Book

Champion, Laurie, and Rhonda Austin. "Louise Erdrich." Contemporary American Women Fiction Writers: An A-to-Z Guide. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002. 84-90. Print.

In the book, Contemporary American Women Fiction Writers: An A-to-Z Guide, a good chunk is given to Louise Erdrich. At first it goes into detail about her biography and occupations which led her to her profession of novel and short story writing. Many of her awards are also mentioned. Erdrich established a store, Birchbark Books, in 2000. This store sells Native American objects. For example, Native American books, music, jewelry, crafts, foods, etc.

The authors applaud Erdrich’s significant role in the Native American Renaissance and she is once again compared to William Faulkner. Erdrich and Faulkner both created their own imaginary towns or villages to tell their stories in. They also both place a big importance on family. Erdrich tends to center her novels on many different families and their connections.

For this chapter on Erdrich there is a large focal point of the mothers in her novels. Whether the mothers abandoned their children or mothered more than their own. The authors also give a little synopsis of a few of her novels to show how the mother’s importance comes into place. The main focus, within the mother aspect, is Erdrich’s novel Love Medicine. Many of the characters throughout her novels demonstrate the hardships of being of “mixed-blood,” or not fully Native American. Many of them those characters find it very hard to find a “home” or a place to fit in. The society surrounding them is constantly changing and they aren’t sure where they belong, on the reservation, in the “city,” or nowhere at all. The author also states that in Erdrich’s novels, some of the men had to be the mothers to the children, whether it is because the mother died or the children went to live with a male relative or close family friend. Critics admire Erdrich and her ability to write about the reservations with such truth and respect.  However, she has received criticism as well for her novels like Tracks and The Bingo Palace.

I think this was a pretty good source if a reader was looking for good information about women fiction writers in general. It is really helpful to see the positive and negative criticism of the Erdrich’s novels. I believe it helps you recognize that the authors are real people and that not everyone is going to be a fan, especially critics. This book also helps to better understand some of the feelings the characters are feeling in the novels. For example, loneliness, isolation, not being accepted, etc.

Book

Beidler, Peter G., and Gay Barton. A Reader's Guide to the Novels of Louise Erdrich. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999. Print.

The book, A Reader’s Guide to the Novels of Louise Erdrich, goes into great detail regarding how complex and confusing Erdrich’s novels may be to new readers or read the books out of order. The author compares Erdrich’s writing to that of William Faulkner’s. Erdrich and Faulkner are compared because they both write about “imaginary landscapes.” Erdrich is also very good at producing fictional characters, which is a difficult thing to do at times.

Erdrich is a one of a kind writer. She has the ability to tie the style and language of modern writers as well as bring in “narrative elements from the Ojibwe oral traditions.” Not all fiction writers can do this with their writing. A complex thing about Erdrich’s novels is that her characters appear in every story. If you haven’t read one of her books for awhile, then pick up another and don’t remember the history of the character, you may be slightly confused and lost. There is also a map that helps you understand where all the towns and cities where her novels took place. The authors go into great detail about the geography of Erdrich’s stories. They also went as far as to include genealogy charts of all of the characters to help readers understand the family relationships and keep the characters straight. They do so for Erdrich’s first ten novels. They also compiled a list of the Ojibwe words and phrases that were used in Erdrich’s novels and translated them.

The authors of this book chose to write this in order to help the readers of Louise Erdrich to have a guide to help understand if they have become lost. They figured if the well known critics were to be confused at points in her books, then why wouldn’t students who have to read her novels?

I believe this book would be a great resource to the reader’s who may have been a bit confused at how Erdrich illustrates her novels. I found it to be very interesting. The authors took a lot of time and energy to compile things from all ten of her novels in order to help others. I would definitely suggest this book for readers who become interesting in Louise Erdrich’s writing.

Book

Fallon, Erin. "(Karen) Louise Erdrich." A Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001. 143-153. Print.

In the book, A Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English, there is an entire chapter dedicated to Louise Erdrich. It discusses her biography, criticism on her work and analysis on her short stories and novels. The biography section is fairly small and just gives the most important details of her life. Such as, her parents and how they encouraged her to write as a child, her family history and background, educational background, her career, and her marriage.

The criticism section essentially praises all of her writings, short stories, and novels. It discusses a majority of awards she received as well. The main writing of Erdrich’s that is most talked about is the novel Love Medicine. A majority of the chapters that are now included in the novel were originally written as short stories. The critics are fascinated at how well she presents the information about the culture of her tribe, the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe. Erdrich’s writing techniques are also said to be very similar to William Faulkner’s. one of the opposites in Erdrich and Faulkner’s writings is that his seem to revolve around white characters with a few Indians, while hers revolve centrally around Indians and have a few white characters thrown in.

In the section talking about the analysis of her fiction writings is talks about how she is constantly revising and expanding her short stories. When she does she, she makes them all “intricately connected to each other.” This process she has done is very helpful for when she puts her short stories into a novel form, like Love Medicine. All of her novels revolve around the Chippewa Indians and her European heritage. The author goes very in depth when discussing her short stories and novels.  A description of several of Erdrich’s stories and novels are given.

I thought this was a very helpful chapter especially if you weren’t very familiar with Louise Erdrich and her writings. It gives great details about her novels and what the critics think about a majority of them. Erdrich’s novels and short stories sound really interesting from how they are described in this chapter. It is always interesting and nice to hear critics say good things about novels about Native American’s. especially since there aren’t many Native American writers, especially women writers. 

Journal

McKinney, Karen Janet. "False Miracles and Failed Vision in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine." Critique 40.2 (1999): 152. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 31 Jan. 2011.

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In this article, Karen Janet McKinney critiques the novel Love Medicine. Louise Erdrich believes that Catholicism was a very destructive influence on the Chippewa. McKinney wants the readers to understand the background of the Chippewa’s before reading the novel. She goes very in depth to explain the history of the Catholic missionaries and the Native Americans. Furthermore, she explains the Chippewa’s political and family structure, religion, and their belief on dreams/visions. She also examines the main character and his connection to Erdrich.

McKinney believes that Erdrich is showing her thoughts and feelings on how Catholicism has changed her Chippewa people to be more modern through the main character in the novel. She  found a similarity between Erdrich and the main character, Lipsha. Erdrich’s grandfather, who was a tribal chairman on her reservation, “practiced Catholicism and the traditional Chippewa religion.” Lipsha’s grandfather had turned solely to Catholicism and basically forgot what he was brought up believing in, leaving him knowing nothing but Catholicism. McKinney believes that this different religion/belief their grandfather’s share and the confusion it brought to both of them, brings out a similar quality in them. Whether Erdrich admits it or not, McKinney can tell that she is very angered at what Catholicism did to her people’s culture and it shows in her writings.

It frustrated Erdrich that since Catholicism was introduced, and basically forced upon them, the Chippewa's have completely forgotten about their traditional beliefs. McKinney states that roughly  from the beginning of the book you can tell there won’t be a happy ending to this story. She also refers to Erdrich as a “survivor of a holocaust.”


I think this is a good source to learn more about the novel Love Medicine. I also found it very helpful that McKinney gave background on the Chippewa's. It also showed how the story related to Erdrich's personal life. It is often refreshing to hear that not everything is made up and that authors still put some truth into their novels. 

Journal

Sergi, Jennifer. "Storytelling: Tradition and preservation in Louis Erdrich's Tracks." World Literature Today66.2 (1992): 279. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 31 Jan. 2011.


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In this article, written by Jennifer Sergi, she studies Louise Erdrich’s style and storytelling in her novel Tracks. Sergi describes how Erdrich tells the story of the Chippewa’s and their history and traditions while keeping “the Indian way.” Sergi goes on to describe the two “storytellers” that are portrayed in the novel. The viewpoints are of two very different people. The first is Pauline, who is of “mixed-blood” and a catholic, while the other is Nanapush, one of the wise tribal leaders.

Sergi praises Erdrich for wanting to keep the oral traditions alive by putting them into a story for her readers to appreciate. It isn’t a book full of traditions and myths from the Native Americans, but it is a background and history of them with their traditions mixed in. Nanapush tells the stories to his adopted granddaughter while incorporating her and her life into the stories. Erdrich also incorporates a central character in this novel that is also found in many other Native American myths or traditions. The character is the “trickster” which is very similar to Nanapush. Sergi states that Erdrich seems to be very interested in protecting and portraying the Chippewa background and cultural to her readers.

Sergi finds that there are many authors, usually of the Native American descent, that are very interested in turning the oral traditions into books or short stories in order to carry on their culture. Erdrich uses many descriptive words, phrases, and sentences in her novel to attract the readers and to help them understand how the Chippewa’s felt. Sergi articulates that Erdrich gives the story a “poetic voice” to the novel.


I thought this was a good source because illustrates how Erdrich writes her novels to be truthful and to subconsciously inform her readers of the oral traditions/stories of the Chippewa's. It was also very interesting to read about the "trickster" character. 

Journal

Dutta, Pratima. "Erdrich's THE RED CONVERTIBLE." Explicator 61.2 (2003): 119. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.


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In this article, Pratima Dutta seeks to inform the readers that Louise Erdrich is truly a nationalist. There have been several accusations pointed at Erdrich, including the Native American critics, refuting her of being a Native American writer who doesn’t write about Native American stories. Dutta mentions one of Erdirch’s main accusers, Leslie Marmon Silko, who is also a Native American writer. However, Silko is more extreme than Erdrich in her nationalistic writing and believes Erdrich is “not being nationalistic enough.” Dutta desires to prove to the readers that Erdrich is, in truth, a nationalist.

Dutta describes the short story, “The Red Convertible,” quite in depth. She picks apart all the details in order to help her readers better understand exactly what Erdrich means and to show that “true native spirit can never be lost.” Dutta urges readers to studying this short story with care, in order to fully comprehend what Erdrich intended when she began writing the story.

The two main characters, brothers, in “The Red Convertible” couldn’t be more opposite of each other. One goes off to fight in the Vietnam War, while the other became obsessed with earning money and “western” material objects. When the brother comes back from fighting in the war, their relationship isn’t the same as it used to be. They have both changed, and grown apart. The money loving brother notices how depressed the other has become and tries to help him get back to his old self. However, he uses all of his new western style and objects to try and make him feel better, little does he know it only makes the feelings worse. Dutta gives many examples of how their American Indian spirit is still alive in them, even if it is pushed to the side for a bit.


I think think this is a good source because Dutta is being truthful and tell the readers exactly how she feels about Erdrich's writings. When reading this article I really wanted to pick up the short story and read it. Not all Native American writers can capture the awe and attention of critics as well as Erdrich has with several of her writings.

Website

Wiget, Andrew O. "Classroom Issues and Strategies." Louise Erdrich (Chippewa) (b. 1954). Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2011.


http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/erdrich.html

Andrew O. Wiget discusses the topics of concern with teaching Louise Erdrich's novel, Love Medicine,  in the classroom. He goes into specifics about what details in her novel may need to be looked at and explained thoroughly to the students, whether they are high school or college aged. Provided that the book is centered on the Government trying to change the Native American’s into Anglo-Americans, he feels that the students should be taught exactly how Indian reservations were like in the 1930’s. Religion is also a big element in the novel. They thought this was a sure fire way to force the Native American’s to convert.

Wiget clearly states several things he thinks should be spent a great deal of time helping the students to understand about the novel. He does not want the students to interpret something the way it shouldn’t be. He shares two major themes and describes them to help others understand. He ends the article with discussions questions that I felt were really helpful to better understanding Erdrich and her writing style.

This article is very helpful when trying to understand the novel Love Medicine and its many characters and complex details. Wiget does a good job explaining everything in details that younger people can comprehend and apply it. It also gives background information on the religion aspect of the Native Americans and describes how their reservations were.