(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Contemporary Fiction Views: Louise Erdrich writes of community and growing things [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-19 Louise Erdrich writes about families, groups of families and the land. They all play a prominent role in her latest novel, The Mighty Red. Crystal is one of the core members of the community in this story. She drives a truck at night, hauling sugar beets to be processed. It's hard work but she, her husband Martin and their daughter Kismet are getting by. Crystal is the one holding them together since Martin lives for the theater. That's instead of focusing on his financial clients, including investing the church funds. Their daughter, Kismet, is sought by various boys, from the quarterback son of the area's most successful sugar beet farmer to the nerdy son of the used bookstore owner. The quarterback, Gary, is being smothered by his obsessive mother, Winnie, after a party last year. The nerd, Hugo, has decided to seek his fortune elsewhere and come back to win Kismet. Even after she felt pressured to agree to Gary's second proposal. The wedding and early months of the young couple's marriage are the center of the novel's action. But the circles around them form the story of how and why the characters do what they do and feel what they feel. Tied to just about everything is what the pesticides and controlled crops are doing to the land. And what the land is doing to the people. Erdrich writes of the upheavals, the comings and goings of living things that have taken their sustenance from the Red River, of death and the possibility of renewal. The characters' lives reflect this as they carry on. That most of them are doing the best they can with what is thrown at them shows the quiet strength in people. Quiet strength, carrying on, finding new ways to do one's best are empowering qualities regardless of the times. But in these times, they may well be essential. -------------------------------— Since reading is an act of resistance, here are some new books to consider diving into. Links are to The Literate Lizard and blurbs are from the publishers. Tops is the latest Haruki Murakami: The City and Its Uncertain Walls From the bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World comes a love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, and a parable for these peculiar times. The long-awaited new novel from Haruki Murakami, his first in six years, revisits a Town his readers will remember, a place where a Dream Reader reviews dreams and where our shadows become untethered from our selves. A love story, a quest, an ode to books and to the libraries that house them, and a parable for these strange post-pandemic times, The City and Its Uncertain Walls is a singular and towering achievement by one of modern literature’s most important writers. An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth by Anna Moschovaki Novelist and poet, Anna Moschovakis's translation of David Diop’s Frêre d’âme (At Night All Blood Is Black) won the 2021 International Booker Prize. After a seismic event leaves the world shattered, an unnamed narrator at the end of a mediocre acting career struggles to regain the ability to walk on ground that is in constant motion. When her alluring younger housemate, Tala, disappears, what had begun as an obsession grows into an impulse to kill, forcing the narrator to confront the meaning of the ruptures that have suddenly upended her life. The drive to find and eliminate Tala becomes an existential pursuit, leading back in time and out into a desolate, dust-covered city, where the narrator is targeted by charismatic “healing” ideologues with uncertain motives. Torn between a gnawing desire to reckon with the forces that have made her and an immediate need to find the stability to survive, she is forced to question familiar figurations of light, shadow, authenticity, resistance, and the limits of personal transformation in an alienated, alienating world. Time of the Child by Niall Williams Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man. But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter’s lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever. Brightly Shining by Ingvild Rishøi Christmas is just around the corner, and Ronja and Melissa’s dreamer of a father is out of work again. When ten-year-old Ronja hears about a job at a Christmas tree stand near where the family lives in central Oslo, she thinks it might be the stroke of luck they all need. Soon, the fridge fills with food, and their father returns home with money in his pocket and a smile on his face. But one evening he disappears into the night under the pretense of buying Christmas gifts—and the daughters know he has gone to his favorite local pub, Stargate, and they come to terms with the fact that he may lose his wonderful new job. Melissa decides to take his place at the Christmas tree stand, working before and after school in the December afternoon dark, and brings along Ronja, who quickly charms all the middle-class customers. On rare breaks the sisters dream of a brighter place of kindness and plenty, and find help from some of those around them—but both understand that their family structure is a precarious one, and that they are going to need luck and strength to transcend their circumstances. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/19/2287144/-Contemporary-Fiction-Views-Louise-Erdrich-writes-of-community-and-growing-things?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/