This is me exercising my right to give up on a book that I just am not enjoying.
This is me giving up on trying to enjoy Louise Erdrich’s books (this is the second one I’ve disliked).
This is me not writing what I really think about this book (though Hubby dared me to).
I had fairly high hopes for this one. I know I didn’t like Birchbark House, but I figured maybe it was that because Erdrich is usually an adult-fiction writer, that she just didn’t quite know how to write well for kids. It’s not that she doesn’t write well — some of her passages were quite beautiful. It’s just that there was nothing else. And after a while I lost interest in the whole first section — the story of Faye and how she came to have the drum. So, I skimmed to the second section, the story of how the drum came to be, hoping that it would be better. It was, but only marginally. And not enough for me to even care about the last two sections of the book. I wasn’t moved, I wasn’t touched, I wasn’t captivated.
So, I abandoned it. I’ve got better things to do with my time.
The Book Nut 
I love your honesty, Melissa. I really do 🙂
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I’ve tried two of her books and could not get interested in them at all. I think it’s good that you abandoned it if you weren’t feeling the book love – there are many other books waiting for you I am sure!
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So true. It’s just not worth the time wasted if you don’t love the book. Good for you!
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It’s a hard thing to do for a professed lover of books – the walking away, I mean. Sometimes it takes a bit of resolve. Good for you!
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It is SO HARD FOR ME to give up on a book. When I do, I’m always proud of myself for choosing how to spend my time 🙂 Good for you. I mostly liked The Last Report on the Miracles… by her, and I thought Birchbark house was okay. I haven’t tried any others.
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Karen here. I have read, reread and taught Erdrich’s Love Medine. It’s quite good, as is her novel Tracks. I didn’t like Bingo Palace, and the reviews for subsequent novels have not tempted me to read more. However, I strongly recomment Love Medicine for it’s multiperspectivity; it’s themes of love, family, fidelity, and heroism; and it’s insights into the struggles of 20th Century native americans. With an “ensemble” cast, the main character is really more the race and the diversity of lived experiences and identities. The novel Tracks has more mysticism of the Old Ways. I love that novel, too. But Erdrich of late seems to be getting self-indulgent.
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