mt. Tribe.  Thomas works as night watchman and is a galvanizing force to defend their tribal lands.  Erdich draws his portrait as deeply humane, intelligent, religious and devoted family man. There are a chorus of characters in the Turtle Mt. tribe.  In addition, there's a cacophony of ghosts, spirits and dreams woven throughout enriching the storytelling with Native language, customs, beliefs and a profound sense of dignity & tenacity.  The Turtle Band is mounting a legal defense to preserve their tribal land already endowed by the US govt. but now facing a Termination Bill orchestrated by Sen. Watkins (Rep. UT).   The members of the Turtle Mt. Tribe are very diverse.  Their lives arduous and their prospects tenuous.  Still, they're bond together with a deep respect & love for one another.  The women are shown as the stealth of their families. Patrice, a.k.a. Pixie, is on a quest to find her sister Verna who went missing in MN.  The coercion of abducted Native Amer. women into sex slaves was prevalent without having any protection or recourse.  The novel is more than a coming of age tale or a shameful history lesson of Native Americans' persecution.  It's ambitious, convoluted and confusing.  Erdich admits the book necessitated a difficult editing transition.  Some of the story's trajectories become overtaken and lost.  "The Night Watchman" is a serious study of man's inherent nature to obliterate any culture, race or religion that fails to conform or deemed indispensable.  Despite overriding, grave issues of importance there's heartwarming affirmations of kinships to behold.  Erdich warns of the demolition powers of legal documents determined to crush lives.  She also conveys inspiration & conviction that people, her people, are not powerless to protect themselves and prosper.

Myla Goldberg's FEAST YOUR EYES Nat'l Bk Critic's Finalist '19

"Feast Your Eyes" is a novel that's a collage of snapshots of a female photographers particularly in the 60s 70s superimposed on Lillian.  Lillian  a single, unwed mother living in Brooklyn in this era.  The story focuses a lens on what it means to be a maverick & creative genius.  Myla Goldberg's fictitious account of Lillian Preston best personifies the struggles of photographer Sally Mann and what she experienced in her groundbreaking controversial & later lionized career as a 21st C photographer.  The framing of the storytelling copies Jane Arbus' daughter's collecting and curating of her mother's works exhibited in the highest echelons of art museums.  The epistolary format is the golden light to Goldberg's storytelling pieced together through Lillian's letters to her daughter Samantha, a.k.a. Jane and to her few close friends who in turn shed light on Lillian's life through their correspondences.  These wide lens perspectives are subliminal to Jane's recount of what was happening in her & her mother's lives referencing Lillian's photographs at the time.  It's worth noting the dire circumstances before abortion was legal in the country.  The exposure into a coven of starving artists is also a bright spot.  Lillian's creative compulsivity elucidates a passion that manifest in a variety of beautiful ways that breaths life into these pages.  Lillian is mostly a loner. Her profound love for her daughter is overshadowed her keen proclivity for capturing images resonating a mote of pure awareness that lingers long after its fleeting moment in time.  Jane's bohemian lifestyle as her mother's daughter leaves an indelible imprint.  Jane's rebellious & unorthodox choices are doubly exposed in Lillian's diary where she express her intense love for her which appears hidden.  Lillian's journal reveals all she felt went unsaid.  Long estranged from her parents since choosing to keep her child out of wedlock, Jane is the catalysis for reuniting Lillian with her parents.  The many years of separation have left a negative space which slowly develops into healing.  Lillian notes in her diary to Jane "you {are} old enough to understand. 'I love you too' is only ever an echo."  Lillian's longest friend Debra is a budding poet and there is a lyricism in much of what Lillian  captures in notes.  Ideas regarding photography as immoral or exploitative are thrashed about and photography's annoying habit of corroding whatever real memories one possess.  Lillian's militant, avant-garde art dealer believes some people are artists whether they chose to be or not.  "Feast Your Eyes" was a Nat'l Book Critic's Pick ('19). I found it clever storytelling but not memorable or something to shutter esteem praise upon.

JoJo Moyes' THE GIVER of STARS - Don't Take It

THE GIVER of STARS stole my precious time. It wasn't worth the read.  Written by JoJo Moyes (b UK 1970) is a popular romance novelist and screenwriter.  Her novel ME before YOU (2012) was made it into a film.  It was a love story but it also examined the topic of euthanasia from various points of views with intelligence & heart.  THE GIVER of STARS is about a fictitious group of misfit women in rural KY during the 1930s.  This motley mix of formidable women band as librarians distributing books via horseback to those who would otherwise not have accessibility. Ironically, our heroine Alice is from the UK.  Alice is swept away quite literally by a handsome American, Bennett.  Alice & Bennet marry shortly after meeting & she returns to the US and the KY home of Bennet & his father George Van Cleve.  This is an ill-fated romance; not the true love stories within this podunk town saddled with stereotyped McCoy & Hatfield characters.  There's the ne'erdowell villain, George Van Cleve, who owns the local mine and has his hand in running the town and the people in it.  There are valiant, steadfast men, courageous female mavericks and a cast of moonshine drinking hillbillies.   Alice won't abide abuse from her father-in-law & neglect from her husband.  She leaves the Van Cleve household and moves in with Margery.  Margery is the strong leader of the ragtag group of women working with the library.   During the Depression Eleanor Roosevelt funded a program known as the Pack Horse Library Project to reach remote rural areas in the Appalachian region.  Historic tales of women who rode out on horseback to promote literacy is an intriguing premise to build upon.  The growing friendship & fortitude of these women is what drove a steadfast story.  Also worth noting was the pillage of the land & hardships for the miners & a subplot of racial segregation.  Unfortunately, THE GIVER of STARS was mired in sledge by sappy love stories, a trumped up trial and detritus of cartoonish or incredulous characters.  The story might work rewritten for young adults minus the sappy romances with a focus on the quotidian of lives & hardships during this epoch.   I don't recommend wasting time on Moyes' novel.  It's a Reese Witherspoon book club selection.  Keep in mind Reese selects with her eye on being given a role in making or starring in the forthcoming film.  Having said this, Reese's pieces are treats for the masses and not enticing for the literary asses.

Jason Reynolds' STAMPED Racism, Antiracism and You-Adapted from Ibram Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning

STAMPED: Racism, Antiracism and You written by Ibram Kendi with its abridged version by Jason Reynolds is NOT a history book.  It's a didactic, approachable conversion that addresses serious racist ideas and their historic impacts which have affected all of us. The perceived notion there's a natural human hierarchy which places Blacks at the bottom and Whites on top is a pernicious falsehood that's persisted like a plague on our nation.  Kendi & Reynolds have written a digestible historic & prescient book of detestable talking points.  These arguments dig in a deep & profound manner where the root of racism sprouted, how it has perseverated and the past & present carnage & oppression it has caused.  STAMPED enlightens without preaching, posturing or proselytizing for young adults and sensible people of any age.  STAMPED is a collaborative learning exercise that expresses the obvious flaws in White mentality driven by greed & and immoral justification of righteousness.   What dynamics contributes to racist hatred and suppression?  What has kept it alive for centuries in the US?  How has the construct of race & racial divides been misconstrued to maintain sovereignty through propaganda and our political & economic systems? When slavery was instituted it dehumanized Blacks endowing slave owners to treat them as chattel; birthing farming machines classified as livestock and not human.  The concept of one human being owning another is anathema yet it was not viewed as such, including many of our founding fathers.  This belief was maintained by Presidents Jefferson & Washington.  Both kept slaves throughout their lives maintaining the belief they were inferior by nature.  Is that taught in our school's history texts?  Propaganda perpetuated this thwarted mentality that relentlessly justified White supremacy and slavery.  The perpetuated myth was dark was synonymous with dumb & evil.  White was synonymous with smart & virtuous.  Laws have constrained black people from access to education, health care, housing, and equanimity in all wakes of society.  The authors clarify 3 distinct racial mind sets: segregationist (a hater) and assimilationist (a coward), or an antiracist (someone who truly loves) and how each group have rationalized racial inequality.  Segregationists argue (wrongfully) that Black people are inherently intellectually inferior & and irresponsible causing their own circumstances & inequities.  The history of racism in this award winning, not history book, is key to understanding how racism impacts individuals & society as a whole today.  Moreover, it's a sounding board for assessing how racism anchors us together and tears us apart.