Customer Reviews

Tales of Burning Love: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

"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.

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.

This is a really odd book. I went from being bored to the point of putting it down, to leaning forward in my chair with anticipation. I'm glad a hung with it. I love her words and her style and she does a good job of telling a story from a man's point of view, but some of the scenarios in this book are just kind of out in left field! I thought of John Irving more than once as her characters found themselves in bizarre and embarrassing situations. Overall I would say that it was a good book, but The Master Butcher's Singing Club is still hands down my favorite by Louise Erdrich!

Having read some of Erdrich's novels, including Love Medicine or The Beet Queen, I was expecting an 'Indianesque' novel again. However, the only thing that reminded me of the other novels was her way of emphasizing the importance of stories, that is 'Tales of Burning Love' for our lives. In this case it is the tales that literally help the women survive. Let me start at the beginning:
We get to know Jack Mauser who, yes, is a womanizer, but (we have to admit) a very fascinating and challenging persona. At least this comes to show why five women were once married to him. Now they get together at his burial (only to find out at the end that he isn't dead after all) and get stuck in a blizzard. Their only way of surving the snowstorm is by each of the respective women telling her story with Jack. What grabs the reader is that each of the women has an individual voice which shows in her way of telling the story. Although Jack is the centre of the stories, he's also at the margin, because the stories are about themselves, too. Somehow the telling revives and warms them and at the same time soothes the wounds Jack has caused. Finally they are rescued and resume their lives with renewed strength. Once again Erdrich succeeded in creating such an intense atmosphere that I had problems putting the book down. I hope she will forever go on telling us tales...

I read this my first Erdrich novel after a writer whose opinion I respect recommended her. This is the tale of Jack Mauser and his many wives-- maybe five altogether. The plot has as many twists and turns as a blizzard in North Dakota where much of the action occurs. Watch for what Ms. Erdrich does with the title near the end of the book. She's always ahead of us.

At times I thought that Jack isn't worth all the attention he gets from his women. He is after all a drunk, a womanizer and a cheater in business, truly one of the types that George and Tammy sang about. But his women often get the upper hand, sometimes quite literally. One of them in order to show Jack that "it hurts to be a girl," ties him up and plucks out most of his facial hair in what has to be one of the funniest scenes I've read in a long time.

The story, sometimes outlandish, probably wouldn't have worked with someone with less talent. But these characters with all their warts breathe. I never doubted for a moment their humanity. Erdrich is wonderful at describing a character with few words -- or with many if the occasion calls for it.

Finally, don't you have to love a writer who says that "no blue is ordinary. Blue is the stuff of the soul"?

I just finished this book and I have a question. If we are to believe the ending of _Bingo Palace_, Gerry Nanapush, after he and Lipsha have stolen a car with Jack Mauser Jr. in it, run into the ghost of June Morrisey and Gerry leaves this world to join her in the next.

This time frame is revisited in _Tales_ and we see that Gerry has somehow escaped the snowbound car and gone to see Dot, joins the 4 wives as the hitchhiker in the back of their snowbound vehicle, then leaves and visits his daughter before dissapearing. How is this possible? How he could he take off to another world with June (presumably as some kind of spirit entity), and at the sasme time come visit Dot as a very alive human? It could be explained if the Gerry that vistied Dot was a spirit, but the book makes it very clear he's not. He has sex with Dot, and even at the end of his visit with his daughter asks her where the gascan for the snowmobile is so he can escape, something a spirit would not need to do.

As far as the book itself, I found it to be another example of Erdrich's superb talent, full of poetic and spirtual images and well drawn, compelling characters. I thought it did drag a bit during the part where the 4 wives were stranded, especially during Marlis's story. Overall I'd highly reccomend it. It would help to read _Love Medicine_, _Tracks_, and _Bingo Palace_ first, in that order.

Louise Erdrich is a masterful novelist, capable of writing spellbinding prose and developing complex, wonderfully human characters. In *Tales of Burning Love*, all of these talents are apparent, and the novel is, if nothing else, a "good read." If some of her past works have tended toward a plodding pace and an ethereal kind of tone, this one is different in that it finds Ehrlich creating a veritable snowstorm of action and events. In fact, there are so many bizarre twists and turns, so many eerie occurrences laden with ironies and sly twists of fate that one suspects that Erdrich may here be trying to broaden her audience so as to make her work more commercially successful. It was this shift toward the tawdry, the sensational, and the lowest common denominator in terms of target audience that I found myself resenting by the end of the book.

The male protagonist, Jack Mauser, has few or no redeeming qualities, as far as I can discern. He's cruel, moody, unstable, and neither terribly bright nor sensitive. Yet one of the principal premises of the book is that this man is veritably irresistible to a variety of women, four of whom he marries. Perhaps this makes the book a "woman's book," inasmuch as some female readers might find some point of identity with these women in the way that they just can't help loving this jerk, despite their better judgment. But I found the whole swirl of affections and passions surrounding Jack Mauser annoying and unconvincing.

Even at her worst, Louise Erdrich is a terrific novelist, and this novel is well worth reading simply for the masterful way that Erdrich tells a story, makes transitions, and creates moods and visions. But this is not her best novel.

I love Louise Erdrich. I have read several of her novels, but I didn't care for this one. Although the porse is beautiful, I really disliked nearly all of the characters. It was a hard read for me if only for this one point, but I also found some of the storyline to drone on a little too long. A lot of the time I just didn't care what happened to these people. Nonetheless, I read the entire book and I will read more of her books as well. I gave this 4 stars because the writing is superb, it just wasn't my cup of tea, so to speak.

This is Louise Erdrich's latest novel, newly released in paperback. Though it ties into the books of the Beet Queen Trilogy, it is not really a sequel, and is a good introduction to Erdrich's work for those who are unfamiliar with it. But if you are an Erdrich fan, as I am, you'll enjoy meeting Dot, Leonora and Gerry again. What would happen if a man's four wives were trapped in a car during a snowstorm, unsure if they would ever get out alive? They would tell stories about him, of course! And interspersed with their stories about Jack Mauser, this infuriating man that they all--in their way--still love, we hear the womens' own stories of survival, pain, passion and laughter. There's intellectual Eleanor, taking refuge in a convent house in North Dakota to stave off loneliness and despair; Dot, who marries Jack although still officially married to--and in love with-- a man serving two life sentences in prison; Candice, a successful family dentist who meets Jack in a city dump with his dog; and young Marlis, taken in and protected by Candice as she bears Jack's baby. In the end, although Jack's story is not without fascination (you'll never believe the twist) you'll come to respect and admire the women, all of whom come into their own both thanks to and in spite of their husband. Erdrich has a gift for breathing truth into even the most fantastic events and making everyday interactions hold mystery and magic. This is her most captivating novel