A review by wcsheffer
The Bingo Palace by Louise Erdrich

4.0

Louise Erdrich is a talented storyteller with looping prose that easily envelopes the reader in snow, sun, or the grasses of her North Dakota setting. The Bingo Palace is the 4th in her loose series starting with Love Medicine which follows the intertwining lives of a Native Americans living on and off of a fictional reservation. This volume specifically focuses on Lipsha Morrisey the son of rebellious June Morrisey and criminal constantly on the lam Gerry Nanapush. It mostly details his love for Shawnee Ray Toose and the complications that come with loving her but like any true love story a whole lot of other people are involved including Lyman Lamartine, the entrepreneur of the reservation. I found the love story to be at times too much, I found myself frustrated at Erdrich getting so caught up in writing a story of a man's unrequited/complicated love for a woman, a plot point that many reader are all too familiar with but true to form Erdrich got me back in the story through multiple narrators, illuminating every day complications with relationships, and soaring descriptions of the prairie. I thought the strongest part of the book is the chapter told from the perspective of Redford, Shawnee Ray's young son. I also found myself most interested in the book when the characters had to confront estranged family and the legacies of growing up on a reservation. It was a beautiful book full of exquisite characters and looping plot lines but I did not think that it was as good as Love Medicine. I do not hesitate to recommend Erdrich to anyone and I fully believe that she is one of the greatest authors America has produced.