{"id":4176,"date":"2013-05-27T12:14:06","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T12:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=4176"},"modified":"2013-05-31T11:53:51","modified_gmt":"2013-05-31T11:53:51","slug":"the-round-house-by-louise-erdrich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=4176","title":{"rendered":"The Round House by Louise Erdrich"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Published by Corsair 8 May 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

352pp, hardcover , \u00a311.51<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Elsbeth Lindner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prize-winning books don\u2019t always appear to justify their accolades but in the case of Louise Erdrich\u2019s The Round House<\/em>, there\u2019s no question, this is a novel that deserves its National Book Award. Erdrich, the author of 14 novels as well as poetry, short stories and children\u2019s books, has achieved a book of remarkable quality. Not only compellingly readable and cleverly plotted, it presents the appalling facts of the expropriation of Native American lands and children in a manner both completely integrated into the storytelling yet shocking enough to pierce the reader\u2019s emotions as if for the first time.<\/p>\n

But this is no bald polemic. It\u2019s in fact a coming-of-age story of unusual impact, narrated boldly and convincingly from the point-of-view of a thirteen-year-old-boy living on a reservation in North Dakota, with a layer of adult retrospection on top. There are flavours of Spielberg, Dickens and Tom Sawyer to the tale of a group of small town boys, their jokes and entertainments. However for young Joe Coutts, the son of a judge, this will be a scarring story of lost innocence, as telegraphed in the opening scenario which shifts from happy (if heavily symbolic) times\u00a0with his father to the traumatized arrival of his mother.<\/p>\n

Episodes of levity and family warmth to one side, this is a very dark book that hinges on a devastating rape and considers morality from many angles. There\u2019s a striking intricacy to Erdrich\u2019s weaving of profound and heart-wrenching themes into compelling storytelling. Sometimes the book is a thriller, sometimes a detective story, sometimes a family drama, sometimes a smouldering act of sexual awakening.<\/p>\n

What impresses most, however, is the integrity of the narrative which culminates in an action taken by the protagonist from which a less able writer would have shied away.<\/p>\n

Spiritually enlightening and morally insightful, this is a book of many facets, centered on the round house itself, a symbol of the female heart of Native America. Erdrich referred to this when accepting the prize, acknowledging \u2018the grace and endurance of native women.\u2019 The postscript adds a further layer of information by explaining that the novel emerged from exceptional circumstances. This only intensifies the reader\u2019s respect for a gifted writer who has delivered a novel about vicious facts in a remote place that nevertheless is a complete pleasure to read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is no bald polemic. It\u2019s in fact a coming-of-age story of unusual impact, narrated boldly and convincingly from the point-of-view of a thirteen-year-old-boy living on a reservation in North Dakota, with a layer of adult retrospection on top. There are flavours of Spielberg, Dickens and Tom Sawyer to the tale of a group of small town boys, their jokes and entertainments. However for young Joe Coutts, the son of a judge, this will be a scarring story of lost innocence[…] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-notable-books","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4176"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4183,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4176\/revisions\/4183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}