Tales Of Burning Love [Paperback]

Louise Erdrich (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harper-perennial; Later Printing edition (2001)
• ASIN: B000JZZI58
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

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

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better off reading _Love Medicine_, May 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tales of Burning Love: A Novel (Paperback)

Louise Erdrich is a fine, accomplished writer. Somehow, it seemed to me that this novel exhibited signs of subject exhaustion. I believe that _Love Medicine_ is proof that Erdrich should be held in high regard as a writer, as the talent is truly there. That work also served as a template for some of her later works, a fact which I am a bit disappointed by since I feel that none of them have achieved the same level of poetic impact. _Tales of Burning Love_ is well written, but I feel that the story drags in places, and can be tedious to sit through; it helped that I read the majority of it while riding the bus. I was sorry to see her using the same characters again. They are strong, worthy, and well-developed characters, but in the context of this particular story they seemed more contrived.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a lot of psychology there - a very good read, February 13, 2009

By 

Aleksandra Nita-Lazar (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales of Burning Love: A Novel (Paperback)

"Tales of Burning Love": what a cunning, deceitful, yet revealing title... I was long waiting to lay my hand on something by Louise Erdrich and this is the first of her novels I have read. I figured out that this is not considered the best one of her works, but I actually liked it quite a lot.

The plot is set in or around Fargo, North Dakota (with occasional changes of setting) - this already made the novel interesting, as my mental image of Fargo is that from the Cohen brothers' "Fargo" (and Erdrich's descriptions fit very well what has already been in my head). The bracket character is Jack Mauser, a part-Native American man, as masculine as a man can be; and as fatally attractive to women. Married five times, Jack has a talent to get involved in risky or suspicious business schemes and when he dies because of one, his four former wives meet at his funeral. On the way back, they get caught in a snowstorm in one car (with the mysterious hitchhiker) and there lies the real essence of this novel, for the women take turns telling the stories of their lives and their relationships with Jack. As the stories unravel, the reader gets to know better all four: Eleanor (my favorite character - I could relate to her best), the meticulous and neurotic scientist, doing research at the nunnery, a daughter of a circus acrobat and of a funeral home owner; Candice, a perfectionist, a dentist, who has everything thought out, but surprises herself with unexpected love; Marlis, a would-be artist with no morals; and Dot, a solid, down-to earth accountant. They reveal a lot of tender feelings and intimate details, and each shows her unique personality. How the women so different can be infatuated with one man... It makes me wonder. From their stories, a complex portrait of Jack emerges.

The snowstorms clasp the whole novel, the first one in which Jack loses his first wife, and the one after the funeral. I liked this, as well as the role of the fire in the story. The novel is full of unexpected turns, and when it seems to slow down, something happens to wake the reader up - at the beginning I though I would not like it, but after the first chapter I really got into it. The spiritual aspect mixes with the physical, the feminine with the masculine, so that the whole range of human endeavors is explored. And be really aware, that the title, although it seems to promise a romance novel (as well as the strange, for me not very appealing, cover), is really tricky and can be understood only while reading.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prose as cool and constant as rain., December 28, 1998

By 

Jennifer "Robbins-Mullin" (Pittsburgh) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of Burning Love: A Novel (Paperback)

Effortlessly Erdrich weaves a web of words that quickly unravels the skeen of the characters lives. We are told where they've been, and yet where they are and where they are going is as swirling and directionless as the snow in a squall. And so much of the characters lives are indeed revealed during a snowbound incident. There they must come to grips with the truths in their lives and what it means to love, lose, and love again. I highly recommend this novel. Of all Erdrich's work it most fully encompasses what it FEELS like to be stumbling through love and life.