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I hardly ever write up my reading because I want to write something better than I can with just a little time. Then I regret it later—I can no longer remember which books I read in 2024, for the most part! So I'm turning over a new leaf. (heh heh! I never understood what "turn over a new leaf" meant until the mid-80s, when Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" had "turned over a new leaf / then tore right through it"—until that moment, I thought the metaphor had to do with trees!)
Louise Erdrich's The Night Watchman, written in 2020, was the first novel I finished reading this year. I'm not sure I had read anything by her before, but I may look for more.
One of the two main characters is based on her own grandfather and how he fought the 1953 Termination Bill. I didn't even know that there had been such a bill. Arthur V. Watkins, of Utah, really did sponsor a resolution to eliminate Native American reservations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and all the services they provided; and force Native Americans to assimilate. He really seems like a mustache-twirling villain, except without a mustache.
While learning of the bill and trying to save the tribe—their land, their jobs, their schools, their ability to live together— are major parts of the novel, the interwoven plots are also very personal. Thomas Wazhashk tries to balance his work for his tribe and against the bill while holding down a job as night watchman at the real Turtle Mountain Jewel Bearing Plant and farming. His niece Patrice (who does not want to be called Pixie! even though everyone does) works at the plant but wants to find her sister Vera, who moved to Minneapolis with her husband, had a baby, and then ceased all contact. Patrice also does not want the attentions of some besmitten young men.
The novel kept surprising me, in good ways. I became very attached to Thomas and Patrice, and Millie Cloud, a grad student whose white mother didn't want her to have too much to do with her Native father, but who makes connections when asked to help. Millie is neurospicy (which DW really does not want to let me type!) The tensions between traditional ways and modern life are very much at play without easy answers.
Louise Erdrich's The Night Watchman, written in 2020, was the first novel I finished reading this year. I'm not sure I had read anything by her before, but I may look for more.
One of the two main characters is based on her own grandfather and how he fought the 1953 Termination Bill. I didn't even know that there had been such a bill. Arthur V. Watkins, of Utah, really did sponsor a resolution to eliminate Native American reservations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and all the services they provided; and force Native Americans to assimilate. He really seems like a mustache-twirling villain, except without a mustache.
While learning of the bill and trying to save the tribe—their land, their jobs, their schools, their ability to live together— are major parts of the novel, the interwoven plots are also very personal. Thomas Wazhashk tries to balance his work for his tribe and against the bill while holding down a job as night watchman at the real Turtle Mountain Jewel Bearing Plant and farming. His niece Patrice (who does not want to be called Pixie! even though everyone does) works at the plant but wants to find her sister Vera, who moved to Minneapolis with her husband, had a baby, and then ceased all contact. Patrice also does not want the attentions of some besmitten young men.
The novel kept surprising me, in good ways. I became very attached to Thomas and Patrice, and Millie Cloud, a grad student whose white mother didn't want her to have too much to do with her Native father, but who makes connections when asked to help. Millie is neurospicy (which DW really does not want to let me type!) The tensions between traditional ways and modern life are very much at play without easy answers.
( Spoilers )