Scan barcode
A review by gorecki
The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008 by Louise Erdrich
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".