Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read!
Review: I read this my first Erdrich novel after a writer whose opinion I respect recommended her. This is the tale of Jack Mauser and his many wives-- maybe five altogether. The plot has as many twists and turns as a blizzard in North Dakota where much of the action occurs. Watch for what Ms. Erdrich does with the title near the end of the book. She's always ahead of us. At times I thought that Jack isn't worth all the attention he gets from his women. He is after all a drunk, a womanizer and a cheater in business, truly one of the types that George and Tammy sang about. But his women often get the upper hand, sometimes quite literally. One of them in order to show Jack that "it hurts to be a girl," ties him up and plucks out most of his facial hair in what has to be one of the funniest scenes I've read in a long time. The story, sometimes outlandish, probably wouldn't have worked with someone with less talent. But these characters with all their warts breathe. I never doubted for a moment their humanity. Erdrich is wonderful at describing a character with few words -- or with many if the occasion calls for it. Finally, don't you have to love a writer who says that "no blue is ordinary. Blue is the stuff of the soul"?
Rating: 
Summary: Like wading through a snowstorm
Review: I usually enjoy Ms. Erdrich's writing. In fact, I enjoyed the her phases, sentences and word choices throughout Tales of Burning Love but I had a real difficult time with this one. At times (very few times) the book had me rivited to my seat. -Jack Mauser trying to meet an old love in a convent. A house burning with Jack inside. A snowstorm. But too often this novel bogged down. Patching together the stories of the wives become difficult for me. If you've never read Louse Erdrich try The Beet Queen or Love Medicine.
Rating: 
Summary: Tales of Soft Core
Review: Interesting approach ending the book with an act of intercourse. I didn't see the delight in this novel: the mention of tribality was sporatic and irrelevant, who really believed Jack was part of the reservation? Creative approaches to how many versions of "love" Erdrich could invent. The only thing that won these three stars was the surprise ties to The Bingo Palace and Last Report whereso I kept running around trying to find the old passages and make the final connections. Ans also, Erdrich's hold on religion is simply beautiful, ans who knew Pauline, er, LEopolda would find her way into ANOTHER book.
Too many lengthy anecdotes, and for 456 pages, I hope you don't have to read this for a class. Great writer, not so great book.
Rating:
Summary: Better
Review: Louise Erdrich has written a spell-binding tale that overall, grabs the reader's interest and keeps it. She seems best, however, at describing the landscape (with an almost lyrical, poetic manner) than at developing a solid and coherent plot. I found the relationship between Marlis and Candice to be unbelievable, and the entire Eleanor-thing was also a little perplexing. I am disappointed in how Erdrich describes Fargo. Her descriptions are basically those of a late 1940's Fargo, and certainly does not jibe with what Fargo, North Dakota, is like nowadays. Makes me wonder if she's been up here lately. Perhaps she ought to pay a visit before writing a novel about it.
Rating:
Summary: Better off reading _Love Medicine_
Review: Louise Erdrich is a fine, accomplished writer. Somehow, it seemed to me that this novel exhibited signs of subject exhaustion. I believe that _Love Medicine_ is proof that Erdrich should be held in high regard as a writer, as the talent is truly there. That work also served as a template for some of her later works, a fact which I am a bit disappointed by since I feel that none of them have achieved the same level of poetic impact. _Tales of Burning Love_ is well written, but I feel that the story drags in places, and can be tedious to sit through; it helped that I read the majority of it while riding the bus. I was sorry to see her using the same characters again. They are strong, worthy, and well-developed characters, but in the context of this particular story they seemed more contrived.
Rating:
Summary: Louise Erdrich has written her most commercial work to date.
Review: Louise Erdrich is a masterful novelist, capable of writing spellbinding prose and developing complex, wonderfully human characters. In *Tales of Burning Love*, all of these talents are apparent, and the novel is, if nothing else, a "good read." If some of her past works have tended toward a plodding pace and an ethereal kind of tone, this one is different in that it finds Ehrlich creating a veritable snowstorm of action and events. In fact, there are so many bizarre twists and turns, so many eerie occurrences laden with ironies and sly twists of fate that one suspects that Erdrich may here be trying to broaden her audience so as to make her work more commercially successful. It was this shift toward the tawdry, the sensational, and the lowest common denominator in terms of target audience that I found myself resenting by the end of the book. The male protagonist, Jack Mauser, has few or no redeeming qualities, as far as I can discern. He's cruel, moody, unstable, and neither terribly bright nor sensitive. Yet one of the principal premises of the book is that this man is veritably irresistible to a variety of women, four of whom he marries. Perhaps this makes the book a "woman's book," inasmuch as some female readers might find some point of identity with these women in the way that they just can't help loving this jerk, despite their better judgment. But I found the whole swirl of affections and passions surrounding Jack Mauser annoying and unconvincing. Even at her worst, Louise Erdrich is a terrific novelist, and this novel is well worth reading simply for the masterful way that Erdrich tells a story, makes transitions, and creates moods and visions. But this is not her best novel.
Rating:
Summary: Louise Erdrich's best yet!
Review: This is Louise Erdrich's latest novel, newly released in paperback. Though it ties into the books of the Beet Queen Trilogy, it is not really a sequel, and is a good introduction to Erdrich's work for those who are unfamiliar with it. But if you are an Erdrich fan, as I am, you'll enjoy meeting Dot, Leonora and Gerry again.
What would happen if a man's four wives were trapped in a car during a snowstorm, unsure if they would ever get out alive? They would tell stories about him, of course! And interspersed with their stories about Jack Mauser, this infuriating man that they all--in their way--still love, we hear the womens' own stories of survival, pain, passion and laughter. There's intellectual Eleanor, taking refuge in a convent house in North Dakota to stave off loneliness and despair; Dot, who marries Jack although still officially married to--and in love with-- a man serving two life sentences in prison; Candice, a successful family dentist who meets Jack in a city dump with his dog; and young Marlis, taken in and protected by Candice as she bears Jack's baby. In the end, although Jack's story is not without fascination (you'll never believe the twist) you'll come to respect and admire the women, all of whom come into their own both thanks to and in spite of their husband.
Erdrich has a gift for breathing truth into even the most fantastic events and making everyday interactions hold mystery and magic. This is her most captivating novel
Rating:
Summary: Better
Review: This is the first of Erdrich's books I've read and I'm hopelessly hooked. Pure prose. Her characters are burned into my mind and heart. The story, told from the perspective of Jack's four wives, was beautiful and riveting. I loved each of their tales. I got this book from the library but plan to buy it so I can read it over and over. Definitely a keeper!
Rating: 
Summary: MAGNIFICENT UNIQUE JEWEL OF A STORY!
Review: This is the first of Erdrich's books I've read and I'm hopelessly hooked. Pure prose. Her characters are burned into my mind and heart. The story, told from the perspective of Jack's four wives, was beautiful and riveting. I loved each of their tales. I got this book from the library but plan to buy it so I can read it over and over. Definitely a keeper!
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing novel from an admired author
Review: This novel lacks the complexity and focus that Erdrich's other works so wonderfully contain. The ending, with the four ex-wives all neatly paired up with their "true" loves was disappointing, and lacked that sense of honesty that I've come to expect from Erdrich. Connecting this novel to Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, Tracks, and The Bingo Palace through the use of Dot and Gerry Nanapush, Sister Leopolda, Lyman Lamartine, etc, was a mistake--this book does not fit into the cycle of those four books. This novel wants to be about Eleanor, and connecting it with the other four novels detracts from her story. A disappointing book from an admired author. Looking forward to The Antelope Wife.
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