Rating: 
Summary: The Best Yet
Review: I loved this book! It is full and rich with interesting plots and subplots; the characters are fully developed. Erdrich's German ancestors inspired the novel, apparently, which is the story of a German butcher who marries his dead friend's pregnant girlfriend after returning from WWI, immigrates to America, and settles in a small N. Dakota town. Erdrich's great storytelling skill shines here--her best book yet!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Entertaining Read!
Review: I loved this book. It's characters were so off the beaten track that it reminded me of some of John Irving's works (Hotel New Hampshire). Great character development and unpredictable events. This book hooked me right from the beginning.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading Erdrich's other books. There is a clear sense of the uniqueness of the European-born and Native American characters living in close proximity to each other in the unlikely setting of North Dakota. The depictions of Eva and Delphine are particularly well done, leaving the reader with a clear sense of their unique identities and histories. There is a generosity of spirit between these two characters and a sense that they were fated to be an inherent part of each other's lives before they met. The descriptions that Erdich uses are extrememly well done, allowing us as readers to get a full sense of the characters and the landscape in which they interact. This is a book with passages to be savored.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but runs out of steam
Review: I thought this was a good book - plenty of interesting characters and situations and an interesting writing style, but I couldn't help get the feeling that the author got tired of writing it. It lost it's steam towards the last 1/3 or so of the book. It goes into "fast forward" mode and the important relationships that are formed and intense happenings are merely skimmed over. The characters became impersonal and therefore hard to identify with. Great potential of a book that unfortunately lost it's steam towards the end.
Rating:
Summary: A Rich Tale
Review: I was absorbed with this story from page one. It is a wonderful tapestry of characters whose stories weave in and out with humor, tragedy and suspense. Erdrich is a marvelous story teller
and makes every action rich and appealing. I poured through this story with such satisfaction that I will read other books by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoy this trip to Argus, N.D. --- you won't be disappointed
Review: It is impossible to escape the past. There are a hundred quiet reminders of this in Louise Erdrich's lyrical new novel, THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB: the weight of the butcher knives that help pay Fidelis's way to America; the stain that cannot be scrubbed out of the bed he shares with his first wife, Eva; the town drunk father of Eva's best friend, Delphine, who cannot stay off the sauce; and the physical scars from World War I on Delphine's friend Cyprian, which don't compare to the emotional ones. Erdrich's book examines them all and, through her two strong heroines, drives to one conclusion. No matter where you come from, you must always move forward --- you must remember the past without becoming crippled by it. This is certainly a point close to Erdrich's heart. After all, her real-life husband killed himself in the midst of a sexual abuse investigation several years ago. If anyone knows how to impart these lessons, it's this half-German, half-Native American author. The story chronicles two very different women and their eventual intersection. The German Eva marries the butcher Fidelis after World War I. Fidelis, an expert sniper, was best friends with Eva's fiancé --- killed during the war --- and the two soon embark for a fresh start in America. They settle in Argus, North Dakota, a town well known to Erdrich fans. Meanwhile, we are introduced to Delphine, daughter of the drunken Roy, mother unknown. Delphine returns to town after running away with Cyprian, a mysterious half-French, half-Indian balancer with a sexual identity crisis. She and Cyprian settle into normal Argus life once more --- as normal as life can be after discovering three bodies in your father's cellar and your supposed boyfriend's preference for men. Eva and Delphine form a deep friendship despite a limited time together; it's not giving anything away to reveal that Eva dies early of cancer. How Delphine deals with her pain and helps her friend's family of four sons and Fidelis survive becomes the focus of the book. Erdrich tells wonderful stories and sketches intimate pictures of her decidedly non-stock characters. Everyone has a unique identity and unique emotions. All of them, from the town's other butcher to the sheriff to the mortician, are intriguing. It's so rare to encounter a book without a clichéd character --- that's reason enough to love this novel. But there are other reasons, too. History books can't compare to this picture of early 20th-century life. The book fleshes out the personal aspects of both world wars, the horrors of which are too often obscured by the more recent Vietnam War. The melding of so many new and old world events proves fascinating. And the symbolism of the Master Butchers Singing Club itself will fuel a thousand book group discussions. The book's one true fault is the lack of palpable tension between the two characters who are supposed to have it --- Fidelis and Delphine. The untapped passion that supposedly exists between them never climbs above lukewarm. Since Erdrich presents everything else so deliberately, perhaps this is more calculated than it comes off; whatever the reason, it doesn't inhibit the storyline. THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB presents a fully realized world with morally complex characters and very few certainties. Very few trips are as interesting as those to Argus, N.D. --- Reviewed by Toni Fitzgerald
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Novel with Unforgettable Characters
Review: It's a complete cliche to say that a book sticks with you long after you've turned the last page, but that is precisely the impact that the The Master Butchers Singing Club has had upon me. Delphine and Fidelis (the singing butcher of the title) are two of the most idiosyncratic and memorable characters I've ever encountered in fiction. Louise Erdrich depicts the entire spectrum of emotion in two essentially stoic people and simply breaks your heart. In the hard scrabble life desribed in this novel, a man shoots a pack of wild dogs to show his love for his sons and grief for his dead wife. The town drunk shows a lethal pettiness and then pulls himself together to sing songs of comfort to a dying woman. It is the moral complexity of these people that sticks with you for days. Some reviewers have complained that characters come into the novel and then disappear, but that is part of the novel's point. The book is the story of Delphine's life. Just as in any life, people come into her world and then move on. Her life feels more real, and less like fiction, because some loose ends are left to dangle. Not every character has an ultimate resolution. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Rating:
Summary: A Muddled Mess
Review: Lack of focus and overripe writing tarnishes this bleak story, which ostensibly follows Fidelis Waldvogel from the front lines of WWI to the new world of America, and on through life until WWII. I say ostensibly because after a very effective opening section detailing Fidelis' action as a sniper, subsequent marriage to his dead best friend's pregnant widow, and journey to America to establish himself as a butcher, he fades far into the background. Delphine Watzka takes over the role of protagonist as the book follows her down a wearying life path as friend to Fidelis' wife, caretaker to her own alcoholic father, half of a vaudeville duo with a part Ojibwa Indian, and into a late marriage. The bulk of the book is set in Argus, North Dakota, a fictional town appearing in several of Erdrich's other books, where Fidelis sets up shop as an old world master butcher. There's plenty going on in the small town, such as the mystery of how exactly some people were killed in Delphine's father's basement long ago. Not to mention the mystery of who her mother is. Plus, there's her unrequited love for her partner Cyprian Lazarre, who harbors a rather obvious secret of his own. Let's not forget that much of the book takes place during the Great Depression, so there's plenty of misery to go around. And, oh yes, there's the long, drawn out illness of another central figure, with all kinds of ramifications. It's life, sort of. More like melodrama masquerading as life. However, there's so much going on with Delphine, and so many other subplots that there's no focus to the story, and it ends up feeling thrown together. A judicious weeding out of one of the nonessential subplots (such as the murder mystery) would have helped matters a great deal. Delphine reigns though it all as an supernaturally compassionate and resilient heroine, almost as if the book was written specifically for women of a certain age who have been hard done by. It's a shame, because the first part is quite interesting, and there are engaging moments scattered throughout.
Rating: 
Summary: The Master Butchers Singing Club
Review: Let me start by saying that I have been a fan of Louise Erdrich's for years. Her unique prosaic language, Native-American/mixed-blood characters, and midwestern landscape are awesome. However, I thought this book was worse than Crown of Columbus! It was so of cheap and tawdry, like an episode of the Gerry Springer Show. The story was boring and more predictable than a tabloid story. This book has caused me to conclude that Erdrichs best novels are The Beet Queen, Tracks, and Love Medicine. After those, this "exploration of gender issues" as late is pretty damned hoaky!
Rating:
Summary: Good sense of place, great characters, but weak plot.
Review: Louise Erdich's latest novel has some wonderful characters, each one with his or her own horrific memories. I found myself feeling all their emotional upheavals as they played out their lives in a small town in North Dakota beginning in the 1920s. The sense of place is wonderful. But it's the people who are unforgettable. There's Fidelis Waldvogel, a German butcher who has seen death and disaster in WW1. And there's Eva, his wife, and their four sons. There's Delphine, who we first meet doing a vaudeville act with Cyprian, a good looking man who can never me more than a platonic friend. There's Roy Watzka, Delphine's father, the town drunk. And Delphine's friend Clarisse the town undertaker. And then there is the mysterious woman who roams the streets collecting junk. They all have stories, and all have secrets. And as their stories unravel I found myself drawn right into their little town with its rhythms and realities and disasters. Their lives certainly aren't simple. There's mystery and murder and natural disasters. And just plain human weakness. Time passes, the children grow. WW2 looms. The stories grow more complex. Always they are fascinating and I found it hard to put the book down. The author's descriptions of people and places are rich and dramatic. She's a wonderful writer. Some of the parts towards the end dragged. Also, like life itself, not all of the threads of stories were ever completed. Some questions raised went answered. But then there was a surprise last chapter, which pulled a lot of the mystery together. In spite of its few weakness, however, I loved the book and couldn't stop reading it.
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