Book Review Blog Entry 2

The Plague of Doves

By Louise Erdrich

You may have heard of this author, she wrote a book that is fairly well know to children's librarians called The Birchbark House. She is an Ojibwe Native American and sets her books in the northern plains and as far east as Michigan. This is the first adult book I have read by her and I was very moved. I bought it for my YA section, though it definitely has more adult appeal, but I am keeping it since I think it was a beautifully written piece of literature and hope that a few teens will try it out.

First of all a little summary of the book. It spans the first three quarters of the 20th century, and even a bit of the 19th, but it is not chronological. We see into the families and lives of a group of people in North Dakota who are all connected through blood, romance, or politics. Some of the connections are almost mystical and hard to even describe. Each story is so different, yet they all shape the other stories. They are told from that person's point of view, so you hear part of a story from one, part from another, and in the end you see the circles that connect the lives of the small, dying town of Pluto, ND and the neighboring reservation.

I can't help but to be in awe of Erdrich's skill at tying these people together with the smallest of threads, yet keeping them so individual and real. Her skill alone is reason enough to read this. In fact her skill will character, plot, imagery, and symbolism makes me jealous of her skill and longing to read more of her.