Love Medicine: Newly Revised Edition (P.S.) [Paperback]

Louise Erdrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2009 | Series: P.S.

The stunning first novel in Louise Erdrich's Native American series, Love Medicine tells the story of two families, the Kashpaws and the Lamartines. Written in Erdrich's uniquely poetic, powerful style, it is a multi-generational portrait of strong men and women caught in an unforgettable drama of anger, desire, and the healing power that is love medicine.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Louise Erdrich is the author of thirteen novels, several volumes of poetry, short stories, children's books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel Love Medicine won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and The Plague of Doves was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Minnesota and is the owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Revised edition (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061787426
• ISBN-13: 978-0061787423
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Louise Erdrich is the author of twelve novels as well as volumes of poetry, children's books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her debut novel, Love Medicine, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent novel, The Plague of Doves, a New York Times bestseller, received the highest praise from Philip Roth, who wrote, "Louise Erdrich's imaginative freedom has reached its zenith--The Plague of Doves is her dazzling masterpiece." Louise Erdrich lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Story of Complicated, Meaningful Tribal Tribes, August 24, 2009

By 

Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Medicine: Newly Revised Edition (P.S.) (Paperback)

Louise Erdich, the author, is of German and Chippewa descent. The story is about the Chippewa (aka Ojibwa) living on a fictional reservation in North Dakota and how one person's death affects so many lives. Lke a "dark twisting river - the bed is deep and narrow" as it meanders through the land and time.

The first chapter describes June Kashpaw, Chippewa mother and wife, off the Reservation walking down the boom-town of Williston, North Dakota, thinking of taking a bus home to the reservation. She meets a man at a bar, has a brief liaison, and then freezes to death walking home in a snow storm. The stories following cascade and are held together by her death, how her children, husband (Gordie Kashpaw), and others on the reservation are touched by the murder.

The story meanders in a unstructured way through short stories - interconnected - but could easily stand on their own. There are 18 Chapters in the expanded version. Characters from Chippewa and Mixed Blood families talk in mostly first person and connected through relatives or lovers over decades. Each chapter starts with a new character telling a piece of the interconnected story from their viewpoint. It takes awhile to understand which character is talking. The timeline is choppy and hops back and forth from the 1930's to the 1980's. It would have been good to have a "family tree" at the end of the book to see more clearly the interrelationships. However, I feel guilty saying that as the Chippewa don't believe in human measurement - of numbers, time, inches, feet, or quantification - as they are "all just plays for cutting nature down to size." The Chippewa feel the "grand scheme of nature is not ours to measure." The book has many ways to be interpreted and each reader has

There is a raw reality with the unique and eccentric tales of the families (Lammartines, Kashpaws, Lazarres and Morriseys). The reader pieces the complicated puzzle together. We realize that the basics of life are what we all need and want, territory, religion, culture, love, truth, forgiveness, family which are demonstrated in the tales - like the river of life mentioned in the book.

The title "Love Medicine" relates to the Chippewa belief that that geese mate for life - and if a couple eats their hearts, it will cure infidelity.

Louise Erdrich reveals and defends the culture as it clings to the past and clashes with the White Man's overwhelming culture, politics and laws. Like a fabric the weave of interconnectedness's of the tribe is key.

Love Medicine is an unusual book, a challenge to understand, but rewarding as a cultural eye-opener.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wake up America!, November 19, 2009

By 

Carla Schmidt Holloway "Carla" (Iowa) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Love Medicine: Newly Revised Edition (P.S.) (Paperback)

The dilemma of the colonized in search for an identity which is neither static and backward-facing, nor imposed by the worldview of the colonizer is the subject of Erdrich's Love Medicine. Her winding, free-flowing storyline mirrors her endorsement of the fluidity of family connections, one of the most significant difference between Euro-American and Ojibwa cultures. Defying the strictures of the novel, the anthology, or any other established writing style, Erdrich refuses to abide by the rules of Western traditions of fiction. A slap in the face to any notions of the superiority of such traditions, Erdrich's tales demand attention by being undeniably honest, and evoking empathy for even those characters who represent everything which is in opposition to Western culture, and zeroing in on the painful truths of America's imperialist history without subjecting the reader to a history lesson. One of the most important books on the Native American experience I've ever encountered.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Special Story, Beautiful Told, April 6, 2010

By 

Island Dreamer (Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Love Medicine: Newly Revised Edition (P.S.) (Paperback)

This is a multigenerational story of two American families, the Lamartines and the Kashpaws, told in interrelated short stories. If you've never been on an Indian Reservation, you'll feel you have been when you've finished this book. You'll find love and desperation here. You'll come across despair. You'll see so much more than you bargained for when you started this book that is oh so special and oh so beautifully told.