New Anisfield-Wolf Award Winner: Louise Erdrich

Congratulations to one of my favorite writers, Louise Erdrich, who won the Anisfield-Wolf Award this evening at the Cleveland Play House.  This award recognizes excellence in writing that contribute to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of cultural diversity.  Erdrich won this award in recognition of her outstanding novel, The Plague of Doves, along with Nam Le for his collection of short stories, The Boat, Annette Gordon-Reed for The Hemingses of Monticello and Paule Marshall for Outstanding Life Time Achievement.

Henry Louis Gates, one of the judges for the award, describes these works as “collectively they share an unyielding faith in the essential humanity of their subjects”.  This is very much what I appreciate about all of Erdrich’s many novels and other books, along with her humor, her complex and nuanced characters and her wild story lines.

I invite you to check out and enjoy The Plague of Doves and the rest of Erdrich’s many rich novels (may I particularly recommend The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse?).

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The Plague of Doves By Erdrich, Louise BookPage Notable Title In this multi generational tour-de-force of sin, redemption, murder, and vengeance (Publishers Weekly), a senseless and horrific crime in 1911 forever changes the lives of several families living in and around Pluto, North Dakota, a white town on the far western edge of an Ojibwe reservation. Louise Erdrich’s mesmerizing new novel, her first in almost three years, centers on a compelling mystery. The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation. The descendants of Ojibwe and white intermarry, their lives intertwine; only the youngest generation, of mixed blood, remains unaware of the role the past continues to play in their lives. Evelina Harp is a witty, ambitious young girl, part Ojibwe, part white, who is prone to falling hopelessly in love. Mooshum, Evelina’s grandfather, is a seductive storyteller, a repository of family and tribal history with an all-too-intimate knowledge of the violent past. Nobody understands the weight of historical injustice better than Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, a thoughtful mixed blood who witnesses the lives of those who appear before him, and whose own love life reflects the entire history of the territory. In distinct and winning voices, Erdrich’s narrators unravel the stories of different generations and families in this corner of North Dakota. Bound by love, torn by history, the two communities’ collective stories finally come together in a wrenching truth revealed in the novel’s final pages. “The Plague of Doves” is one of the major achievements of Louise Erdrich’s considerable oeuvre, a quintessentially American story and the most complex and original of her books.

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War Stories: History & Fiction

We’ve got a new book group starting at the Library this fall.  Patron Clyde Cooke will be leading a group on war stories.  If you’re a military or history buff, or you just like a good adventure story, this is a group to check out.  The group will meet the second Tuesday of the month through November and perhaps beyond, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Clyde is a graduate of West Point and a former teacher of ROTC at the University of Cincinnati.  He led similar discussions with the cadets.

September 9th, they’ll take up The Killer Angels: a novel of the Civil War by Michael Shaara.  This Pulitzer Prize winner has been called “the best Civil War novel ever written”.  This is the story of the Battle of Gettysburg told from the viewpoint of the men who fought it.

October 14th, the group will turn to nonfiction for An Army at Dawn,  Rick Atkinson’s depiction of the Allied invasion of North Africa and the tensions between the American and British forces.  Atkinson is another Pulitzer Prize winner, as a journalist rather than a novelist.

November 11th, the group will journey to the future for classic science fiction author Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers.  This book won a Hugo, the highest honor for science fiction, and it has it all: fast paced action, politics and philosophy.  In other words, plenty to talk and argue about.

Copies of the first book are now available at the Reference desk.  Stop by and pick one up soon to give yourself time to become thoroughly absorbed in the Civil War before the discussion.  And Clyde would appreciate it if you’d leave your name with us, just so he’s got an idea how many folks to expect.

Immigrant Fiction

Our first book group meeting of the new year will take place on Wednesday, January 9th at 1:30 p.m. The theme is Crossing Borders: Immigrant Fiction. You’re invited to choose an appealing book from the collection we’ve set aside at the Reference Desk. Read it and come to the meeting to share it with the rest of the group and discuss the common themes. We’ll have a list of all the titles available so you can note the most interesting ones and leave with more recommended titles.

In a nation of immigrants, we have many stories of what it was to come here, to start over, to assimilate and to remain true to where we have come from. These stories are both very particular to cultures and families and also universal. The group on January 9th will compare stories written by and about immigrants from all over the world. What is unique and what is common. How are the experiences of our own families reflected in these books?

Here are a few of the fascinating books we have available for you to choose from:

Giants in the Earth by O.E. Rolvaag was originally written in Norwegian but is nevertheless a truly American novel of the experience of peasant immigrants settling the Dakota prairie. This book is an old classic.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez is a beautifully written story about a loving family coming from the very proper upper reaches of Caribbean society into the more free-wheeling streets of the Bronx. Mami and Papi’s expectations of their daughters come into conflict with the temptations of America. Alvarez writes with humor and sensitivity.

The Vision of Emma Blau by Ursula Hegi explores the cultural conflicts and animosity experienced by German-American families through both World Wars. The story follows some of the minor characters from the brilliant Stones From the River. Hegi shines in relating life through a child’s perspective and in her evocative writing.

Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid follows a teenage girl immigrating to America from the West Indies as a au pair. Lucy is angry about almost everything in her life but her honesty leads to grace and wisdom.

The Interpreter of Maladies is a set of short stories penned by Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri (author of The Namesake, which has been made into a movie available, from our library, on DVD). Indian tradition meets American complexity.

Melania Mazzucco’s Vita alternates a fictional story of two Italian children coming through Ellis Island and learning to survive in a brutal New York City with the nonfictional account of her attempts to trace her own Italian ancestors. Mazzucco pulls no punches in describing the squalor, poverty and bigotry experienced by immigrants. Yet her story contains love and inspiration as well.

These are just a few of the books we’ve put aside for the book discussion group. Or perhaps you have another favorite novel of the immigrant experience. New members are welcome throughout the year. Join us.

Web Event with Author Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory, popular historical fiction author of The Boleyn Inheritance and many other bestselling novels of Tudor England, will be hosting a free live webcast on Sunday, Sept. 16 at 2 p.m.

Ms. Gregory will be discussing her research and writing, her upcoming book and the new movie version of The Other Boleyn Girl to feature Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. Registered attendees will view and listen to Ms. Gregory speak to a London audience and be able to ask her questions and interact with other live and web audience members.

All you need to do is register in advance. Reminders and instructions for connecting to the webcast will be sent in advance. Just go to http://www.philippagregorylive.com before the 16th to register.