The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008

I always rejoice when there is a new Louise Erdich book that I haven't read yet. I always get something out of it and really enjoy the ride. I feel like her characters are my family. Who I get to meet and know through these stories. This is an excellent representative collection.

Louise Erdrich is considered one of America's most prolific and highly respected fiction writers. Her tales of Native American life in modern America and her historical renderings of the rich and complex past of the Ojibwa nation (which is part of her family background) are filled with the kind of details that make you feel as if her life --- and the lives of those she writes about --- intersects yours at some very telling destinations. Family relations, love and marriage, children and domestic life, the past and the present, as well as the hopes of the future, are all points of light within her literary scope. THE RED CONVERTIBLE is a testament to the far-reaching diversity of her writing; these are stories collected from works, published and unpublished (six of them have never been in print before), for the last 30 years. Erdrich has ordered them chronologically but also by theme and voice. They cover a wealth and breadth of material that shows off all her skills in varying degrees of drama. There are people in dire straits ("Snares") and young women finding their voice and themselves ("Saint Marie"). What ensues throughout THE RED CONVERTIBLE is this sense that the panoply of experience that defines the characters in Erdrich's world (she is particularly good at redefining the voices of young characters, teens stuck in uncomfortable voids and dramatic situations) would each make particularly moving films. Most of the experiences are fraught with great pain and anger, as people are at odds with one another over some of the most basic concerns of humankind. Still, with her pointed metaphors and spirited debates on what makes life worth living, Erdrich manages to find unique and specific ways to describe situations that all readers would understand completely and utterly from their own experience. The angst of teenagehood, the bitter pill of aging, the chilling remembrance of a loved one's descent into the last days of life --- even if you haven't gone through these shared human experiences yet, Erdrich's writings feel like she is giving you a heads-up on them so that, when they do happen, you will be able to use her stories as guidelines to move through them more easily. Erdrich's style creeps up on you. At first it seems unassuming, nothing flowery or futzy about it, but then you realize the power of her perfectly chosen words and it enhances your experience tenfold. It's this remarkable acuity that helps make her storytelling feel like a cozy night in front of a roaring fire with friends instead of a pastiche of leftover stories she decided to pull into a book. THE RED CONVERTIBLE is well worth the price, and the road it takes you on is well worth the ride. --- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

Louise Erdrich is a descendant of European and Native Americans. She writes in the native voice with understanding of both birthrights. America is predominantly a mixed race society and we need to learn how to live together and within ourselves, our own skins, if we are to live in fulfillment of our respective spiritual beliefs. She leads us gently up that path.

I love short stories and though I'm new to Louise Erdrich's works, I found this collection to be a literary cornucopia of insightful stories into the human psyche interwoven with various themes ranging from the tragic to the comedic and more. The 36 stories here are arranged chronologically and reveal Ms Erdrich's consummate narrative skills - some of my personal favorites were "Saint Marie" in which an Indian girl at a convent takes on an abusive nun, "A Father's Milk" where a soldier ordered to annihilate an Indian village rescues a baby girl as an act of repentance, "The Butcher's Wife" which is a blend of comedy and tragedy, among others. The characterizations here are unique and yet very human. As a reader, not only was I profoundly touched by some of these stories, but also awed by the richness of these characters, some of whom prove quite memorable. I truly look forward to discovering her other works.

I was first smitten with Louise Erdrich's writing by reading her "Tracks", which I found utterly spellbinding. I was disappointed with two other of her books, Love Medicine and The Bingo Palace, but The Red Convertible, a collection of her short stories, is a collection that I did not want to end. Aside from some very dark recesses into troubled human souls, characters and actions, I find her imagery deliciously rich, imaginative, tactile and wonderful. I love her use and involvement with magical and surreal imagery, and as a whole this book restores my faith in her talents as one of my very favorite authors. Her style is, as with Tracks, an overlapping, shifting of narratives and characters at different stages in their lives. She offers strong and clear insight to the perspective of Native-American culture and history. After several of her stories one feels as if the unpredictable is expected and as if the writer is one part Erdrich, one part Alfred Hitchcock. Overall a top-notch read by a truly insightful, image-rich and soulful writer.