Boiling hot soup is the most welcome gift in Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman. The cold of North Dakota permeates this story of a Chippewa family on the reservation in the 1950’s. Snow and ice and their poverty are countered by the warmth of tradition, community, spirituality, and their connection to the land.
The driving force of the novel is the threat of termination of their tribal status by the US government. In the acknowledgements, Erdrich tells us that this section is based on letters from her grandfather as he helped the tribe stop termination which would rob them of their treaty rights and devastate their culture.
In addition to this main plot are the coming-of-age stories of two young indigenous women and the man who loves them both. There is the acerbic portrait of two young Mormon missionaries trying to convert the heathen. The naïve white boxing coach wonders if he could make the sacrifice to become Indian if the woman he likes would have him.
The characters are well drawn, believable and sympathetic – even the ghost of the teenager who years after his death can’t leave his tribe. Native American beliefs and practices are effortlessly integrated into this five-star story with excellent plots, setting and characters.
“(I’m) one of very few people in this world who are in a position to take their pick of realities,” thinks Richard in Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from German by Susan Bernofsky.
He can enjoy his comfortable retirement from teaching, sit at his breakfast table with plenty of toast, tea, and the newspaper. Or – he can insert himself into one of the stories, maybe the one about refugees from Libya who are in limbo because of German bureaucracy. Or – he can join the group opposing any help at all for the unwanted refugees, seeing them as freeloaders not victims.
Richard is unhappy with himself because he has walked past the encampment of refugees whose signs said simply “We become visible” without noticing them at all. He visits, begins to talk, helps where he can, becomes their friend.
At the end, to celebrate Richard’s birthday, there is a German style barbecue with potato salad and halal sausages. Richard’s old German friends and his new African friends attend. After dinner, they tell stories, some of happiness and some of sadness, which are shared and understood across nationalities.
This wonderful novel details the plight of refugees who have fled their home countries because of war time atrocities. They have seen family members killed or have totally lost touch. Lonely and homesick, they are living in Germany where they are unwanted and where the laws make it impossible for them to settle or to work. While the setting of this particular book is Berlin after unification, it is also a universal situation that we recognize.
Thirty years ago, when Donna Leon first starting writing mysteries and introduced us to her Cicero reading paragon, Detective Brunetti, her novels were well plotted. Now, they have morphed to riffs on favorite subjects. But still successful!
Her latest, Give unto Others, explores the obligation to do a favor for an old acquaintance and to choose between the rules and what is right. Brunetti hadn’t particularly liked this person but was fond of her mother who was kind to his family.
Leon’s novels work because of her minute observations of how people behave – mannerisms, facial expression, tone of voice. Here, we have the shameless deviousness of the Italian police as they affect all sorts of behavior to encourage people to talk to them. Brunetti and his supporting staff do not disappoint in this easy-to-read appealing mystery.
As always, your reviews add to my list of books to read. If only I knew how to add hours to the day. Thanks, Diane.