Reviews

• A good crime story by a Chippewa Indian.

  When a 13-year-old Chippewa boy's mother is raped and almost killed, he and three of his classmates take it upon themselves to investigate. When the perpetrator is caught but cannot be prosecuted, the 13-year-olds decide to pursue the case further. In the meantime much else happens, including a striptease birthday present for the Chippewa boy's grandfather, and a wild chase in which a boy who makes an unwise confession escapes from a furious Catholic priest. Not a thriller, but a very enjoyable read.

• 正義とは？ハーバード白熱教室が物足りない人のために。

  法に守られるアメリカ社会の中に、その法に裏切られる先住民居留地が存在する。例えば居留地で犯罪がおきても、「犯人が非先住民の場合は起訴されず放免される」という呆れた法律がある。本書のあとがきに「先住民女性の３人に１人はレイプされ、その８６%が非先住民による」とある。２００９年のこの残酷な数字が小説の背景である。法律で裁かれない犯罪者をどう裁くか。１３歳の主人公Joeは、母親のレイプ事件の犯人を見つけたにもかかわらず、動きのとれない大人たちにいら立つ。 著者はOjibwe族の血を引く女性作家で全米図書賞受賞。書名Round Houseは居留地の精神的支柱となる聖なる集会場である。各章には、この小説の時代である１９８８年に再開された『スタートレック』のエピソードタイトルがつけられ、一途に正義を求めるJoeたちのシンプルな倫理観が真直ぐ語られる。その迷いのなさに違和感を感じつつ、やがて読者は、無垢なる少年時代の終焉という、楽園追放の普遍的テーマが描きだされていることに気づく。

• One of the best novels I've read in years. The edition is not bad at all, and the story is compelling. Read it for class and loved it.

• On the surface The Round House is a wild-West sized crime thriller that takes place on an American Indian reservation somewhere in the Dakotas. Moving with the hero as he struggles to discover the evil perpetrator and attain a just (or unjust?) resolution to the heinous crime, gives the reader plenty of reasons to keep the pages turning. But below all the highly charged surface drama, there's a warm and affecting 13 year old boy's coming of age story told as a flashback by his grown self. And below that, it's a story about modern Native American culture, its rich heritage (warts and all), the systemic bigotry and poverty Native Americans still face and the raw deals from a government that continues to stack its cards against the people who got here first. The particular raw deal that turns out to be central to the plot derives from the law - still largely intact - preventing Native Americans from prosecuting crimes against white people when those crimes -including violent ones - are committed on reservation land. While this injustice is what drives the action forward, it is not really what the book is all about. At its core, The Round House is about many other important things. It's about the difficulty of making clear moral choices in a foggy world. It's about the instinctual and abiding love a boy feels towards his mother. It's about a boy learning - and yearning - to be on equal footing with his father. It is a book about these eternal human fundamentals; the basic stuff that applies to all of us, whether we grew up on an impoverished Indian reservation or in a comfortable homogenized suburb. Louise Erdrich has a talent for storytelling that engages and resonates on many levels. The Round House set my brain racing to find answers, my heart aching with empathy, and my muscles twitching for revenge. While this novel echoes Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, it reads more like a William Faulkner novel set in his mythical Yoknapataphwa County. It's a story more revealed than told straight out. Erdrich makes you work a little to get to the bottom of the mystery. She knows that when telling a story with so many dark and tragic elements, it's good to throw in a couple of hearty laughs for balance. And like so many Faulkner novels, there's a wonderful dynamic created between a young boy, a wise and outside-educated father figure, and the compelling passions served up by the place and situation they are both struggling to come to terms with. These and other richly delineated characters move about not in an actual place but in a representational place. I think this is what helps to imbue the novel - in spite of its gripping plot that in many ways could only have happened in this particular place at this particular point in time - with such a haunting timeless quality. I really loved this book and am so glad to have discovered its author. According to reviews I've read by other critics, The Round House may have just won the 2012 National Book Award, but it's not necessarily Erdrich's best work. Acting upon this piece of intelligence, I have placed one of her earlier books, The Plague of Doves, high in my queue of books to read in 2013. This one is set on the same reservation and it looks like there's much to learn about the characters I have just met. I can't wait to get to their stories!

• This book is what I like to find in a novel. Well told and engrossing story, fascinating characters, a setting and community I know little about, and themes I care a great deal about and touches of wonderful humor. Erdrich uses a detective style of writing to investigate and bring the reader close to a wide variety of characters.

• Nice story I have ever read ,sons affection towards his mom...nd bringing justice for her...

• Le narrateur nous entraîne avec lui.Les injustices subies par la communauté des native Americans est édifiante.Magnifique roman.

Purchase links