Call number
FIC ERD
Collection
Genres
Publication
HarpPeren (1900), Edition: Reprint, 240 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: This updated edition of National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich???s 1998 novel now features fascinating new content, a new title, and a new foreword by the author???a riveting story that explores tensions between Native American and white cultures. ???Audacious and surprising. . . . One of America???s most distinctive fictional voices.??????Boston Globe When Klaus Shawano abducts Sweetheart Calico, the seductive Indian woman who has stolen his heart, and takes her far from her native Montana plains to his own Minneapolis home, he cannot begin to imagine the eventual ramifications his brazen act will entail. Shawano???s mysterious Antelope Woman has utterly mesmerized him???and soon proves to be a bewitching agent of chaos whose effect on others is disturbing and irresistible, as she alters the shape of things around her and the shape of things to come. The Roy and Shawano families have been inextricably intertwined for generations and, unbeknownst to them, the mysterious Antelope Woman is a part of their fierce and haunting history. Antelope Woman ingeniously illuminates how that history affects the contemporary descendants of these families who are the products of two cultures, Ojibwe and white, which sit in uneasy relationship to one another. In this remarkable novel, Erdrich weaves an unforgettable tapestry of ancestry, fate, harrowing tragedy, and redemption that is at once modern and eternal..… (more)
Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member tgsalter
I would like to read her work sequentially. She chronicles a Minnesota Indian clan ... Blue Prairie Woman, the Roys and Shawanos. Moves between old mystical stories and current life.
LibraryThing member elleceetee
When I was a senior (? - I think) in college, I took four english courses in one semester. Bad plan, as I was never able to catch up on all of the reading. My Native American Literature class was particularly demanding, with a record 20 books read (supposedly) over the course of the semester. There
It's hard to really summarize the plot of this novel. It basically tells the story of the Roy/Shawano family, from its roots in the past, through to the present day. The story isn't told in precisely the right order, and some of the oldest pieces aren't revealed until the end. Some of the sections are told in the voice of particular characters, and some are in the third person. Through the book, there is the enigmatic character of "Sweethart Calico", the Antelope Wife, who (I think) stands as a symbol of the loss of freedom of the native american people. The story relies heavily on illusions to native american mythology, and through the story of this family, the reader gains insight into the plight of "city Indians".
Reading through it, I was sad that I had no class to discuss this book with because it would lend itself really well to discussion of symbolism and Native American mythology. I remember a lot of it from my college courses, but some of it is a little murky. I'm not sure I liked the way that the narration jumped from the third to the first person in various chapters. The tagline on the front says that this book manages to transform tragedy into comic redemption. Though that is something charcteristic of some other native American writers (i.e. Sherman Alexie), I didn't find much humor in this book. Mostly, it's pretty depressing with few uplifting moments. That said, it's a very interesting read and I'm glad that (five years later) I actually managed to make it through it.
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was simply no way I could keep up. I kept some of the ones that looked interesting that I never got a chance to read, and this was one of them.It's hard to really summarize the plot of this novel. It basically tells the story of the Roy/Shawano family, from its roots in the past, through to the present day. The story isn't told in precisely the right order, and some of the oldest pieces aren't revealed until the end. Some of the sections are told in the voice of particular characters, and some are in the third person. Through the book, there is the enigmatic character of "Sweethart Calico", the Antelope Wife, who (I think) stands as a symbol of the loss of freedom of the native american people. The story relies heavily on illusions to native american mythology, and through the story of this family, the reader gains insight into the plight of "city Indians".
Reading through it, I was sad that I had no class to discuss this book with because it would lend itself really well to discussion of symbolism and Native American mythology. I remember a lot of it from my college courses, but some of it is a little murky. I'm not sure I liked the way that the narration jumped from the third to the first person in various chapters. The tagline on the front says that this book manages to transform tragedy into comic redemption. Though that is something charcteristic of some other native American writers (i.e. Sherman Alexie), I didn't find much humor in this book. Mostly, it's pretty depressing with few uplifting moments. That said, it's a very interesting read and I'm glad that (five years later) I actually managed to make it through it.
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LibraryThing member thornton37814
Erdrich tells the story of the Roys and Shawanos, two Ojibwa Indian families, in this well-written novel. The language is quite beautiful and much of the plot is metaphoric and/or symbolic. It's a multi-generational plot that shows the importance of family among this Native American people group.
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We are able to see some of the traditions that are handed down from generation to generation, including naming patterns and rituals. It's a bit hard-to-follow in places, but the writing style makes it worth the effort. Show Less
LibraryThing member electrascaife
This is a tale woven of many lives throughout several generations and how they intermingle, about Blue Prairie Woman, who fell in love with a deer, and how her life affected (haunted, really) her descendants and their own choices.
The characters and their stories, and especially how they all
The characters and their stories, and especially how they all
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related to one another, were fascinating and wonderful. The book unfolds so neatly, with just the right pacing, and all the little pieces click together so well. And the intermeshing of worlds - native and other - adds another complexity that works like icing on Klaus' cake. This is the second of Erdrich's books I've read and loved, and I will absolutely seek out more of her work. Show Less
LibraryThing member BookConcierge
Digital audiobook read by the author.
From the book jacket: “Family stories repeat themselves in patterns and waves, generation to generation, across bloods and time. Once the pattern is set we go on replicating it,” writes Louise Erdrich in The Antelope Wife, her sixth novel. Rooted in the
My reactions
I just have to say that Erdrich is one of my favorite writers. Her prose is luminous and poetic. Her use of magical realism seamless. It reminds me of listening to my grandparents, aunts and uncles tell stories of family lore, sitting on a dark porch of a summer evening. I would be entranced by their stories and the images they painted found their way into my dreams and into the very fiber of my being.
The novel weaves history, contemporary urban life, legend, and sacred myth into a marvelous tapestry of a story. There is violence, and lust, and tenderness to break your heart. There is birth and death, humor and tragedy, betrayal and forgiveness, broken people scattered on the battlefield of life, and others standing tall and moving forward.
I want to go back and read it again.
While Erdrich frequently uses characters over and over again in her novels, you can really read any of them as a stand-alone work. This novel was first published in 1998, and reissued in 2016 as Antelope Woman.
I was excited to get an audio read by Erdrich. The poetry of her language really comes out in her performance. HOWEVER … I realized too late that this was an abridged version. No wonder I felt that I would better enjoy the novel if I read the text … which I did.
From the book jacket: “Family stories repeat themselves in patterns and waves, generation to generation, across bloods and time. Once the pattern is set we go on replicating it,” writes Louise Erdrich in The Antelope Wife, her sixth novel. Rooted in the
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landscape of city life, yet continually influenced by the power of Ojibwa family, the intricacies of Ojibwa language and religious belief, this book extends the branches of the families who populate Erdrich’s work and reflects the irrevocable patterns set in motion by certain fateful acts. My reactions
I just have to say that Erdrich is one of my favorite writers. Her prose is luminous and poetic. Her use of magical realism seamless. It reminds me of listening to my grandparents, aunts and uncles tell stories of family lore, sitting on a dark porch of a summer evening. I would be entranced by their stories and the images they painted found their way into my dreams and into the very fiber of my being.
The novel weaves history, contemporary urban life, legend, and sacred myth into a marvelous tapestry of a story. There is violence, and lust, and tenderness to break your heart. There is birth and death, humor and tragedy, betrayal and forgiveness, broken people scattered on the battlefield of life, and others standing tall and moving forward.
I want to go back and read it again.
While Erdrich frequently uses characters over and over again in her novels, you can really read any of them as a stand-alone work. This novel was first published in 1998, and reissued in 2016 as Antelope Woman.
I was excited to get an audio read by Erdrich. The poetry of her language really comes out in her performance. HOWEVER … I realized too late that this was an abridged version. No wonder I felt that I would better enjoy the novel if I read the text … which I did.
Show Less
LibraryThing member DrFuriosa
An odd melange of stories that link up a disrupted family tree. I think there are two novels in here, and I was dissatisfied with the development of each.
LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
“Family stories repeat themselves in patterns and waves generation to generation, across bloods and times.”
Beautifully written! For example, “The tiny particulate unyellowed leaves of the locust trees flickered and swam in the moving air.” And, “Longing is the bliss of thieves that
The end of part one is heartbreakingly sad. Well, the whole book is a bit sad. But that's family, right? It's such a real story, full of the ups and downs of life, marriage, and parenting. And it's so interconnected and confusing. "Everything is all knotted up in a tangle. Pull one string of this family and the whole web will tremble." So true...
The beads, the needles, and the family. A pleasure to read! And the last paragraph of the book, just perfect!
Beautifully written! For example, “The tiny particulate unyellowed leaves of the locust trees flickered and swam in the moving air.” And, “Longing is the bliss of thieves that
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getting kills.” Wowza! The end of part one is heartbreakingly sad. Well, the whole book is a bit sad. But that's family, right? It's such a real story, full of the ups and downs of life, marriage, and parenting. And it's so interconnected and confusing. "Everything is all knotted up in a tangle. Pull one string of this family and the whole web will tremble." So true...
The beads, the needles, and the family. A pleasure to read! And the last paragraph of the book, just perfect!
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LibraryThing member LibroLindsay
Just a stunning novel. I loved the fiercely independent women that populate this novel and the sometimes destructive, sometimes tender (but let's face it, usually pretty destructive) men who love them. There is so much tragedy countered with a surprising amount of humor, and I could not have
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imagined a better ending. As always, Louise Erdrich has my heart and soul. Show Less
LibraryThing member Charon07
Lyrical magical realism. This was my first Erdrich, but I plan to look up others. It was also the first book-on-tape that I managed to listen to all the way through.
Awards
Pages
240
ISBN
0060930071 / 9780060930073