"Ethnic writing = works that focus on the lives and particular concerns of America's minorities- labors under a peculiar burden: only certain types of people are supposed to be interested. Louise Erdrich's first novel, Love Medicine, dispels these spurious notions". This quote comes from Marco Portales review of the book Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich ("People with Holes in Their Lives." The New York Times Book Review 23 December 1984: 6).
The novel consists of fourteen chapters, in which seven narrators relate the particulars of life as an American Indian. Portales feels that by using this structure, Erdrich is able to present a variety of voices. Each adds a different dimension whether cruel, somber, or humorous that together is a wondrous prose song. The characters may at first seem unfamiliar to the reader, but over time Erdrich makes us care for them, and understand them through her selection and skillful presentation of the events and attitudes that each of her well conceived narrators relate.
Mr. Portales believes that ultimately, the book is about the enduring varieties of loving and surviving, and these themes are revealed in a narrative that is a perfect mixture of comic and tragic. Each word in each sentence seems to be perfectly placed. Although the books fit together wonderfully, there are some objections as well. Erdrich could have added more to the background, had she focused more on the younger generation such as Albertine and Lipsha. The depiction of Albertine is intriguing because she represents the younger generation of the Chippewa women. We are shown what happens to the Indians of the older generation, but she leaves us only to guess at the futures of the younger characters.
Some of the minor flaws that Portales brings out in his critique do not detract from the clear success that Erdrich has at portraying the Native American characters to which most Americans are completely oblivious. With Love Medicine, Erdrich enters a company of America's better novelists and readers who are expecting to see more imaginative and accomplished writing from her in the future.
" A poet's novel" is the way that critic Robert Towers sums up the book Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich in his article ("Uprooted." The New York Review of Books11 April 1985: 36-37). Towers finds the book very hard to follow. "The episodes, most of them dramatic monologues, are loosely strung together and the relationships between various narrators and characters are so confusing that you find yourself constantly having to flip back to earlier sections in order to keep your bearings on where you are headed". The reader who sticks with it however, will find themselves undergoing an adoption into a nearly forgotten Indian tribe.
Love Medicine delivers an attack against an official policy that tried to make farmers out of the hunting and fishing Chippewas. However, this view seems only to be loved by the sentimental reader. Alas, the love medicine does not always work. Erdrich applies it so thickly to the wounds and abrasions, that her characters suffer. At times, the language seems to be too intense and the reader feels coerced into accepting the romanticized version of how things really are. Despite these downfalls, Erdrich is a notably talented writer who has produced a novel that deserves much praise despite its structural problems and stylistic excesses.
I chose to use two different book reviews because I believe that both Portales and Towers had valuable things to say about Love Medicine. Portales feel that Erdrich has a remarkable way of putting the life of the Native Americans into words, giving those unfamiliar with it a real look at how they live. Erdrich blends the story with just the right amount of comic relief to mask some of the pain that their everyday life seemed to be plagued with. Towers felt that she went to the extreme in this area and made it so heart wrenching that it was unbelievable. I tend to disagree with Towers. People who are not Native American, or are not familiar with their way of life, need books such as this to wake them up and make them realize how other cultures live. Although this is a novel, it still gives an almost real look at how another culture survives. I tend to think the only reason we view this as negative is that it gives us a look at something we may want to forget, due to the fact that we may have part in causing some of their trials.
Towers claims that the book is hard to follow, and in some respects, I agree. At first I had a hard time following it and did find myself looking back to see whom exactly the book was talking about. However, as the book progressed and I allowed it to soak in, it really became much clearer, even simple, to follow. It is not a book you just pick up to read and not put thought into; it requires you to think and to process. I think Louis Erdrich's point, was that she wanted us to reflect and to think as we read the book.
I found parts of the book troubling and at times even disturbing. Although it may not be on my list of favorites, I still am glad that I took the time to read it. It caused me to step back and look at things from a perspective that I had not given much thought to before. Since reading it, I think it has continued to influence the way I look at things as well. At times we take things for granted and are content to live in our little bubbles without much regard to what goes on around us, but this book has caused me to see the life of the Native American from a different perspective and step out of the bubble for a better look at things.