![]() ![]() A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November. The Sentence strengthens this resolution. Louise Erdrichs latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. That one novel persuaded me that from now on, I would read every blessed thing Erdrich writes. I came to read Erdrich late in the game, when The Night Watchman, which won the Pulitzer, came out in 2020. And of course, this is not one bit funny. ![]() Tookie’s story is wrapped around a number of social issues and current events most prominently, of course, is that of American Indians’ rights this is the time and place of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, and so the demonstrations of outraged citizens are folded into the novel as well. ![]() Tookie develops a love of writing (“with murderous intent,”) while she’s incarcerated, and so, once she is released, what more natural place is there for her to look for work, than a bookstore? But this bookstore is special. It starts with the world’s most hilarious crime, one which sends our protagonist, Tookie, to prison however, most of the meat of the story takes place once she’s out again. The Sentence is set in Minneapolis during the pandemic, from November 2019 to November 2020. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |