Nancy was very excited that we had a Louise Erdrich book on the Book Club reading list. This month we are reading THE MIGHTY RED, her latest novel, published last year. Nancy read her book, THE BINGO PALACE, quite a number of years ago (it was published in 1994) and really loved it. THE MIGHTY RED is a New York Times bestseller, A Read with Jenna book club pick, and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Linda wasn’t familiar with Louise Erdrich before reading this book. Erdrich is a contemporary American author. Many of her writings center on the Ojibwe people of the northern Great Plains. Her novels have received the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Erdrich grew up in North Dakota to a German American father and a half-Ojibwe and half-French mother. Erdrich was the eldest of seven children. She has said her father was her biggest literary influence because he gave her a nickel for every story she wrote. She has also said that her spirituality, shaped by Roman Catholicism and Native practices and beliefs, have been influences on her writing. Nancy was not surprised to hear about Erdrich’s identified influences, because she felt like we see all of them in THE MIGHTY RED. The novel opens with Crystal, a sugar beet hauler, listening to talk radio late at night as she is taking beets to the processing plant. She hears her neighbor call in and ask how to thank her son’s angel who has saved her son, Gary, multiple times. There is a mysterious accident he was saved from, most recently, that everyone in town knows about. Eventually we learn that some of his football teammates were killed in this accident. Crystal’s daughter is Kismet Poe, a classmate of Gary’s. To Nancy, this opening sets up one of the moving themes in this book: it’s the love moms have for their children and everything they do to try to ensure their children’s happiness while also giving them room to be independent. Crystal has stayed with feckless Martin, for Kismet’s sake. She also has poured her life into making Kismet’s life full and supporting her various phases, so that she becomes an independent young woman, all while working full time and basically living in poverty because Martin isn’t bringing in any money in his community theatre work. Gary’s mom, Winnie, loves her son and will do anything to bring him out of the depression that has haunted him since the accident, including supporting his ill-conceived proposal to Kismet. There’s also Bev, Hugo’s mom, who is heartbroken but supportive when her 16-year-old son decides to move to Williston to make his fortune in the oil fields. Linda didn’t really see mom’s love as a theme of the book. That didn’t stand out to her. The mother-daughter relationship did stand out to Linda. Crystal tries to give Kismet a better life, but her actions speak louder than her words because Crystal has stayed with a loser partner and Kismet marries a loser, too. Nancy agrees that Kismet doesn’t even like Gary, but thinks Kismet likes the feeling of being loved and needed. Linny says, this is just like her mom. Crystal continues to defend her husband through all his crimes. Kismet settles for a not-great marriage, too. Nancy talks about how Hugo’s parents have a loving marriage, and how this models to him what marital love is. Linda thinks Hugo’s move to Williston and his company is sort of shady. Nancy tells Linny that this is really a good representation of what was happening in Williston during the boom of the late 2000 aughts during the recession. Kismet is one of the smartest girls in his class and Gary is not too bright and bores Kismet with his conspiracy theories. Winnie doesn’t help the young marriage with constantly dropping by, expecting Kismet to make food for them, and making her clean her entire house. Kismet is in a vulnerable position because she has no transportation or resources. Linny said she tries to give Kismet’s poor decision-making grace because she is young. Nancy likes the humor Erdrich injects in the book. Linny likes the small-town ladies and their gossip. Nancy likes how Erdrich interrogates what large-scale monoculture agriculture is doing to our soil. Winnie is still grieving her own girlhood somewhat varied family farm that failed because of Reagan-era agricultural policy and was taken over by her now-husband’s family and plowed over for sugar beet farming. There are sections throughout the book where we learn how the soil has degraded and no longer can grow any crops except those genetically formulated for the soil. And also, how the soil can no longer even absorb water. Gary’s best friend, Eric and his folks, are engaged in trying to restore soil health. Kismet plants a garden after she marries Gary. But first, she has to bring in a bunch of healthy soil. A couple times, characters talk about how there are notably fewer birds than there used to be. The oil fields of Williston are shown to be very bleak places. She talks about the chemicals used in farming and the impacts on humans and the watershed. You can tell Erdrich really loves the earth. Linny says she was lost trying to follow the agricultural information. She didn’t know that our sugar comes from Great Plains sugar beets. Linda mentions the subplot about Martin, Kismet’s dad, who appears to have run off with the local church’s capital funds and then he becomes a bank robber. This is pretty surprising to Crystal and Kismet because Martin never seemed to be very organized or able to do anything except spend their money on luxuries, he insisted he needed. Everyone in their little town is mad at Kismet and Crystal because now the church won’t be able to afford the renovations they’ve been saving for years. Worst of all is Father Flirty, the Catholic priest, who you might think would be a source of comfort for Crystal and Kismet instead is just another hapless man Crystal has to take care of. Linda asks Nancy about how faith is represented in this book. Nancy says she didn’t really think there was much faith in the book. The church is more a social institution rather than a source of spirituality. Linda asks Nancy about whether Jordan’s ghost was a representation of faith. Nancy said she didn’t really process much of the ghost to have an opinion. Linny talks about trauma-inspired visions and her experience in treating clients with these, but also how in Native cultures visions are a source of wisdom and comfort. Nancy mentions that there are a few mentions of the magical thinking by white people about the Natives, like they are mystical and have spiritual powers that are inaccessible to whites. Yet, just like with Erdrich and in small towns, there is a lot of intermarriage. Linny wonders whether this is a prejudice. Nancy thinks is a sign of Native culture superiority. The book, THE MIGHTY RED, is named for the Red River. It’s the boundary river between North Dakota and Minnesota that flows into Canada. The little town Kismet lives in, Tabor, and all the farms are in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. In an interview, Erdrich said of growing up in the Red River Valley: “The river was always there in every way. We were always living with its floods in the spring where we would walk through the lower parts of the town and there would be fish in the water. And if you pulled up a sidewalk the earth was so dark and black and fertile because of all of that sediment that had been deposited there over eons or millennia anyway. You would find little seashells in it and it would seem so strange to find seashells in the dirt.” Nancy says THE MIGHTY RED tells us about the river’s life-giving and life-taking power. Linny thinks the book demonstrates the symbiotic relationship and that also has an element of spirituality to it. Linny says this book reminded her about growing up in a small town. Nancy said that in small towns you just have to accept your neighbors, because you’re spending your whole lives with them. Linny says she now thinks fiction is her favorite genre. Then, she says one of her favorite books we’ve reviewed, HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD, has been made into a documentary called SIX SCHIZOPHRENIC BROTHERS. She says it is a very good presentation of the history of treatment and family dynamics.