The Beet Queen: A Novel Paperback – May 23, 2017

The book arrived early and in good shape!

New book, no damage. Second book in the‘Love Medicine’ series. This was the first Louise Erdrich book that I read many years (decades?) ago, and I was immediately captivated. Looking forward to the second reading. One of my favorite authors!

This is the first Louise Erdrich novel I've read. It was worth the wait. The story and the characters are, to echo Hamlet, tragical-comical, fantastical-believable, unlovable-likable. The writing is, thanks to the author's skill, both borderline slapstick and deeply serious. The book is, thanks to the author's imagination, both dark and luminous. Though the central characters are screwballs on the margins of American society, each with his or her own particular eccentricities and vulnerabilities, they are imbued with an ironic nobility. To echo Faulkner, they, like us, endure.

Good read

Good writing, but not my style. ‘Mediocre reading; like the author was really good as a starving artist, but then got a book deal and the writing suffered’

I am reading all of Louise Erdrich's books and not in the order written, unplanned. She is a compelling story teller and her insights and writing abilities are extraordinary. She draws you in to the lives of her characters and you want to know more about them. The setting in the mid west and the mix of ethnic cultures in the 20th century provides a rich backdrop for her stories and characters. I highly recommend all of her books.

Read this for my book club. Was definitely not what I expected from a writer from North Dakota. This book really had some twisted characters. When she talked about certain areas of North Dakota I could definitely picture where she was talking about.

At first I couldn't get into the story. But after about 30 pages I was hooked and stayed up all night. An intensely moving story of two totally different womens' reaction to/handling of massive personal and familial traumas.