Customer Reviews

Night Train

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I laughed until I thought the neighbors would be concerned!

Hysterical stories; she nails it with her wry wit and dry humor.

In this debut book by a new author, Lise Erdrich challenges borders: the cultural chasm between the white dominant culture and the indigenous Ojibwe population; the (wise)crack between history and myth; the river between North Dakota and Minnesota; the thin line between love and hate in abusive relationships; the hazy territory between addiction and mental health. Whether her characters are cooking dirty rice or attending frat parties, they question and challenge the reader's assumptions. Sometimes raw and colloquial, Erdrich's language and carefully selected details create vivid pictures: while grocery shopping with her new love, the narrator in "XXXL" observes "We happened to be at the giant-size stuff in Aisle One, that didn't faze him. In went gallon cans of corn niblets, kidney and pinto and Great Northern beans, stewed tomatoes, small potatoes, solid pack pumpkin and spiced apple rings." These short short stories, arranged in alphabetical order by title, capture the irony of lives in the edge with humor, insight, and feisty spice.