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jennyshank's review against another edition
4.0
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/08/the-red-convertible-selected-and-new-stories/
Home › Entertainment › Books
The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008
By Jenny Shank, Special to the Rocky
Published January 8, 2009 at 7 p.m.
Louise Erdrich revisits familiar themes and images in her new collection.
* Fiction. By Louise Erdrich. Harper, $27.95. Grade: A
Plot in a nutshell: The Red Convertible collects a selection of 30 years' worth of stories by Erdrich, demonstrating that while she was a very good storyteller at the beginning of her career, writing with a poised voice, creating memorable characters, and packing her stories with convincing detail, her craft has improved with time, and her tales have grown funnier, rawer, and more heartbreaking in recent years.
Many of these stories evolved into the 11 novels Erdrich has written so far, and the collection reads like an expansive, crazy-quilt version of her novels. In those books, Erdrich typically includes multiple perspectives and moves from one discrete story to the next to form the larger tale. In this collection, characters recur and move through time, so that little girls in one story become grandmothers in the next. Characters of American Indian, French, and German heritage intermingle, with explosive results.
Erdrich revisits certain themes and images repeatedly, such as butcher shops, motherhood, and doomed, passionate love, but each story is fresh, and there are a number of singular details that will linger in readers' minds, including a wild moose chase (Le Mooz), a breast-feeding adoptive father (Father's Milk), a middle-schooler's hideous dress (The Dress), and a souped-up van offered as a bingo hall prize (The Bingo Van).
Sample of prose: From The Antelope Wife: "Some dancers, you see them sweating, hear their feet pound the sawdust or grass or the Astroturf or gym floor, what have you. Some dancers swelter and their faces darken with the effort. Others, you never understand how they are moving, where it comes from. They're at one with their effort. Those, you lose your heart to and that's what happens to me."
Pros: Erdrich's characters are unforgettable, from the irrepressible, hefty outlaw's wife Dot Adare to the mysteriously powerful Fleur Pillager, to the randy prankster patriarch Nanapush, and the naked, piano-playing ex-nun Agnes DeWitt.
Cons: Erdrich writes in the preface, "Every time I write a short story, I am certain that I have come to the end . . . But the stories are rarely finished with me." In fact, most of these stories evolved into novels, so Erdrich fans already may be familiar with them.
Final word: In her patch of the northern plains centered around Minnesota and North Dakota, Erdrich has created her own Yoknapatawpha, peopled with characters whose bloodlines intertwine and rivalries endure for generations.
Home › Entertainment › Books
The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008
By Jenny Shank, Special to the Rocky
Published January 8, 2009 at 7 p.m.
Louise Erdrich revisits familiar themes and images in her new collection.
* Fiction. By Louise Erdrich. Harper, $27.95. Grade: A
Plot in a nutshell: The Red Convertible collects a selection of 30 years' worth of stories by Erdrich, demonstrating that while she was a very good storyteller at the beginning of her career, writing with a poised voice, creating memorable characters, and packing her stories with convincing detail, her craft has improved with time, and her tales have grown funnier, rawer, and more heartbreaking in recent years.
Many of these stories evolved into the 11 novels Erdrich has written so far, and the collection reads like an expansive, crazy-quilt version of her novels. In those books, Erdrich typically includes multiple perspectives and moves from one discrete story to the next to form the larger tale. In this collection, characters recur and move through time, so that little girls in one story become grandmothers in the next. Characters of American Indian, French, and German heritage intermingle, with explosive results.
Erdrich revisits certain themes and images repeatedly, such as butcher shops, motherhood, and doomed, passionate love, but each story is fresh, and there are a number of singular details that will linger in readers' minds, including a wild moose chase (Le Mooz), a breast-feeding adoptive father (Father's Milk), a middle-schooler's hideous dress (The Dress), and a souped-up van offered as a bingo hall prize (The Bingo Van).
Sample of prose: From The Antelope Wife: "Some dancers, you see them sweating, hear their feet pound the sawdust or grass or the Astroturf or gym floor, what have you. Some dancers swelter and their faces darken with the effort. Others, you never understand how they are moving, where it comes from. They're at one with their effort. Those, you lose your heart to and that's what happens to me."
Pros: Erdrich's characters are unforgettable, from the irrepressible, hefty outlaw's wife Dot Adare to the mysteriously powerful Fleur Pillager, to the randy prankster patriarch Nanapush, and the naked, piano-playing ex-nun Agnes DeWitt.
Cons: Erdrich writes in the preface, "Every time I write a short story, I am certain that I have come to the end . . . But the stories are rarely finished with me." In fact, most of these stories evolved into novels, so Erdrich fans already may be familiar with them.
Final word: In her patch of the northern plains centered around Minnesota and North Dakota, Erdrich has created her own Yoknapatawpha, peopled with characters whose bloodlines intertwine and rivalries endure for generations.
ava_catherine's review against another edition
5.0
Erdrich is one of my favorite writers, and in Red Convertible the reader gets the flavor of her writing over the past thirty years. Erdrich makes me laugh and cry (sometimes at the very same time) , and then when I have wiped my eyes, I come back for more. She says more in a single sentence than most authors say in a chapter. Her prose is to be savored and reread.
meglindsay's review against another edition
4.0
Somehow delightfully funny despite being surrounded by shrouds of depression.
tiff_reads_'s review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed Erdrich's collection of short stories, almost as much as I enjoy her novels. Many of the short stories in this collection I had read before as chapters in her novels; I enjoy how these stories are strong enough to function as both an independent story and a chapter in the novel. Erdrich is a very talented writer, using a variety of narrative techniques in the collection. I look forward to reading more of her works,
gorecki's review against another edition
I admit I am biased when it comes to Louise Erdrich. As one of my all-time favorite authors I really believe she's one of the best contemporary American writers. The narratives she creates and the stories she weaves are realistic and magical, emotional and raw, upsetting and uplifting all at the same time. I have rarely seen such perfect combination of humor and sadness within the same page.
In this collection of short stories, you can find the essence of her writing and the key to most of her main body of work. These short stories are the elements that build up the core of most of her novels, as she herself puts it in the foreword, and while reading them you can really notice that most of these stories are chapters from some of her novels, or stories of the characters you can find in them. All of them (except for the last few) have in some form already appeared as main stories or topics in her books, and while in those books they are developed further and more elaborate, in this short story collection they are a concentrate, a concoction - short, concise, and strong. If you would like to experience the essence of Louise Erdrich's writing, then this collection if just the book for you.
On a more personal note, some of these stories simply made me sigh and clasp the book to my chest while reading. This book contains many favorite stories that will haunt me for a long time and I am very happy that I can always just pull it off the shelf and dive into them again and again every time I just feel like it. To name just a few - "Saint Marie", "Snares", "Fleur", "The Leap", "The Fat Man's Race", "Father's Milk", "The Gravitron", "History of the Puyats", "Naked Woman Playing Chopin", "Shamengwa", "The Shawl".
In this collection of short stories, you can find the essence of her writing and the key to most of her main body of work. These short stories are the elements that build up the core of most of her novels, as she herself puts it in the foreword, and while reading them you can really notice that most of these stories are chapters from some of her novels, or stories of the characters you can find in them. All of them (except for the last few) have in some form already appeared as main stories or topics in her books, and while in those books they are developed further and more elaborate, in this short story collection they are a concentrate, a concoction - short, concise, and strong. If you would like to experience the essence of Louise Erdrich's writing, then this collection if just the book for you.
On a more personal note, some of these stories simply made me sigh and clasp the book to my chest while reading. This book contains many favorite stories that will haunt me for a long time and I am very happy that I can always just pull it off the shelf and dive into them again and again every time I just feel like it. To name just a few - "Saint Marie", "Snares", "Fleur", "The Leap", "The Fat Man's Race", "Father's Milk", "The Gravitron", "History of the Puyats", "Naked Woman Playing Chopin", "Shamengwa", "The Shawl".
xtinamariet's review
5.0
Savored this one over 5 months. What a breadth of stories, from fantasy to ancient to modern, some in the same universe, others completely separate, exploring themes universal like love and family and particular to the Native American community.
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