Information Systems Manager Will Duke recommends The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich.
One of the many things I enjoy about the Erdrich universe is the way she shifts between characters from book to book, each presenting unique and often opposing points of view. For the past few decades, she has bounced around the communities of Argus, Pluto, and Hoopdance, generally with the Turtle Mountain Reservation as a backdrop. Her novels explore these towns through the eyes of different inhabitants. The often-opposing perspectives of the characters are a delight for attentive readers.
It’s world creation on a grand scale.
In The Mighty Red, Erdrich takes us to a new fictional town, Tabor, in the Red River Valley. This time, she doesn’t make us wait for the next novel to give us these different perspectives. Whether it’s the daughter, the mother, the father, the boyfriend, the other boyfriend, the mother-in-law, or the friend – who plays a dual role as both her friend and her boyfriend’s friend – these characters have a lot to say and do. While Erdrich turns these characters loose on each other, literally, she uses each one to build the community of the novel.
She gets each of them to divulge a piece of the hidden event, because it’s a small town, and everybody knows everyone else’s business.
As the plot unfolds, so too does the complexity of the characters’ – and humanity’s – relationship with the land itself. These characters wrestle with the financial and health realities of farming, but Erdrich also brings in the wildlife around them, and the very dirt under their feet. This is no utopian or dystopian view of farming. Erdrich presents a nuanced, multifaceted exploration of its realities.
And as if that weren’t enough, this all happens in the midst of the 2008 financial meltdown.
Now, I’m not going to reveal the event at the center of the story – that’s the highest of crimes in my book – but I will say you might want to plan for a second pass through this novel. There are a lot of characters, relationships, and philosophies. And a lot of plot. A second read will treat the reader to all the subtle hints that were there all along, but also the sheer joy of reading Louise’s prose. Yes, I’m going to use her first name. With an author of this caliber, you just know them by the way they write, and Louise clearly wants to be on a first name basis with her readers – or at least, that’s how it feels to me.
The overall effect is a wonderful mosaic of the complex interconnectedness of a small-town community. Looking back, I feel like I’m seeing the town and its denizens through a stained-glass window.
I have been reading Louise Erdrich since college. I will never be able to thank her enough for the amusement – and wisdom? – old Nanapush has given me. Nanapush doesn’t show up this time, but I always feel like he’s hiding in each shadow and behind every rock.
Finally, every time I talk about Louise, everyone in the room wrestles with how to pronounce her name. I recently watched an interview where Louise explained it herself. Her name comes from her German father and is pronounced Ur-drik. You’re welcome.
Note: Will Duke will be leading a discussion of The Mighty Red for the Library’s Book Club on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. in the Programs Studio. More/register here.
Find it in our collection in print, ebook, eaudiobook, and on CD here.
