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A story of suspect miracles, tests of faith, and the corrosive and redemptive power of secrecy. Over the years, Father Damian has seen the reservation through its most severe crises, yet he is more than a heroic priest. He has lived with and served the Ojibwa people as a man of the cloth, and also as a woman. However, where does fact end and reality begin? NPR sponsorships. Deals with miracles, crises of faith, struggles with good & evil, temptation, & the corrosive & redemptive power of secrecy. For more than a half century, Father Damien Modeste has served his beloved people, the Ojibwa, on the remote reservation of Little No Horse. Compelled to his task by a direct mystical experience, Father Damien has made enormous sacrifices, and experienced the joys of commitment as well as deep suffering. Now, nearing the end of his life, Father Damien dreads the discovery of his physical identity, for he is a woman who has lived as a man. He imagines the undoing of all that he has accomplished -- sees unions unsundered, baptisms nullified, those who confessed to him once again unforgiven. To complicate his fears, his quiet life changes when a troubled colleague comes to the reservation to investigate the life of the perplexing, difficult, possibly false saint Sister Leopolda. Father Damien alone knows the strange truth of Sister Leopolda's piety, but these facts are bound up in his own secret. In relating his history and that of Leopolda, whose wonder working is documented but inspired, he believes, by a capacity for evil rather than the love of good, Father Damien is forced to choose: Should he reveal all he knows and risk everything? Or should he manufacture a protective history? In spinning out the tale of his life, Father Damien in fact does both. His story encompasses his life as a young woman, her passions, and the pestilence, tribal hatreds, and sorrows passed from generation to generation of Ojibwa. From the fantastic truth of Father Damien's origin as a woman to the hilarious account of the absurd demise of Nanapush, his best friend on the reservation, his story ranges over the span of the century. In a masterwork that both deepens and enlarges the world of her previous novels set on the same reservation, Louise Erdrich captures the essence of a time and the spirit of a woman who felt compelled by her beliefs to serve her people as a priest. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is a work of an avid heart, a writer's writer, and a storytelling genius.… (more)
User reviews
There are a lot of time shifts in this book which can occasionally make it hard to follow. Events overlap and collapse in on themselves and you have to really pay attention. At times the book reads as a collection of shorter stories with an overarching theme.
I loved the character of Father Damien; his interior life, the letters he writes to the Pope, the things he feels about falling into a calling that wasn't his own. The book has really interesting things to say about gender, about missionary work, and about the relations between First Nations people and white people.
I really loved this book. I would highly recommend it to others.
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Suzie
She assumes the
This is a wonderful story. Like other novels by Louise Erdrich, I loved the large cast of characters and her ability to make every one of them vivid and important. I loved the examination of human vs. divine passion, of what happiness really is, of whether certain gifts come from God or from the devil, and in the end, does it matter?
The complex story contains many interwoven relationships with several generations involved and the mysteries surrounding Sister Leopolda, but what truly shines is the love of Father Damien for his people to the very end.
Beautifully written.
Much of the novel feels nearly picaresque, as readers encounter Ojibwe characters' lives and backgrounds, but stick most emotionally closely to Father Damien. Yet Father Damien (nee Agnes, an identity she assumes only in the privacy of her own home and as necessary) sees him/herself as a transitional point between God and the people. The shape-shifting of gender identity reflects this: the work of a missionary is to constructively be who the people need.
One of Father Damien's final assignments is to investigate the possibility of sainthood for a member of his community named Sister Leopolda, a pious and passionate Ojibwe nun of whom Damien is nevertheless skeptical. Yet, as he looks for proof of sainthood among her antisocial behavior, and struggles for a response to Rome's hope that her passionate and extravagant character was divinely-inspired, Damien must also confront his own deceptive self-portrayal. Which is the greater good, to offer a community honesty, or comfort?
Parts of this book were slow, due to the aforementioned distance put between the reader and the Ojibwe characters, but Damien was a nuanced and thought-provoking character to sustain the narrative.
This is a book that twisted my opinions around its premises more times than once. At times preposterous, and at times profound--this tale binds the reader up into its characters' choices. Choices that we don't always agree with,
And although sometimes I felt that small plot twists were a bit pat, I found that their weave into the greater tapestry of Erdrich's telling were more forgivable once we understand where she has brought us.