Holding it Together

I'm a couple chapters away from finishing the book and things are really headed south. The last two chapters I've read, Scales and Crown of Thorns, has someone being arrested and falling apart mentally. For example, Gordie is loosing his mind in alcohol all over June's death. He's mentally breaking down and believes he had some part in Junes death which, coupled with lots of alcohol causes him to hallucinate. I suppose for a book to be called Love Medicine it has to have something to fix and the whole family needs it right now. I'm looking forward to seeing the book wrapping up and hopefully having a kind of happy ending.

Continuing Love Medicine

I've really liked what the author has brought to the second quarter of this book. It helped me understand the backgrounds of all the characters that were presented early on. The first couple chapters threw me for a loop, I had a hard time understanding what time period I was in and who the main characters were and how they were related to each other. As I read on the book started making more sense to me, I was expecting a traditional book and storytelling format that's chronological but Love Medicine reads more like a series of different stories that put in an order that helps the reader understand the emotions and reactions for all these different characters. 

I think the structure of the book really helped paint a good picture of the relationship the women have. The style helped me at least see the interconnections and special moments they share. Had the book been chronological I don't think I would have understood the way the women react to each other in the first chapter. It's nice to see the "current" time and then have a kind of "flashback" into their early lives. One point I remember being a great example was when June was being hanged. At first the hanging happened in the past tense with the women remembering back on it and a couple chapters in the hanging is happening in real time. It's just a really neat writing style that I never would have thought of and I have enjoyed it quite a bit.

Love Medicine First Impressions

This first book in my Native American Literature class is called Love Medicine and it is written by Louise Erdrich. I'm not entirely sure on what I thought this book was going to be about but I figured with a title like Love Medicine it would be a book about strength and family values. The first two chapters I've read are far from my presumptions. 

The first chapter honestly reminded me of my in-laws, my wife is half Chippewa and has family in North Dakota and Montana. Recently, her great grandma died and we took a trip to Montana for the funeral. A couple of the nights we spent there could have been a live action play of the chapter "The World's Greatest Fisherman." Almost every piece of that chapter happened, the older women baked, the men drank and got into fights, and the house was very similar to the one described in the book, right down to the rusty car in the yard the kids played with. There was no "love medicine" or "fixing anything" going on at all from what I could tell, the chapter started and ended in shambles. It is the first chapter and things should will progress through the rest of the book but it seems bleak to me.

The second chapter "Saint Marie" had me questioning what I was even reading. The whole chapter seemed so surreal like it was made up or a daydream down to the very end. It was so confusing to me but it also left me wanting to know what happened after the end of it. It just seems so odd that Marie took up being "Holy" or a "Saint" so fast after being stabbed in the hand an knocked out; or why Leopolda decided to lie about Marie's vision and act as if it were true, even allowing herself to kneel before Marie.

The first 60 pages have me extremely invested in the rest of the book. It has me wanting to stay up all night reading so I can find a happy ending for these characters that are pretty damaged.

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