Status
Available
Genres
Publication
(1994)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member taconsolo
Can't say enough about this book. I listened to the CDs and the reader was perfect. I'll read more of her work.
LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
Great book! Pulled me right in and never let me go! A deep tale about Native American life on a reservation in 1988, revolving around a rape case. The writing is rich, vibrant, and full of life! And I really enjoyed all of the Star Trek TNG references! Definitely worth the read!
LibraryThing member ValNewHope
I felt like the plot line was diluted by the many tangential characters and dream sequences. It moved too slowly for me.
LibraryThing member Lylee
Love Louise Erdrich and she did it again. Handling complex issue while exploring sensibilities of Native Americans living on the Reservation in the confusing world of the newest century, wile remembering devastation of the past two.
LibraryThing member yvonne.sevignykaiser
Read this one for my neighborhood book group, and it was easy to see why this won the National Book Award for Fiction for 2013. Round House has been compared to Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and there are many similarities.
The characters are well developed our only complaint was a few loose
Louise Erdrich's The Round House should be on everyones reading list.
The characters are well developed our only complaint was a few loose
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ends but then it could be up to the reader as to the path taken. It was a true coming of age story and vigilante justice that is not left unanswered. The book also brought to light a very serious problem with violence against women on reservation land with a very high percentage perpetuated by non native men. Things have improved since the 1980's with reporting and clinics and centers on reservation land to help those in need. Tribal laws need to be updated to allow for sentencing to match sentencing in the regular court system. Currently it is just a slap on the wrist. The Amnesty International Report mentioned in the back of the book is well worth reading and very eye opening.Louise Erdrich's The Round House should be on everyones reading list.
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LibraryThing member SheTreadsSoftly
The Round House by Louise Erdrich is set on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota in 1988. Joe Coutts is a 13 year-old boy whose mother Geraldine is brutally beaten and raped in the reservation's Round House, a place of worship for the Ojibwe. His father, Bazil is a tribal judge. The crime and
In The Round House, Erdrich combines a coming of age story with a crime novel full of suspense. At the beginning we meet Joe before the attack and follow along as his childhood abruptly ends and he is mercilessly forced into adulthood as he and his father deal with the knowledge that the attacking was planning to kill Geraldine and doubt that the attacker will face justice because of the murky question of jurisdiction, the "Maze of Injustice," that still exists. Joe struggles with both is helplessness and anger over this impossible situation.
Joe and his friends are typical young teen boys, so there are occasions of sneaking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, and they also watch and relate to TV shows of the era. Eldrich includes a wide variety of relatives and people in her cast of characters and gives each of them an individual voice and personality. Her characters have a universal presence but also reflect specific people. It is this very ability to present a universal story but imbibe it with specific characters and circumstances that enables The Round House to create such an emotional, visceral impact on the reader.
Although I may not live on a reservation or be faced with some of the harsh realities the Coutts face, I can empathize with them because of the universality of the themes. In the Afterword, Erdrich tells us that "1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime (and that figure is certainly higher as Native women often do not report rape); 86 percent of rapes and sexual assaults upon Native women are perpetrated by non-Native men; few are prosecuted." This statistic is unacceptable (as all assaults upon women are unacceptable and inexcusable).
Erdrich, an accomplished and gifted writer, first introduced the North Dakota Ojibwe community in her The Plague of Doves published in 2008, and there will be a third part of this planned trilogy released in the future. The Round House is the winner of the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction. The Round House is not an easy book to read emotionally. It also contains some adult discussions and several stories of ghosts and cultural stories/myths.
Very Highly Recommended
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins and TLC for review purposes.
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physical and emotional ramifications of the attack are devastating enough, but finding the guilty party and bringing him to justice is a different matter. Because Geraldine is unclear on exactly what part of the land surrounding the Round House the crime occurred, Bazil ensures that the tribal police, state sheriff and FBI are all called in to interview Geraldine and, hopefully, collect evidence. The overwhelming problem is that there is tribal, state, and federal land all intersecting at this location and where the crime occurred determines the jurisdiction involved. Adding to this quagmire, the attack could have stemmed from a court case Bazil heard or be related to Geraldine's job managing tribal enrollment. As Joe watches his mother sink further into depression and his father struggle with trying to determine who could be a suspect, he decides, along with his friends, to take the law into his own hands and look for clues as to who committed the crime.In The Round House, Erdrich combines a coming of age story with a crime novel full of suspense. At the beginning we meet Joe before the attack and follow along as his childhood abruptly ends and he is mercilessly forced into adulthood as he and his father deal with the knowledge that the attacking was planning to kill Geraldine and doubt that the attacker will face justice because of the murky question of jurisdiction, the "Maze of Injustice," that still exists. Joe struggles with both is helplessness and anger over this impossible situation.
Joe and his friends are typical young teen boys, so there are occasions of sneaking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, and they also watch and relate to TV shows of the era. Eldrich includes a wide variety of relatives and people in her cast of characters and gives each of them an individual voice and personality. Her characters have a universal presence but also reflect specific people. It is this very ability to present a universal story but imbibe it with specific characters and circumstances that enables The Round House to create such an emotional, visceral impact on the reader.
Although I may not live on a reservation or be faced with some of the harsh realities the Coutts face, I can empathize with them because of the universality of the themes. In the Afterword, Erdrich tells us that "1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime (and that figure is certainly higher as Native women often do not report rape); 86 percent of rapes and sexual assaults upon Native women are perpetrated by non-Native men; few are prosecuted." This statistic is unacceptable (as all assaults upon women are unacceptable and inexcusable).
Erdrich, an accomplished and gifted writer, first introduced the North Dakota Ojibwe community in her The Plague of Doves published in 2008, and there will be a third part of this planned trilogy released in the future. The Round House is the winner of the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction. The Round House is not an easy book to read emotionally. It also contains some adult discussions and several stories of ghosts and cultural stories/myths.
Very Highly Recommended
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins and TLC for review purposes.
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LibraryThing member stephengoldenberg
An interesting read with real insights into the lives of native Americans in modern USA but the basic mystery story lacks enough suspense and there are far too many similar scenes of teenage boys meeting up, drinking and chatting.
LibraryThing member LGCullens
3.5 stars rounded to 4
This author should be commended for tackling very meaningful issues of covetousness, depravity, retribution, consequences, and what-ifs; for doing so in a context too many turn a blind eye to (culpability); and for doing so with a balance of seriousness and humor. If one has
I especially liked how well the author depicted the adolescent characters and how fleshed out the story was, but . . .
To me, I found segments of the story little more than filler, and the realism of the story tainted by a few contrived instances, each of which pulled me out of the story. For the most part though, the story was well written.
This author should be commended for tackling very meaningful issues of covetousness, depravity, retribution, consequences, and what-ifs; for doing so in a context too many turn a blind eye to (culpability); and for doing so with a balance of seriousness and humor. If one has
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reached the point in life of questioning the dark stain in the human soul, rather than simply being entertained by such, the storyline can be an engaging and thought provoking experience.I especially liked how well the author depicted the adolescent characters and how fleshed out the story was, but . . .
To me, I found segments of the story little more than filler, and the realism of the story tainted by a few contrived instances, each of which pulled me out of the story. For the most part though, the story was well written.
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LibraryThing member usuallee
First, a rant: Dear "literary" author: No one is impressed with your decision to eschew the use of quotation marks for dialogue. In fact, it is rather pretentious. JUST USE THE FRIGGIN' QUOTATION MARKS like everyone else!
Okay, rant over. As you may have guessed, The Round House, a coming of age
Okay, rant really over now. The Round House was okay. The National Book award is a stretch, I felt. The book plodded along at times, and got bogged down in asides dealing with Native folklore and lectures about Native vs. United States and state laws and such. I had no trouble putting it aside. Yet it was modestly interesting and modestly poignant and modestly humorous at times. It brought up some fairly thought provoking moral issues, including the whole dynamic of using the white man's justice system to solve a crime against an Indian vs. a Native American sort of idea of obtaining justice. It had a vivid sense of place & was pretty well written aside from the lack of quotation marks for dialogue.
Okay, rant over. As you may have guessed, The Round House, a coming of age
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tale set on a reservation with a young Native American boy of 13 as the narrator, does not use quotation marks. Why not? I have no idea. As far as I can tell, Cormac McCarthy stopped doing it and now lots of quote-unquote literary authors are jumping on the bandwagon. It doesn't really seem to serve any stylistic purpose other than to ostentatiously announce that This Is a Literary Work.Okay, rant really over now. The Round House was okay. The National Book award is a stretch, I felt. The book plodded along at times, and got bogged down in asides dealing with Native folklore and lectures about Native vs. United States and state laws and such. I had no trouble putting it aside. Yet it was modestly interesting and modestly poignant and modestly humorous at times. It brought up some fairly thought provoking moral issues, including the whole dynamic of using the white man's justice system to solve a crime against an Indian vs. a Native American sort of idea of obtaining justice. It had a vivid sense of place & was pretty well written aside from the lack of quotation marks for dialogue.
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LibraryThing member Dairyqueen84
Erdrich gives such a wonderful sense of character and place. Within the first 20 pages I really knew and understood at least 5 of the main characters and their motivations.
Language
ISBN
0062065246 / 9780062065247