Louise Erdrich positions herself as a contemporary tribal storyteller with her interlocking tales of her Chippewa people and her German-American ancestors. From the tribe’s struggle to survive (Tracks), to the Depression (The Beet Queen), to the mid-twentieth century (Love Medicine), to contemporary times (The Bingo Palace, Tales of Burning Love, and The Antelope Wise), Erdrich sympathetically, compassionately, and realistically renders a portrait of people striving to survive governmental bureaucracy, Catholic Church intrusion, and climatic severity.
Jacobs (English San Juan College, Farmington, New Mexico) provides readers a framework within which to appreciate the work of Chippewa writer Erdrich, placing her novels in the context both of literary studies and of Native American literature. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
