Customer Reviews

The Beet Queen: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

On a cold spring morning in 1932, fourteen-year old Karl Adare and his eleven-year-old sister, Mary, arrive by freight train in Argus, North Dakota. Abandoned by their mother, they have come to look for their mother's sister, Aunt Fritzie, who runs the House of Meats, a butcher shop, with her husband. The two Adares lose each other. Karl is frightened by a dog and runs back to the boxcar, and Mary runs the other way, toward town. And so begins the forty year saga of a family, and a community.

Through the years the family holds together through the tenacity of relationships, in a fierce and passionate drama, filled with Erdrich's dark humor. Changes sweep across their lives - birth, death, madness. Change also comes in the form of a growing sugar beet industry. Ms. Erdrich story chronicles Mary's life, as she puts down roots in Argus. She also keeps track of the tragic and sensitive dreamer, Karl, on his endless road journeys. He seem to compulsively flee emotional ties, and yet returns to Argus, again and again. At one point Karl says, "I give nothing, take nothing, mean nothing, hold nothing." He struggles with connection - with the past, and with his family and community. Mary's astounding dreams and fantasies also play an incredible and surreal role in the novel.

Themes of parenting and abandonment, jealousy, sexual obsession, and great love play out with passion in Ms. Erdrich's complex and believable characters, as does her portrayal of people's aggression and the self-destructive side of human nature. Her narrative is written with beauty, clarity and pure magic. This is not an easy book to read, nor is it always pleasant. It is, however, well worth the effort.

Like many of her characters, Ms. Erdrich has a foot in two worlds. She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, near the Bureau of Indian Affairs school where both her mother, of French-Ojibwe descent, and her father, of German descent, taught. She writes movingly about Native Americans "whose nobility resides in their ability to make their lives work."

I picked up this book at a second hand store. It had a dedication in the inside cover. It had been a gift for Mother's Day, and it read: "To the Queen of the house, because she can't be Beet!".

Erdrich has the special touch to make surreal situations so very believable. I love the parallel drawn with the plane rides, how in one case it is a beautiful woman running away from responsibility, and on the other it is a not-so-graceful woman running away from scorn. The birthday party scene is one of the most hilarious that come to mind, with the cake spinning out of control and Mary still singing Happy Birthday to You, while the guests are showered in frosting. And Mary's fall in the ice and the revered imprint of her face... How surreal can this book get?!?!

In my opinion, it makes sense to read this book first, followed by Love Medicine (93), followed by Tracks (89).

I first learned of Erdrich in some anthology, where i read her short story Fleur (now, that's a scary character, who appears in all three books!)

Louise Erdrich once said that her novels fell "together like a quilt, a crazy quilt,", and The Beet Queen is no exception. The author has constructed a powerful novel out of many voices and individual stories. The novel begins in 1932, with young Mary and Karl Adare getting off a train in Argus, North Dakota by themselves. A moment of fear sends Karl running back to the train, and Mary in the other direction, towards her aunt's house. This division between them sends them on different paths. Mary grows up as the despised cousin of lovely Sita, the foster daughter of Pete and Fritzie who own a butcher shop. Karl is eventually sent back to Minnesota to grow up in a Catholic children's home. The people who know them - Sita, Celestine, the Chamber of Commerce president Wallace Pfef, and finally Dot, the Beet Queen of the title - add their voices to weave a story that goes beyond Karl and Mary to include the entire town of Argus. Spanning forty years, the novel encompasses changes not only within the characters but in the town and the times in general.

Erdrich's characterizations are complex and heartfelt, especially since the multiple points-of-view allow us to see the characters from both inside and out. When characters describe the same incident from different perspectives, we get a deep understanding of what is at stake for each.

The Beet Queen is one of Erdrich's finest novels. Fans of Erdrich's will recognize some of the characters that appeared in the earlier Love Medicine and in her later books, but you don't need to be familiar with the author's work to become engrossed in this one. Highly recommended.

From the mesmerizing first chapter I was hooked. This is an adventure that makes you want to turn the pages quickly. I've noted that others have characterized this book as "bland," yet, isn't that the point? To truly feel the emotional palate of the characters, there can't be a big surprise at every corner. If you finish this book feeling confused, depressed, and a little hungry for her next book, then this author has done her job. If you like "cookie cutter" stories, then this book isn't for you.

This book is amazing and a truly beautiful work about the human spirit. The characters are numerous and complex, and the way the book skips around in terms of characters and time keeps you on your toes and keeps the story interesting -- you never know what to expect.

It was really the highlight of a recent vacation -- I couldn't put it down.

This is an interesting multi-generational saga of women and their relationships. It takes place
somewhere in the Dakota plains. The characterizations are beautifully described and there are
wonderful portrayals of the naturalness and reality of the bizarre and unbelievable in true, every
day life.

Though somewhat in the genre of Erdich's ex-husband's novel, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water: A Novel, 'The Beet Queen lacks the depth and human of Dorris's book.

Although the storyline was a bit drab, Louise Eldrich did a magniificent job of holding the reader's attention. I couldn't put it down!

From the beginning of the book you care about the characters and what will happen to them. The North Dakota landscape is vividly recreated and the writing is clear, concise, and gritty. My only real "complaint" is I felt unfulfilled by the ending...I kept saying, "but what happened to Jude? He will never know about his family! Wait, it can't end yet."

I discovered Louise Erdrich this year, read most of her books, and bought her first three novels for as a Christmas gift for my best friend. This isn't my favorite Erdrich novel but I like reading an author's books in the order they were written.

I am a fan of this author after reading The Master Butcher's Singing Club and Love Medicine- both of which I highly recommend. But this book left me cold. I could not bring myself to care about any of the characters or about the town. I felt that we were just given snippets over a period of time but no real continuity of any story. And the snippets we were given seemed to show everyone at their worst. About half way through, I just quit...too many good books out there to waste my time on this one.