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book_darner's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This started out so strong. I loved reading about Agnes. It then slowed down and I fell out of love with father Damien and the book.
Good, but thought it was going to be great.
Good, but thought it was going to be great.
ktrain3900's review against another edition
4.0
Louise Erdrich is becoming one of those authors I feel like I can always trust for a good read. Almost a collection of linked short stories, this novel is about storytelling, memory, fictions merged with facts (and vice versa), religion and worship, family and relationships, passing, gender, love, and of course miracles. But, despite this ostensibly being a story about the considered sainthood of a difficult nun, miracles are not limited to Catholic ideas of miracles. There are also Ojibwe miracles, human miracles, nature miracles, etc. The everyday is a miracle. The course of a life is a miracle. Ultimately that's what this book is about.
indyreadrosa's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic writing. not always a terribly cheerful book. a lot of characters and some unreliable narration all handled well.
attolis's review against another edition
4.5
Some of the best writing I've ever read. Looking forward to reading more Erdrich in the future.
lola1229's review against another edition
November 2021
DNF. Read for eighty-four years, and made it all the way to page 23.
DNF. Read for eighty-four years, and made it all the way to page 23.
kara999's review against another edition
5.0
This one took me a little while to get into, even though I always enjoy Erdrich's stories, characters, and prose style. The structure and focus of the novel were a bit confusing to me; it does ultimately come together in the end but takes some patience for the first 100-150 pages to get there. As in Erdrich's other novels, there is a complex, colorful group of characters, many of them storytellers themselves, and they add to the ongoing lore of this community that Erdrich returns to in so many of her works.
When the novel begins, there are two main premeses: one is that Father Damien is telling his life story, in parts, as he nears the end of his life; the second is the potential sainthood of Sister Leopolda, being investigated by a second priest from outside of the reservation, Father Jude. While both Damien and Leopolda are religious clergy, their stories are vastly different, or seem to be, and the reader begins to question the idea of the miracles referred to in the title, and whether the novel is really that interested in whether Leopolda herself is responsible for any of them. Ultimately, it is Damien's life that is miraculous, though in seemingly small, ordinary ways, which brings us back to his early comment to Father Jude that a potential saint's beatification should be confirmed by "her daily example," the question of whether she led "an exemplary existence." Over the course of the novel, Leopolda is exposed as cruel and vindictive, but Damien, as flawed as he may be, is the character who leads by example. Interestingly, this example is not to strongarm his potential parishioners into joining the Catholic Church; instead, he is patient and curious in listening to Ojibwe beliefs and customs. Damien's faith is transformed, just as he has transformed himself from Agnes to Cecilia, back to Agnes and to Damien. This protagonist contains within his person two identities that are somehow both separate and merged, and this understanding of his identity also reaches into his convergence of Catholic and Ojibwe beliefs.
As with all of Erdrich's novels that I have read, I leave the text with an appreciation and awe of her ability to create such complex, lovable, frustrating characters and to capture their stories and their words in her careful and perceptive prose.
When the novel begins, there are two main premeses: one is that Father Damien is telling his life story, in parts, as he nears the end of his life; the second is the potential sainthood of Sister Leopolda, being investigated by a second priest from outside of the reservation, Father Jude. While both Damien and Leopolda are religious clergy, their stories are vastly different, or seem to be, and the reader begins to question the idea of the miracles referred to in the title, and whether the novel is really that interested in whether Leopolda herself is responsible for any of them. Ultimately, it is Damien's life that is miraculous, though in seemingly small, ordinary ways, which brings us back to his early comment to Father Jude that a potential saint's beatification should be confirmed by "her daily example," the question of whether she led "an exemplary existence." Over the course of the novel, Leopolda is exposed as cruel and vindictive, but Damien, as flawed as he may be, is the character who leads by example. Interestingly, this example is not to strongarm his potential parishioners into joining the Catholic Church; instead, he is patient and curious in listening to Ojibwe beliefs and customs. Damien's faith is transformed, just as he has transformed himself from Agnes to Cecilia, back to Agnes and to Damien. This protagonist contains within his person two identities that are somehow both separate and merged, and this understanding of his identity also reaches into his convergence of Catholic and Ojibwe beliefs.
As with all of Erdrich's novels that I have read, I leave the text with an appreciation and awe of her ability to create such complex, lovable, frustrating characters and to capture their stories and their words in her careful and perceptive prose.
esselleayy's review against another edition
5.0
I don't think I've ever read any Louise Erdrich despite all her acclaim over the years. Now I feel like I have to read everything.