A review by cseibs
Tales of Burning Love by Louise Erdrich

1.0

It pained me to read this book because I ordinarily love Erdrich. The story here never became a story - it felt as though Erdrich had about a half dozen ideas and could settle on one so she just threw them all in together. She tried to make Jack the unifying element, but he was such a nonentity that the story never coalesced. These women can profess to love Jack all they want, but I certainly never saw any reason why they would. The extended scene in the car put me over the edge. It brought me back to an Intro to Creative Writing course in college where the professor told us never to set a story in the car because you box you characters in and no action can happen. This is exactly what Erdrich did. The stories that were told were not in any way authentic and the action in the car became farcical instead of harrowing. Overall, this was a real disappointment.