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.