The Round House: Summary and book reviews of The Round House by Louise Erdrich, plus links to an excerpt from The Round House and a biography of Louise Erdrich.
The Round House A Novel
by Louise Erdrich
Hardcover: Oct 2012,
336 pages.
Paperback: 24 Sep 2013,
336 pages.
One of the most revered novelists of our time - a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life - Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.
Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich’s The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction - at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.
Erdrich holds back little when it comes to seeking emotional resolution for her characters; her novel offers the daring justice that real life seldom affords. Readers intrigued by literature on adolescents coping amid violence will find a striking entry that inspires conversation. (Reviewed by Karen Rigby).
Library Journal
Erdrich skillfully makes Joe's coming-of-age both universal and specific. Recommended.
Kirkus Reviews
This second novel in a planned trilogy lacks the breadth and richness of Erdrich at her best, but middling Erdrich is still pretty great.
Publisher's Weekly
Starred Review. The story pulses with urgency as she [Erdrich] probes the moral and legal ramifications of a terrible act of violence.
Booklist
Starred Review. A stunning and devastating tale of hate crimes and vengeance…Erdrich covers a vast spectrum of history, cruel loss, and bracing realizations. A preeminent tale in an essential American saga.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Diane S. The Round House This story could be read for so many different themes, coming of age story, Indian culture, family, crimes and many more but no matter why one is reading this the story is compelling. Erdrich has a knack of telling stories, with vivid descriptions... Read More
Known as the Chippewa; Ojibway; Ojibwa; and in their own words, the Anishinabe, (meaning "original man" and alluding to a creation story); the Ojibwe are thought to have migrated from the northeast (perhaps from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, according to a late nineteenth-century history). They then settled in Southern Canada as well as the Great Lakes region of the United States. They organized by clans, often named after birds, animals, or fish, and maintained a woodlands lifestyle, including fishing, trapping, gathering wild rice, and maple sugaring. Excellent hunters, the Ojibwe prospered during the French fur trade, began acquiring weapons, and became one of the most powerful Native American groups. Ojibwe in the plains regions adapted to buffalo culture; in North Dakota, setting of The Round House, The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians is the group with federal recognition.
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They organized by clans, often named after birds, animals, or fish, and maintained a woodlands lifestyle, including fishing, trapping, gathering wild rice, and maple sugaring. Excellent hunters, the Ojibwe prospered during the French fur trade, began acquiring weapons, and became one of the most powerful Native American groups. Ojibwe in the plains regions adapted to buffalo culture; in North Dakota, setting of The Round House, The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians is the group with federal recognition.
