by Louise Erdrich, 2012 National Book Award Finalist
Page-Turner, Mystery, set in North Dakota on an Indian Reservation. Set in 1988 and lots of Star Trek, the Next Generation references because Joe and his buddies LOVE Star Trek, esp. Worf. Told through the eyes of 13 year old, Joe, Indian, only child of 2 wonderful parents, Geraldine and Bazil. Bazil is a Tribal Judge. A horrible crime (rape, attempted murder) happens to Geraldine, near the Round House – a sacred structure on the Indian Reservation. Geraldine is so traumatized by the crime that she escapes to her bedroom and won’t leave it for about 6 months. Joe and Bazil attempt to discover who did it – Geraldine knows but won’t tell. Joe and Bazil finally find out and it’s a white man – Linden Lark – evil twin of Linda – adopted at birth by Indian woman who worked in the hospital. Her real parents were going to leave her to die. Linda was an ugly child but so lovingly raised by her Indian family. Her evil twin was the one who raped and almost murdered Geraldine, Joe’s beloved mother. When he is locked up, she finally feels safe enough to tell all. She was actually trying to save Mayla and her baby who were in the Round House when Linden attacked Geraldine. Linden was in love with Mayla and jealous that the governor of S.D., Curtis Yeltow, had had an affair with her (only 17 years old) and gotten her pregnant. He had given her $40,000 to keep quiet about the baby. Joe had found the $40,000 in the lake inside a baby doll floating. He told his aunt, Sonja, former white stripper living with Whitey and helping run his gas station. Sonja takes Joe to all sorts of banks in N.D. and opens savings accounts with the money and makes him promise not to tell anyone about the money.
They could not prosecute Linden because Joe’s mom was not sure where exactly the rape occurred (sack over her had) and if it didn’t occur on Indian land, they could not prosecute him. So, he is let out of jail – no one can find Mayla. Joe decides he has to kill Linden himself so his mother no longer lives in fear. He learns with help of Cappy, his good friend, how to shoot and then shoots Linden while he was golfing early one morning, only he doesn’t kill him – he’s not a good shot but Cappy had his back, and shoots Linden in the head – kills him. Cappy and Joe are both sick (physically) over what they’ve done. They don’t get caught although Whitey knows, Linda knows, and Bazil and Geraldine are pretty sure. Rather than face the cops who are coming to Joe’s house to interrogate, Joe, Cappy, Zach and Angus take off in an old car to drive to Helena, Montana to see Zelia – Cappy’s Beautiful Love – whose parents have just written to Cappy telling him he will never have anything to do with her again “persecute you to the full axtent of the law…wracked our life.”
They drive and drink all night. Joe crawls into the back seat to sleep and buckles the seat belt around him because the buckle was digging into his hip. He wakes up when the car comes to rest after flying off the road and flipped and rolled. Zach and Angus are outside the vehicle are hurt but alive. Joe cannot find Cappy – and searches into “the deepest shadow I have ever known” and finds him – dead and gone. The book ends as Bazil and Geraldine have come and taken Joe home in silence, passing by the cafe they had always stopped at before for coffee, ice cream, pie and a newspaper. “But we did not stop this time. We passed over in a sweep of sorrow that would persist into our small forever. We just kept going.”
Beautiful, sad, tragic, full of rich details of Reservation life – funny characters – lovely characters.
Other books by Louise Erdrich: “Love Medicine,” “The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse,” and “The Plague of Doves,” which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She doesn’t use quotation marks in her writing. In 2010, Obama signed into law, the Tribal Law and Order Act. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.