The Beet Queen

The beginning of this book takes off like a rocket. It's powerful and serves as one huge hook for the reader, who moves along with the characters as they develop into adults (and depending on the character, not very nice adults), sometimes skipping chunks of time. It's a character-driven story, but the psychological thread that run through the book give s simple narrative a lot of meat if you're paying attention. This was my first Erdrich book, and I'm about to start another, Plague of Doves. I hope it is just as good.

This book is amazing and a truly beautiful work about the human spirit. The characters are numerous and complex, and the way the book skips around in terms of characters and time keeps you on your toes and keeps the story interesting -- you never know what to expect. It was really the highlight of a recent vacation -- I couldn't put it down.

From the mesmerizing first chapter I was hooked. This is an adventure that makes you want to turn the pages quickly. I've noted that others have characterized this book as "bland," yet, isn't that the point? To truly feel the emotional palate of the characters, there can't be a big surprise at every corner. If you finish this book feeling confused, depressed, and a little hungry for her next book, then this author has done her job. If you like "cookie cutter" stories, then this book isn't for you.

Louise Erdrich once said that her novels fell "together like a quilt, a crazy quilt,", and The Beet Queen is no exception. The author has constructed a powerful novel out of many voices and individual stories. The novel begins in 1932, with young Mary and Karl Adare getting off a train in Argus, North Dakota by themselves. A moment of fear sends Karl running back to the train, and Mary in the other direction, towards her aunt's house. This division between them sends them on different paths. Mary grows up as the despised cousin of lovely Sita, the foster daughter of Pete and Fritzie who own a butcher shop. Karl is eventually sent back to Minnesota to grow up in a Catholic children's home. The people who know them - Sita, Celestine, the Chamber of Commerce president Wallace Pfef, and finally Dot, the Beet Queen of the title - add their voices to weave a story that goes beyond Karl and Mary to include the entire town of Argus. Spanning forty years, the novel encompasses changes not only within the characters but in the town and the times in general. Erdrich's characterizations are complex and heartfelt, especially since the multiple points-of-view allow us to see the characters from both inside and out. When characters describe the same incident from different perspectives, we get a deep understanding of what is at stake for each. The Beet Queen is one of Erdrich's finest novels. Fans of Erdrich's will recognize some of the characters that appeared in the earlier Love Medicine and in her later books, but you don't need to be familiar with the author's work to become engrossed in this one. Highly recommended.

Erdrich has that special touch, to make surreal situations so very believable. I love the parallel drawn with the plane rides, how in one case it is a beautiful woman running away from responsibility, and on the other it is a not-so-graceful woman running away from scorn. I first learned of Erdrich in some anthology, where i read her short story _Fleur_ (now, that's a scary character!