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Summary: I didn't want this book to end.
Review: The moment I finished this book, I turned back to the first page and reread the first two chapters. I did not want to leave the world of Delphine, Fidelis and the townspeople of Argus. This book has many themes, but I was so struck by Erdrich's lyrical rendering of the different types of love. From her beautifully poignant depiction of Delphine's friendship with Eva to her descriptions of the complex and evolving relationships between Delphine and Cyprian, Roy and Fidelis, Erdrich shows us again that humans have a vast capacity for love that often transcends logic. My new favorite book.
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Summary: Compelling and authentic
Review: The portrayal of the prairie and small town North Dakota and German immigrants rings true and the story is compelling but lots of novels have great setting and compelling characters. What is it about some stories told by some authors that make you part of the tale and participant in the emotional landscape of the characters? I don't know what makes this happen in this story but it does. I read it in Mexico, on vacation, near the beach, and when I looked up from the book I expected to be in North Dakota. The palm trees were a bit disconcerting. I recommend it without reservation.
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Summary: In my top 25 books of all time!
Review: This book is wonderful! The characters are richly developed. The plot is complex and unpredictable. I haven't been so pleased with a book in years! I give this book the highest rating and have added it to my all time favorites list. Don't let the title scare you away! Erdrich is a master writer. You won't be able to put this one down. I stayed up late and woke up early because I couldn't resist diving deeper into the story. I was even tempted to read at traffic lights (red of course). A GREAT READ!!!
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Summary: Patchwork
Review: This book was a bit of disappointment. I expected more substance --- if you will forgive the pun --- I expected more meat. It was like a patchwork quilt with bright areas of excellent word-crafting and insight,while the rest was just old worn material. It wasn't unpleasant reading. I was just left with the thought, "Was this the whole story?"
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Summary: Where's a Good Editor When You Need One?
Review: This book was a great disappointment to me. True, the characters were fascinating oddballs, but the plot was a tangled mess. There was nothing to pull the whole story together--too many unanswered questions; characters' motives were not clear; new subplots seemed to spring out of the blue. It seemed as if Erdrich forgot from time to time about some of her characters--there were just too many even for the author to keep track of! Meanwhile, sentences were awkward and meandering, and the plot veered toward melodrama. Still, I did finish the book. The characters kept me interested, if not engaged. What would have helped is a smart editor who could have slashed a few subplots and cleaned up the flowery language.
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Summary: Too Many, Too Much
Review: This book would have been much improved by some careful editing. I agree with an earlier reviewer who termed it "a mess" -- there were far too many plotlines and characters. Do we truly need to know so much about the undertaker-assistant friend? the sheriff? A clear focus on the Waldvogel family, or Delphine, showing how aspects of their lives developed, would have made this a much more interesting book.
Much worse for an author of Erdrich's experience and caliber is the fact that we are told so many things about each character's life, rather than having them naturally develop from the story. "Show, not tell" is a basic principle of fiction writing, and I can't count the number of times we didn't have this here. When I think of the clarity of some of her earlier works, such as "Tracks" and "Beet Queen," I am saddened and disappointed.
Also, much of the writing was seriously overwrought. A woman is described as "seething, like a waft of town sewer gas down the street." This is just one of many cringe-inducing phrases. I hate to say it, but if the person who wrote this book wasn't already a well-established and famous author, I find it hard to believe a publisher would have accepted it -- at least without some serious rewriting.
Erdrich has done some fine work. I went back to "Tracks" and found myself moved and truly impressed by both the spare, beautiful quality of her writing as well as the story. Perhaps she should return to her stylistic roots.
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Summary: This is life
Review: This complex tale is about a master butcher, his singing club, and about a million other things (true love, war, circus performers, mysterious deaths, friendship ...). It doesn't idealize life but rather shows the simple beauty and suffering in everyday life.At times, it's hard to tell who the story is about, exactly, because it's about so many people (but not so many as to get confusing). Just when you think, "aha! this is all about Fidelis," the story switches over to Step-and-a-Half or some other character who seemed minor previously. I sometimes wished the story focused on fewer characters, but in the end, I realized that this is life -- everyone has their own story -- and I appreciated the richness of each character's contribution. I highly recommend this book. Somehow, this story of a time long ago when life was simpler and harder, brought me peace and a longing to slow down and enjoy life more. About the CDs (I "read" this book on CD): at first, I didn't care for Erdrich's reading style -- airy, slow, and sometimes accentuating the wrong words. But the more I listened, the more I became completely hooked and couldn't wait to listen more. Erdrich's reading enriched the drama beautifully.
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Summary: Thank You, Ms. Erdrich
Review: This is an awesome book. Even after several weeks, I still think of the characters. One other reviewer called Delphine "dry as toast." I couldn't disagree more. I wouldn't change a word of this novel-it is that special. I can only ask for a sequel!!!!
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Summary: Erdrich is on the top of her game
Review: This novel is a departure for Louise Erdrich in that The Master Butchers Singing Club focuses on the German side of her heritage and only deals with Native American characters on the periphery. Erdrich has been my favorite author ever since I read Love Medicine while in college. Her newest novel does not disappoint at all. The novel follows two people, Fidelis and Delphine. We first meet Fidelis shortly after World War I. He is a German and is going home to meet the fiancé of his best friend in the war. He marries Eva and they move to America and end up living in Argus, North Dakota. He works first in Pete Kozka's butcher shop (we meet Pete in her earlier novel The Beet Queen ), and later opens his own shop. Delphine is a native of Argus and is living with an Indian named Cyprian Lazarre (a family well know in Erdrich's work for dishonesty), who happens to be a homosexual. The paths of Fidelis and Delphine cross and their lives become intertwined in several different ways. Erdrich's gifts as a storyteller only seem to be getting stronger as she continues to write novels. This is an excellent novel. She is a master storyteller. While few novels will match up to The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse , this is a first rate novel and is essential reading for anyone who enjoys reading Erdrich or excellent novels.
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Summary: Unfocused story
Review: This novel started out following Fidelis, a German man, whose best friend served with him and died in World War Two: Fidelis returns home, bathes for the first time in years (finally cleansed and shell-shocked, even the sun hurts him), marries his friend's pregnant fiance, and travels to America with his luggage full of sausage. His plan is to sell the sausage to pay his ticket-fare to Seattle, where he hopes to settle. This 25-page section is evocative, full of imagery and empathy for the character, witty, and imaginative. Then Fidelis, as a character, nearly disappears for the rest of the book. The novel instead turns its focus on Delphine, a woman whose father is a drunk and who never knew her mother. Delphine is travelling as part of an acrobatics act with her partner, a part-Obijwe, who also served in WWII. He is also, as we learn later, a homosexual. The scenes which focus on the gay acrobat are evocative, full of insight and empathy for his repressed longing, and alive with emotion. Delphine returns home with the acrobat and moves in with her drunk father Roy, who -- for gratuitious narrative reasons -- has a cellar full of dead people. Delphine goes to work for Fidelis and meets his wife, Eva, who eventually is stricken with cancer. In a glorious scene, a dying Eva rides in an airplane with her son (against the wishes of her husband) and feels an intense joy for being able to "fly" but also an intensified pain, from the cancer. This scene, which shows how the spirt can never separate itself from the body, is evocative, painfully realistic, sad, and full of empathy. Eventually, Eva dies and Delphine, out of concern for the boys, begins to mother them. One of the boys digs a hole in the ground, and, surrounded by earth, for the first time feels both at rest and able to fully feel the pain of his mother's (Eva's) death. This scene, which merges the human (emotions) with the natural (the earth,) is gloriously resonant. Eventually, 2 of Fidelis's boys are taken back to Germany, the acrobat leaves, and Delphine's father, Roy, falls off the wagon again. Delphine marries Fidelis and takes care of her dying father. Just before he dies, Roy tells Delphine who her mother is: she was an Indian woman who survived a massacre. The end of the novel, for the firs time since the opening, narrates events NOT from Delphine's perspective. This closing scene takes place in the past: in it, we learn that Roy is not Delphine's father; instead, a homeless hobo woman rescued an abandoned baby and brought it to Roy to raise. The homeless woman was the Indian of Roy's story, the woman he was in love with his whole life. This scene left me floored. Noticing a pattern? Whenever the narrative focuses on Delphine, the writing is competent, character development is adequate, and plotting is unoriginal. When Erdrich focuses on one of her minor characters, the story comes alive, resonant with heartache, pain, hope, and love. Why in God's name she chose to focus the bulk of the narrative on dull-as-toast Delphine is beyond me.
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