The story told in The Round House by Louise Erdrich is
constructed on a plot involving the rape of a Native American woman living on a
reservation in North Dakota. People who shy
away from picking up this book fearing the topic will be unbearable will be missing
a brilliantly written work that while it contains a great deal of hurt, also
entails a great deal of humanity.
The main characters of the book are the woman, her husband,
and their son. How each of them deals
with the brutal attack and its aftermath could be stand-alone novels yet Erdrich
has skillfully woven them together.
The father is a tribal judge, though the legal system on the
reservation is as defined and imposed by treaty, and obstructs justice as often
as it finds the truth. It is important
to note that as recently as 2009 86% of
the rapes of Native Americans were perpetrated by non-Native Americans, and
prosecution is rare, with a success rate that is even rarer.
The mother's story is critical, her silence is not merely reaction, it becomes a important part of the plot.
The mother's story is critical, her silence is not merely reaction, it becomes a important part of the plot.
The son is your typical 13-year old, until he is not – the
rape and its impact become an all-encompassing subplot in his coming of age
story. I won’t go into detail about how
this story unfolds, because doing so would require a spoiler alert. Let’s just
say, the book goes where it needs to go.
Writing about “Rez Life” has become a significant genre in
literature. Louise Erdrich, with her lineage as a Chippewa, is one of several authors
from this genre I have read. Others include
what could be categorized as the Rez “pop culture writer" Sherman Alexie author of SmokeSignals and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, who grew up on the
Spokane reservation; and David Treuer, an Ojibwe raised on the Leech Lake
reservation in Northern Minnesota, whose novel titled Prudence details the
lasting impact of reservation life well beyond the days of the American Indian wars.
Recommendation: Yes,
excellent book, do not be afraid of the topic.
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