The Round House

Although I previously read this book in 2013, I remembered almost none of it. Which is a sad commentary on my mental state at that time; I was going through some health and other personal issues at the time and am not totally surprised I was checked out.

With that said, this book is well worth reading more than once and not just because it won a National Book Award in 2012 or because my Great Books book club selected the novel for our March read.

Each book I read by Louise Erdrich is full of humor, pathos, and very real characters (from the main characters to the most side of side characters) and I end the books wanting to hear more of her voice and go to her book store in North Dakota, Birchbark Books. This particular book is also a coming-of-age novel about a young Ojibwe teenager named Joe Coutts, what it means to be a true friend, the plague of crimes against indigenous women, contemporary Ojibwe culture, the complex legal authority and sovereignty affecting different indigenous Americans living on and near reservations, and a huge family tragedy. Okay, and a lot more.

My edition included an interview with the author at the end. Here are a few other interesting videos related to this book:

PBS News Hour conversation with Louise Erdrich after the book release: https://www.pbs.org/video/pbs-newshour-conversation-louise-erdrich-author-of-the-round-house/

Louise Erdrich short reading from novel on PBS NewsHour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVgqde1XQI

Montgomery Foundation of Dartmouth Reading and Conversation with Louise Erdrich: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK9G0ydx12M