Louise Erdrich is a highly acclaimed novelist, poet and Y/A author and a major literary figure of the Native American Renaissance; focusing on Indigenous characters and political issues pertaining to Indigenous Americans. Her writings have earned her numerous prominent awards including the Nat'l Book Award (The ROUND HOUSE 2012), the Pulitzer Prize (The NIGHTWATCHMAN 2021) and the Pushcart Prize for Poetry 1983. Her writing in a broad spectrum of her writing styles is impressive for their scope, skill and social commentary. The brilliant novel THE SENTENCE combines multiple genres that include literary fiction, Native American Renaissance, social reform and philosophy. The story hovers around a ghost story which is haunting, harrowing, humorous and at times, somewhat cheeky. This being said, Erdrich is a master storyteller unraveling a myriad of captivating characters, serves as a zeitgeist for the pandemic and a clarion call for social reform. The issues amplified include racial injustice, climate change, mass incarceration and the erasure of Indigenous people. "We've endured centuries of being erased and sentenced to live in replacement culture," bemoans Tookie. The epitome of police brutality and racial persecution was witnessed on live TV as George Floyd gasped for air calling for his mom. There's a panoply of paragraphs that are worth quoting. My favorite is "Books contain everything worth knowing except what ultimately matters." Erdrich is a true bibliophile and an owner of an independent bookstore in MN. Her store's mission is to serve her community as well as advocate for Native American literature, artists and issues. We're introduced to the central heroine, Tookie as she attempts a brazen body snatching for her lover who duped her into moving a corpse laden with dope in a stolen van. She's busted and given a lengthy sentence behind bars. Books are Tookie's saviors while in prison. She tells us, "Native Americans are the most over-sentenced people currently imprisoned. The more I found out people's sentences, the more random I realized sentencing even is." Tookie, her family and the bookstore where she works are located near Floyd's murder and where mass protests began followed quickly by the immolation of local businesses. Tookie and her family watched the news via cell, TV and in person before getting tear gassed and forced to disperse. "There was a sentence people were chanting all over the world now. I can't breathe." The bookstore Tookie worked at was miraculously shielded from destruction and flourished during the pandemic and protests. This absorbing novel is held together by gossamer threads of a ghost story that torments Tookie. She would've questioned her sanity except her co-workers corroborated sensing the same manifestations. Erdrich appropriate's Hitchcock's gimmick for including himself in his work even as she condemns the appropriation of Indigenous culture. She ups the appropriation ante by placing a copy of THE SENTENCE on the pile of books by Tookie's bedside. Erdrich's brilliant writing blazons with poignancy and poetry. Her novel valiantly argues words have infinitesimal potential. The book taken by Flora takes up residence posthumously to haunt Tookie who believes, "The book had its own volition and would force me to reckon with it, just like history." However, we are reminded of words shortcomings. The omnipotence of written word fails at stopping a bullet, removing the knee strangling Mr. Floyd, or of making a fire. Nonetheless, word possess the power to ignite one's heart and soul. I've yet to mention Tookie's arresting office, Pollux, the man whom Tookie marries after she serves her time. It's Pollux and Jarvis Pollux's grandson to whom Tookie surrenders her heart. "I {Tookie} have a dinosaur heart, cold, massive, indestructible, a thick meaty red. And, I have a glass heart, tiny and pink, that can be shattered." THE SENTENCE accomplishes so much and does so using only words.
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