LaRose by Louise Erdrich – 370 pages

Book Blurb:

The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux’s five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux’s wife, Emmaline, is half sister to Dusty’s mother, Nola. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. “Our son will be your son now,” they tell them. LaRose is quickly absorbed into his new family. Plagued by thoughts of suicide, Nola dotes on him, keeping her darkness at bay. His fierce, rebellious new “sister,” Maggie, welcomes him as a co conspirator who can ease her volatile mother’s terrifying moods. Gradually he’s allowed shared visits with his birth family, whose sorrow mirrors the Raviches’ own. As the years pass, LaRose becomes the linchpin linking the Irons and the Raviches, and eventually their mutual pain begins to heal.

My Review: 3.5 stars

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LaRose, another wonderfully imagined story by acclaimed author Louise Erdrich, was a slow paced yet  fascinating story. A tragic accident is the catalyst to which the story unfolds and the circumstances that surround it. With stories from the past and current day, the reader is slowly introduced to all the pieces of the pie in the small Native American town.

I was more intrigued with LaRose’s situation as he was displaced and then shared between families. This took the situational and emotional distress of a child of divorce, who travels from house to house every weekend, to a whole new level. This boy was a sacrificial lamb to atone for the his father’s accident. Heartbreaking. I was in a hurry to skip the other plot lines to learn more about how LaRose, so wise beyond his years, was faring.

The book covers tradition, marriage, race, addiction, forgiveness, mental illness, tribal folklore and a hint of mysticism. I enjoyed the premise of this book and many of the themes mentioned above, but it moved at too slow a pace for me.

Quotes I liked:

“Getting blown up happened in an instant; getting put together took the rest of your life.”

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