Scan barcode
genevieve5's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry
caitlinschwartz's review against another edition
5.0
This book is unlike any other I have read. Truly beautiful and profound while at the same time being hilarious. It is the story of a life and the nature of life in general, but it does not take itself too seriously. I often wonder how Louise Erdrich comes up with this stuff! Amazing. Grateful for her imagination.
ridingwithjasper's review against another edition
5.0
Storytelling at its best! Beautifully told story with the perfect splash of magical realism. I will miss this book and these characters.
clairealex's review against another edition
5.0
This was the first of the Erdrich books I had read, and it was a very good read. The story was compelling, the characters interesting, and the ideas worth thinking about.
And though it stood on its own, as I later read other of her works and recognized recurring characters, I decided to reread it, and it was a whole different experience with the background of the other stories.
And though it stood on its own, as I later read other of her works and recognized recurring characters, I decided to reread it, and it was a whole different experience with the background of the other stories.
jackgoss's review against another edition
challenging
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? Yes
3.0
csbassett's review against another edition
5.0
"Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" has a vast emotional reach, wide as the horizon and deep into the heart of the reader. I am struck by the setting as deceptively finite, a contained Ojibwe reservation and community, yet its life bleeds in many directions: backward and forward in time, and into the afterlife and spirit world, into our longings. The story is at times like a strange and disorienting dream, at other times a familiar, heroic, searching, even humorous Western. The protagonist is our host, though not completely our guide, and the complicated relationships of many characters offer paths that lead from one reality to another. This is Erdrich showing her gifts. One indelible line from the final chapter, presented in a priest's sermon and as a memory: "What is the whole of our existence but the sound of an appalling love?" I recommend this book strongly, when you have the opportunity to let it carry you inward and away.
correy_baldwin's review against another edition
4.0
Louise Erdrich is a master. There were passages and sections in this novel that were as masterful and sublime as anything I’ve ever read.
Erdrich tends to write sprawling novels, and pack in a whole lot of characters, generations, narrative elements… This makes her novels wonderful places in which to lose yourself, but inevitably, some of the interesting strands also tend to get lost, or dropped. It’s too bad when this happens, not because these strands feel unnecessary, but because they’re all so intriguing and you want them all to be fleshed out fully. There were friendships and mysteries, spiritual conundrums and personal crises that were wonderfully conceived, but then trailed off. This novel easily could have used another 100 or 200 pages.
I should say, partway through reading it I got overtaken by pandemic-lockdown-related brain fog, which meant I faltered (especially over the more episodic elements of the book) and had difficulty finishing it. Presumably this wasn't the fault of the novel.
Excellent characters, wonderful premise, wonderful musings about spirituality and friendship and what makes life meaningful and fulfilling.
(An aside: I'm curious about the role of the main character: a white Catholic priest on an Indigenous reserve who is entirely sympathetic, and who gains a deep appreciation of Indigenous spirituality and a deep humility regarding Catholicism and their own role within the Indigenous community. Is Erdrich re-imagining what a more positive relationship between the Catholic Church and Indigenous communities could have looked like? Or was she just taken with this character?)
Erdrich tends to write sprawling novels, and pack in a whole lot of characters, generations, narrative elements… This makes her novels wonderful places in which to lose yourself, but inevitably, some of the interesting strands also tend to get lost, or dropped. It’s too bad when this happens, not because these strands feel unnecessary, but because they’re all so intriguing and you want them all to be fleshed out fully. There were friendships and mysteries, spiritual conundrums and personal crises that were wonderfully conceived, but then trailed off. This novel easily could have used another 100 or 200 pages.
I should say, partway through reading it I got overtaken by pandemic-lockdown-related brain fog, which meant I faltered (especially over the more episodic elements of the book) and had difficulty finishing it. Presumably this wasn't the fault of the novel.
Excellent characters, wonderful premise, wonderful musings about spirituality and friendship and what makes life meaningful and fulfilling.
(An aside: I'm curious about the role of the main character: a white Catholic priest on an Indigenous reserve who is entirely sympathetic, and who gains a deep appreciation of Indigenous spirituality and a deep humility regarding Catholicism and their own role within the Indigenous community. Is Erdrich re-imagining what a more positive relationship between the Catholic Church and Indigenous communities could have looked like? Or was she just taken with this character?)
quinn13's review against another edition
I expected to enjoy this but honestly found it a slog. The jumping around in time and shifts in perspective were never confusing but I didn't feel as though those choices did the book any favours. Most of the shifts away from Father Damien to Nanapush or Lulu or other characters made a certain kind of sense toward the end of the book but as I was reading I just wanted Erdrich to get back to the point.
I think that was my problem - I wanted something as linear and fast-paced as Future Home of the Living God and got something meandering instead.
I think that was my problem - I wanted something as linear and fast-paced as Future Home of the Living God and got something meandering instead.
beverly_army13's review against another edition
5.0
Erdrich has written a complex, exciting novel. The cast of characters is pretty large, but she remains in control of them; they are individual and important to the story. The protagonist, Agnes/Modeste, has reinvented herself several times, and the juxtaposition of her complicated life with the present action kept me reading. This was a book that I slowed my reading for; I didn't want it to end.
Great for studying integration of character details into setting.
Great for studying integration of character details into setting.
thebooklady_nj's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0