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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Interesting (if not fully developed) premise with a few missteps in tone (the way the book is divided makes the overall arc a bit jerky.) But Erdrich's language is as engaging, gorgeous, and human as ever. I would read a nutrition label if she wrote it.
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have owned this book for over a year now, but made the push to read it after Kristin recommended it. Read it all in a couple of days while backpacking and it was riveting! The ending was less climactic than I expected, but the story has stayed with me. It definitely gets deeper the longer I marinate on it. I loved all of the local Minneapolis references--makes me want to read more of Louise Erdrich's books to get more Minnesota in my literary diet. Just a super fascinating rumination on women and power, paired with an exciting dystopian setting.
FUTURE HOME OF THE LIVING GOD is part family drama and part dystopian novel. The book is written in the form of a journal written by Cedar to her unborn child. Cedar is a Native-American woman who has been adopted and raised by white parents. Her recent pregnancy prompts her to seek out her birth mother living on the reservation.
Meanwhile the world is crumbling, evolution having taken a turn with plants and animals mutating at an alarming speed and humans regressing into a less evolved state. As the world panics, pregnant women and those capable of becoming pregnant are gathered up to be studied in the hopes of reversing the damage being done to human genes.
This book hooked me in immediately and I really like Louise Erdrich’s writing with the way she develops her characters and their relationships. I consumed much of this novel via audiobook which is read by the author which is a definite plus for me. The novel raises a lot of questions of self-determination and reproductive rights. Given the nature of the story there are definite trigger warnings for violence, miscarriage and infant death. I’ve seen it compared a lot to Margaret Atwood’s A HANDMAID’S TALE and there are definitely similarities there in the way women lose the ability to determine their own reproductive rights.
My hesitation in determining how I really felt about the novel as a whole is primarily in how it wraps up. This isn’t a novel in which you are going to find the author tying everything up neatly in the end. Without saying too much as to cross into spoiler territory, there are unresolved relationships and questions in my mind that I would have liked to hear more about.
This is definitely a story that will stick with me and keep me thinking and I definitely will be reading more from Louise Erdrich.
Meanwhile the world is crumbling, evolution having taken a turn with plants and animals mutating at an alarming speed and humans regressing into a less evolved state. As the world panics, pregnant women and those capable of becoming pregnant are gathered up to be studied in the hopes of reversing the damage being done to human genes.
This book hooked me in immediately and I really like Louise Erdrich’s writing with the way she develops her characters and their relationships. I consumed much of this novel via audiobook which is read by the author which is a definite plus for me. The novel raises a lot of questions of self-determination and reproductive rights. Given the nature of the story there are definite trigger warnings for violence, miscarriage and infant death. I’ve seen it compared a lot to Margaret Atwood’s A HANDMAID’S TALE and there are definitely similarities there in the way women lose the ability to determine their own reproductive rights.
My hesitation in determining how I really felt about the novel as a whole is primarily in how it wraps up. This isn’t a novel in which you are going to find the author tying everything up neatly in the end. Without saying too much as to cross into spoiler territory, there are unresolved relationships and questions in my mind that I would have liked to hear more about.
This is definitely a story that will stick with me and keep me thinking and I definitely will be reading more from Louise Erdrich.
I went into this fairly blind, because... Louise Erdrich! So I had no idea it was a dystopian novel. The beginning really gave me some Handmaid's Tale vibes but then it kind of curved off and did its own thing. The second part of the book was heart-racing and captivating but honestly, I didn't really understand the backwards evolution concept. I did really love the format of it being a letter from mother to unborn child via journaling. I loved the friendship she formed in this book as well as how she explored what family meant to her. Again, Erdrich blew me away with her writing. Whether I like dystopian novels or not, I like whatever Erdrich writes!
as much of a personal meditation on motherhood & endurance as it was a dystopian thriller, i think the reviews that criticize it as a less believable/developed handmaid's tale are maybe missing the point? lots of layers here
also i loved all the minneapolis references (the hospital featured in the book was the hospital i was born in!)
also i loved all the minneapolis references (the hospital featured in the book was the hospital i was born in!)
The apocalypse is here and the world is ending. Evolution is running backwards now and it is affecting every living creature on the planet. Species that went extinct millions of years ago are reappearing and women are giving birth to primitive species of humans. Pregnant women are being hunted by the government, while daily life as we know it is falling apart.
Cedar Hawk Songmaker has just discovered she is four months pregnant. She has no idea what will happen to her or her baby. Cedar knows she must stay hidden at all costs if she wants to keep her child safe. Women are being captured and medicated at birthing centers until they deliver their babies. No one knows what happens to the women or the babies afterwards.
Cedar was adopted at birth by a white hippie couple from Minneapolis named Sera and Glen. She has grown up in a loving and protected environment, but knows next to nothing about her Native American heritage. When she finds out she's pregnant, she wants to tell her adoptive parents immediately, but she is also aware that her time is limited. Cedar must find her birth family before it's too late to learn more about her heritage.
Cedar finds her Ojibwe mother, Mary Potts, living on the reservation along with the rest of her biological family. As Cedar begins to grasp her own place in the world, everything around her begins to disintegrate as the end of the world draws near.
Will Cedar's baby be fine or will her her baby be born from our prehistoric past? How far will Cedar's families go to keep her and her baby safe?
Future Home of the Living God is an original dystopian world written by one of North America's most acclaimed indigenous writers. Erdich covers many topics in this novel ranging from indigenous rights to female agency, biology, and natural rights. I loved how the author tracks the development of Cedar's baby in a journal within the novel. The way she worked this into the story is a beautiful tribute to motherhood. I've seen many comparisons to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale but this book is nothing like it.
Future Home of the Living God is a compelling and lyrical read. It was one of the best books I've read in the past six months. Louise Erdich has been on my radar for a few years, but this is the first time I've read her work. I've found my 'new author' for 2020.
Best Takeaway Quotes
"Not that all Native views coincide here, mind you, there are plenty of people who believe that their particular tribal origin spot—hill, lake, cave, mountain—is the real place they emerged from. As much as I’d like to believe the same, I was raised with a reductionist worldview and think at least some of our people came across the land bridge in a steady migration, a trickle really, for tens of thousands of years. Then there were the people who navigated the sea to South America."- Louise Erdich
"I know the Word. It is the oldest word in any language, first utterance. Ma, ah, oh, mama. Mother. Not the word uttered by God to make life, but spoken by the baby who recognizes the being on whom life depends."- Louise Erdich
"Someone has been tortured on my behalf. Someone has been tortured on your behalf. Someone in this world will always be suffering on your behalf. If it comes your time to suffer, just remember. Someone suffered for you. That is what taking on a cloak of human flesh is all about, the willingness to hurt for another human being."- Louise Erdich
"The first thing that happens at the end of the world is that we don’t know what is happening." - Louise Erdich
"After all, it’s a global crisis, it’s the future of humanity, so you can see why they need to keep an eye on women. Every living thing is changing, Cedar, it’s biological chaos, things going backward at an awkward rate."- Louise Erdich
"We’re not taking back the whole top half of the state, or Pembina, Ontario, Manitoba, or Michigan, all our ancient stomping grounds. We’re just taking back the land within the original boundaries of our original treaty." - Louise Erdich
Cedar Hawk Songmaker has just discovered she is four months pregnant. She has no idea what will happen to her or her baby. Cedar knows she must stay hidden at all costs if she wants to keep her child safe. Women are being captured and medicated at birthing centers until they deliver their babies. No one knows what happens to the women or the babies afterwards.
Cedar was adopted at birth by a white hippie couple from Minneapolis named Sera and Glen. She has grown up in a loving and protected environment, but knows next to nothing about her Native American heritage. When she finds out she's pregnant, she wants to tell her adoptive parents immediately, but she is also aware that her time is limited. Cedar must find her birth family before it's too late to learn more about her heritage.
Cedar finds her Ojibwe mother, Mary Potts, living on the reservation along with the rest of her biological family. As Cedar begins to grasp her own place in the world, everything around her begins to disintegrate as the end of the world draws near.
Will Cedar's baby be fine or will her her baby be born from our prehistoric past? How far will Cedar's families go to keep her and her baby safe?
Future Home of the Living God is an original dystopian world written by one of North America's most acclaimed indigenous writers. Erdich covers many topics in this novel ranging from indigenous rights to female agency, biology, and natural rights. I loved how the author tracks the development of Cedar's baby in a journal within the novel. The way she worked this into the story is a beautiful tribute to motherhood. I've seen many comparisons to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale but this book is nothing like it.
Future Home of the Living God is a compelling and lyrical read. It was one of the best books I've read in the past six months. Louise Erdich has been on my radar for a few years, but this is the first time I've read her work. I've found my 'new author' for 2020.
Best Takeaway Quotes
"Not that all Native views coincide here, mind you, there are plenty of people who believe that their particular tribal origin spot—hill, lake, cave, mountain—is the real place they emerged from. As much as I’d like to believe the same, I was raised with a reductionist worldview and think at least some of our people came across the land bridge in a steady migration, a trickle really, for tens of thousands of years. Then there were the people who navigated the sea to South America."- Louise Erdich
"I know the Word. It is the oldest word in any language, first utterance. Ma, ah, oh, mama. Mother. Not the word uttered by God to make life, but spoken by the baby who recognizes the being on whom life depends."- Louise Erdich
"Someone has been tortured on my behalf. Someone has been tortured on your behalf. Someone in this world will always be suffering on your behalf. If it comes your time to suffer, just remember. Someone suffered for you. That is what taking on a cloak of human flesh is all about, the willingness to hurt for another human being."- Louise Erdich
"The first thing that happens at the end of the world is that we don’t know what is happening." - Louise Erdich
"After all, it’s a global crisis, it’s the future of humanity, so you can see why they need to keep an eye on women. Every living thing is changing, Cedar, it’s biological chaos, things going backward at an awkward rate."- Louise Erdich
"We’re not taking back the whole top half of the state, or Pembina, Ontario, Manitoba, or Michigan, all our ancient stomping grounds. We’re just taking back the land within the original boundaries of our original treaty." - Louise Erdich
I sped through this. It was so good. Somehow thrilling and surprising even through the calm voice of the narrator. A terrifying future, a new wave handmaiden's tale.
I have mixed feeling about this box. I enjoyed the dystopian feel and the potential of the story. The characters were ones that I longed to return to when not reading. I greatly anticipated what would happened and there was a level of suspense that was held until the last 20 or so pages. Once done I was left with a lacking feeling. While there were political and religious undertones I was confused with what Erdrich’s message was. I don’t feel like there was a clear vision of where she wanted to take this story. Again, so much potential and the middle drove the story along and had me excited to find out more but it falls flat.