The Painted Drum

All of Louise's books are quietly powerful. Her ability to make the ugly plainess of life fill up with grace is astounding. This applies to human behavior and the landscape we relate to. She allows for the sacred to exist even when the worst of human depravity must be endured and confronted. Her language reminds me of the Dakotas, the open sheet of land where nothing hides and all is blessed or damned under one sky. In the Painted Drum we are sewn into a story very comfortably as differing lives have a role centered around the drum. The drum is the story. These lives fulfill the drums creation, it's recovery and its revival for use by its people. Louise spares nothing. The imagery of skeletal ghosts climbing trees like monkeys with clacking bones turn out to three hungry and cold children lost in the snow. Not fictional for those who live in the modern poverty of the reservations and need them to do justice to their plight.

"The Painted Drum" is a marvelously crafted novel that traces the history of a drum and the people whose lives it touches. Primarily set in New Hampshire, the story opens with a quiet introspective contemplation by one of the novel's narrators. ". . . I am lost in my thoughts and pause too long where the cemetery road meets the two-lane highway. This distraction seems partly age, but there is more too, I think." This opening paves the way for the unfolding of Faye's life in the small New England town where she has spent her entire existence. Faye and her mother, Elise, are proprietors of a business that specialized in estate liquidation. It is through this business that Faye finds the tribal drum that is at the novel's center. Upon first sight, Faye knows that the drum is powerful. Her attachment to it is immediate and indefinable. After a period, Faye decides that she will locate the drum's original owners and return it. In locating the owners, the novel shifts setting and an entirely new cast of characters populate the story. I found the story to be at it richest when telling about the making of the drum and the people involved with it. Erdrich's story telling abilities are keen. I was easily wrapped up in each character's story. The relationships explored in the novel are subtly interrogated with lyrical language that's pregnant with meaning. The novel is set in three parts, each of which could be a short story; each connected by the tribal ancestors and stories that inhabit the drum. "The Painted Drum" is another superb novel by Erdrich. I read "Love Medicine" a few months back and it was familiar and pleasing to be reintroduced to the Pillagers clan in Erdrich's latest novel. Now I'm motivated to read more of her works just to see how many of her characters have lives that span multiple novels. This is a quality read; enjoy it!

(No spoilers here.) In the opening pages, Faye Travers, an estate agent in New Hampshire, inventories the home of John Jewett Tatro, whose grandfather was an Indian agent, and whose grandmother was an Ojibwe. When Faye opens an attic room, she finds a collection of enormous value, including an incredible drum, hollowed out from a single piece of cedar wood and covered by a moose hide. The history of the "Little Girl" drum takes the reader from New Hampshire to an Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota. Bernard Shaawano, who is the grandson of the drum's maker, narrates this section, telling about the life of his grandfather, why he made the drum, who he was memorializing, and how this drum eventually came to New Hampshire. The fascinating process by which the drum was made, the ceremonies and traditional beliefs associated with it, and the traumatic lives and deaths of the Shaawano family over three generations connect the drum and its history with the essence of existence. In the final section, Shawnee, a young girl living in a remote area of the reservation, has been babysitting for her younger brother and sister for several bitterly cold days, without enough fuel and no food. Their mother has been sidetracked, drinking in town. The depiction of the lives of these children is heart-rending, and their connection to the "Little Girl" drum adds another layer of mystery to the drum's "life." Written with a homey intimacy and honesty, Erdrich deals with big themes of life and death and the beliefs associated with them. Nature is an intimate part of this process, and it is further emphasized through symbols and repeating motifs--a field of orb spiders, a dog which escapes its cruel confines, wolves and their mystical connection with mankind. Always, of course, Erdrich conveys Indian spiritual values, even as she depicts their often sad and limited lives. The characters here have real faults and real conflicts, but Erdrich is generous with them, never making value judgments while showing the circumstances which have determined their behavior. With interconnected stories involving characters from three generations and three different families, The Painted Drum is a novel which taps into universal feelings and hopes, even as it depicts some of life's terrible realities. n Mary Whipple

This is the type of book I miss...very rare: a true "story". A story of love, of misery, of hope. This is a story - not a formula. There is nothing shocking, fast-paced or hilarious. Just a story of a string of humans all touched by the same drum. This is what story-telling should be. I will remember this tale a long time. It won't run together with a bunch of other novels that are so similar I can't keep the characters or the story-lines straight. This is a story best read on a rainy Sunday afternoon when the focus of your universe is this tale. And when you read the last line and close the book, the story will come back to you during the following weeks and it will surprise you with new insights. This is my first Erdrich, but it won't be my last.

Voice performer Anna Fields faced a unique challenge in reading this intriguing story, and she succeeded beautifully. With seeming effortlessness she segues from one narrative voice to another, all the while delivering a well paced superbly nuanced performance. Links between the living and the dead are not unexplored subjects for Louise Erdrich. However, with The Painted Drum, the dead are all young girls. Faye Travers has found a satisfactory life for herself, living with her mother in New Hampshire. The two share a business; they specialize in estate sales with an emphasis on Native American artifacts. When Faye is called upon to handle the effects of a neighbor whose grandfather was an Indian agent, she finds something that despite her expertise she has not seen before. It is a drum, one that is embellished with symbols unknown to her and adorned with tassels, a belt and skirt. Even more surprisingly, she hears a sound from the drum. She is the first narrator in our tale and from her we learn of the tragic death of her younger sister. Faye used to have frequent dreams about her sister, and they resume when Faye takes the drum home with her. Listeners learn that drums are considered living things, and that they have the power to link the afterlife and the present. This particular drum is a connection to the spirits of little girls. Disconcerted by her discovery Faye returns the drum to the place where it was made long ago, an Ojibwe reservation. There, a second narrator takes up the story relating his grandfather's grief at the death of his daughter. The bereaved man had fashioned the drum. No spoilers here - the story's conclusion is a chiller as three youngsters hear the drum's music. The acclaimed Erdrich has penned 11 novels plus poetry and children's books. Her novel "Love Medicine" won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Once again, this gifted author has given us much to ponder and enjoy. - Gail Cooke