Review: The Round House by Louise Erdrich

The Round House by Louise Erdrich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a dark book, unfortunately being from Montana means I am aware of just how tragically accurate this book is. Native American women are horribly vulnerable to being raped and murdered, in my home town, growing up hardly a week went by where the police blotter report did not include an attack on a woman from the nearby reservation, mostly by white men, rarely were these men ever tried, let alone convicted, even if the evidence against them was rock solid.

This story is about one such incident and the dark affect it had on the family in the aftermath, no one, not even close friends get out of these events unscathed emotionally. The main character, Joe is just 13 when his mother is raped and nearly murdered, and he has to witness her dark spiral into depression and the struggle of his father to get justice for her. The story fluctuates between the antics of Joe and and his friends in the summer of 1988 and the truly terrible traumas suffered by his mother and by extension his family. The juxtaposition of these events between what his young life should have been and the stark reality of what is was, makes for an engaging and very sad story.

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