The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

A review of Louise Erdrich's latest novel _The Night Watchman_

#BookReview

[AlexBlackReads]

You always talk about Louise Erdrich with such excitement, even with this not being your favorite of her books. I really want to pick up more of her books sometime.

[SupposedlyFun]

Erdrich is definitely not an infallible writer, but I am looking forward to giving this one a try. Great review!

[amywolfe]

Looking forward to reading this. Thank you for the insightful review!

[DarkBetweenPages]

Wonderful review! It sounds very good. I also like that you reviewed it while your thoughts were nice and fresh.

[RememberedReads]

I wonder if it's as much a matter of well-known writers not getting editorial pushback as it's editors just being used less in general? Because "Where was the editor?" is something I find myself asking constantly of books that have been published over the past few years regardless of whether the author is established or not.
Either way, interesting review. I recently picked up a collection of Louise Erdrich's poetry that I'm hoping to get to some time this month. I wonder how it will compare to her novels...

[SlantedSpines]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I just finished reading it as well and will be posting a book review soon. I felt that Erdrich included the Mormon missionaries to juxtapose Chippewa spirituality, but the scenes with the Mormons were often the worst parts because how awkward they were to read about..

[windigo]

Although I read this years ago my best guess as to why she utilized the Mormonism angle is because of the Book of Mormon which purports to be a literal historical record of the Lamanite people who are the supposed ancestors of indigenous tribal Americans. The BOM is sacred scripture to Mormons, equal to the Bible as God’s word - I know this because I am an exMormon.

[MarcNash]

Good question about writers of repute and their sway of their editors. Since I have barely ever had an editor and am certainly not a writer of significant repute, I can supply no answer, not even an opinion!

[flanplan]

Loved this book. Even better: it now won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year!