I would also have to say that reading this novel - which I largely enjoyed - I noted firstly that (to me like so many literary American novels) the world outside the US barely exists (other interestingly than in the large number of non-American authors mentioned) and secondly that the novel seemed to me very American - almost as if I was slightly excluded from what it took for granted. Sentence , a word of multiple meanings - the sentence that the main character, an ex con named Tookie serves in jail, the sentences in this book and the so many other books mentioned here, (thankfully Erdrich gave us a list at the end), the sentences the characters sometimes impose on themselves . In the early years of their marriage, Erdrich and Michael Dorris often collaborated on their work, saying they plotted the books together, "talk about them before any writing is done, and then we share almost every day, whatever it is we've written" but "the person whose name is on the books is the one who's done most of the primary writing. [15]" They got started with "domestic, romantic stuff" published under the shared pen name of "Milou North" (Michael + Louise + where they live). [11]

a b Halliday, Lisa (Winter 2010). "Louise Erdrich, The Art of Fiction". The Paris Review. Winter 2010 (208).When bookstores are deemed to be essential to the economy and can stay open, the author’s depiction of this period, where the workers are struggling to keep the store open while observing pandemic cautions and finding connections to their customers was some of her best writing. Tookie is strongly defined by identity -- her tribal one and that community she is part of, as well as then her professional one, as, book-obsessed , she comes to work in a bookstore -- and ultimately she comes to some terms with some other, even more fundamental aspects of her identity. LH: Like your main character, Tookie, I suspect you, too, think of “book people” as in a class of their own.

I tried with The Sentence, I really did, but I got to this paragraph at 50% into the book and it just reiterated the fact that it was doing none of those things for me. I’m sad to say it was my first DNF of 2022.I've been a lover of Erdrich's work since her debut, Love Medicine, with its unforgettable first scene in which June Nanapush lays down in the snow and [redacted]. This and her prior novel are standalones but most of her fiction features recurring characters, families, across place and time. She's been a master of character. I was pleased while reading her trilogy to encounter some of the same characters from the Love Medicine series. Her books are low-key though tragic events occur. They're character-driven. When I found out about the prize I was living on a farm in New Hampshire near the college I'd attended," Erdrich told an interviewer. "I was nearly broke and driving a car with bald tires. My mother knitted my sweaters, and all else I bought at thrift stores ... The recognition dazzled me. Later, I became friends with Studs Terkel and Kay Boyle, the judges, toward whom I carry a lifelong gratitude. This prize made an immense difference in my life." [27] Much of the author’s message regarding that has to do with love, friendship, community, family, and nature, as well as gratitude for whatever life, health, and freedoms remain in our grasp. The protagonist, Tookie, is aptly able to appreciate all this, having spent time in prison for a youthful love-and-drug-addled offense.

Tookie is released from prison after years of incarceration for naively recovering the corpse of her friend’s husband. Except the body carried something valuable to some but illegal – which was cocaine. Not able to provide any meaningful defence Tookie is imprisoned where she ignites her passion for books and literature. After many unsuccessful appeals, Tookie is finally freed, marries Pollux, and sets up a bookshop. However, the bookshop is haunted by the ghostly presence of one of its former customers, Flora who is looking for help and understanding which is to be found in a ‘sentence’. Only a true master - I mean an absolute genius - could write such a meaningful and hopeful (and entertaining, humorous and engaging!) book in real time - and in THESE real times! I thought it was a good way to mark National Native American Heritage Month by reading a book by Louise Erdrich . ( https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/ ) Actually any time is a good time to read a Louise Erdrich book. a b "Louise Erdrich: About the Author: HarperCollins Publishers". Harpercollins.com. March 24, 2010 . Retrieved October 23, 2013.

So, yes, The Sentence is the story of a haunting -- but it's not too much a ghost-story, with Flora certainly a frequent presence (and continued annoyance), but not so much front and center, most of the time.