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| The Plague of Doves: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Louise Erdrich
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $12.95
You Save: $13.00 (50%)
New (45) Used (25) Collectible (4) from $12.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 4363
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0060515120
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780060515126
ASIN: 0060515120
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: May have small remainder mark on bottom. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Back again to Yoknapatawpha County North May 28, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've been reading Ms. Erdrich for over 20 years now, and each time I pick up one of her books, I am amazed how consistent she is in her talent. As I've said in other reviews, she's created her own Yoknapatawpha County in North Dakota, peopled with her mixed ancestors, and continues to delight. The beautiful review above from the Washington Post lays out the story without any spoilers. Erdrich creates haunting novels woven together of seemingly disparate stories that coalese in the end to make a satisfying whole. Almost a web of short stories, but each involving and intriguing in its own right, necessary to the integrated whole.
 Not my favorite Erdrich May 20, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am a huge Erdrich fan, but this is not my favorite. I have enjoyed her plot-driven novels such as "The Last Report . . .", "The Painted Drum" and "The Master Butcher's Singing Club" very much. I also enjoyed "Love Medicine," which is a set of stories, like "A Plague of Doves," that work as a novel. I had a hard time getting involved in this book. I found it a bit slow. I had to push myself through it. Reading the other reviews had me wondering if I had read the same book. I kept reading because I do love her writing.
 Interesting read but not satisfying June 24, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Though very well written and interesting in parts, I had a hard time feeling satisfied with the book as a novel. It was disjointed and had so many characters that I couldn't keep everyone straight. A family tree diagram would have been helpful. The ending and reveal of the murderer was totally flat with no motive given for the killings. It didn't even make sense. I found some of the sexual situations too descriptive for good taste. It seemed that they were more gratuitous than actually necessary for the plot. I plodded along through the whole book hoping that in the end it would all come together. But when I was finished, I wondered why I had bothered to read it. I was very disappointed with the book as a whole.
I Can Understand the Hoopla - to a Point June 24, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
There were parts of this three generational book that were absolutely terrific. The members of oldest generation had spirit, uniqueness and depth. The second generation was a void. The third a mishmash that never found a voice that resonated. I looked forward to any scene that had the old men or the retrospective scenes.
The book, chronologically but not as written, starts with the lynching of Indians falsely accused of a massacreing a family, of which an infant survives. One of the group of Indians is spared and the yarn commences through him and his future generations. The telling is extremely disjointed. Only at the end are the relationships of some of the characters finally connected. This disjointedness really detracted from the book and the lack of continuity was aided by frequent use of nicknames which made character identification difficult.
The descendants of the lynching mob and victims stay in the area and relationships are formed. After two generations, I missed the point - do the youth really care? Should the reader? It seemed the lynching tale was merely a vehicle to bring together disparate character studies.
The good parts of the book - which were very good - offset the bad to make this a mediocre novel. It may have done much better as a collection of short stories with no pretense of connection.
Delightfully unpredictable May 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
THE PLAGUE OF DOVES, Louise Erdrich's first novel in almost three years, opens in 1911, as an unknown man stands in a room filled with the scent of blood. He plays a violin solo on a gramophone while repairing his jammed gun. The music soothes a screaming baby in a crib. The scene fades out as the gunman raises his weapon.
Many years later, a girl named Evelina relates a significant event in the life of Mooshum, her grandfather. In 1896, Indians and whites gathered in an attempt to defeat the flocks of doves devouring their crops. Although the people tried burning great fires and driving the birds into nets, the doves continued to demolish wheat, rye and corn plants. Mooshum was a young boy who joined with the others in a long line, walking through the fields to try to clear them. The birds were gathered solidly on the ground; one flew up and hit Mooshum on the head, knocking him down. When he opened his eyes, a young girl named Junesse was tending to him. The two fell in love instantly and ran away together.
Evelina knows of love herself, for she has written the name of her one true love, Corwin Peace, repeatedly on her body. Although he shoves Evelina and teases her about her braces, she counts it as a temporary setback to their romance. And soon Corwin is gazing directly and meaningfully into her eyes at church. Corwin and Evelina's story and the tale of Mooshum and Junesse alternate, the past mixing with the present, until Junesse is just a memory and Mooshum has fallen in love with the town's self-appointed historian, Neve Harp.
Meanwhile, Evelina is furious with Corwin and becomes obsessed with her teacher, Sister Mary Anita, who is young and athletic but has a jaw and teeth that remind Evelina of a dinosaur. Evelina's feelings for the nun overpower and confuse her. One day Mooshum explains just why he believes that Sister Mary Anita became a nun. Mooshum is a born storyteller who takes Evelina (and the book's readers) back to the terrible day in 1911 when he and his companions happened upon a farm, where he knew instinctively that something was horribly wrong. The men discovered a baby, alive and screaming but surrounded by dead bodies. This led to an unspeakable injustice, with reverberations echoing down the years --- and an ultimate impact complete with intriguing puzzles, which unexpectedly contort the plot of THE PLAGUE OF DOVES later in the tale.
As always, Louise Erdrich ensnares readers by carrying us into the richly imagined lives of her characters. Their stories veer into delightful unpredictability as they weave together into a complex narrative lush with mystery, humor, sorrow and history. Fans of Erdrich's work and newcomers alike will be charmed with this latest offering.
--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)
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