The Plague of Doves

By: Louise Erdrich

Narrated by: Peter Francis James, Kathleen McInerney

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Louise Erdrich's mesmerizing new novel, her first in almost three years, centers on a compelling mystery.

The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation. The descendants of Ojibwe and white intermarry, their lives intertwine; only the youngest generation, of mixed blood, remains unaware of the role the past continues to play in their lives.

Evelina Harp is a witty, ambitious young girl, part Ojibwe, part white, who is prone to falling hopelessly in love. Mooshum, Evelina's grandfather, is a seductive storyteller, a repository of family and tribal history with an all-too-intimate knowledge of the violent past. Nobody understands the weight of historical injustice better than Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, a thoughtful mixed blood who witnesses the lives of those who appear before him, and whose own love life reflects the entire history of the territory.

In distinct and winning voices, Erdrich's narrators unravel the stories of different generations and families in this corner of North Dakota. Bound by love, torn by history, the two communities' collective stories finally come together in a wrenching truth.

The Plague of Doves is one of the major achievements of Louise Erdrich's considerable oeuvre, a quintessentially American story and the most complex and original of her books.

©2008 Louise Erdrich (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Louise Erdrich's imaginative freedom has reached its zenith - The Plague of Doves is her dazzling masterpiece." (Philip Roth)
"[A]t once mythic and down-to-earth...beautiful, funny, moving, and unexpected." ( Elle)
"A multigenerational tour de force of sin, redemption, murder and vengeance." ( Publishers Weekly)

Dense and Complex

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I have a lot of friends who are huge Erdrich fans but I am not. I wanted to like this as much as I liked The Master Butcher's Singing Club but it was simply to convoluted for me to follow. I listen to audio books because I do not have the time to read and maybe this would be better digested as the written word as opposed to the spoken word, I don't know. I tried but at three quarters of the way through, I decided to move on. I never finished it.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Still browsing.

What does Peter Francis James and Kathleen McInerney bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I really appreciate the narrators of all the audio books - even when the book is less than enjoyable - the narration always seems great!

Did The Plague of Doves inspire you to do anything?

Stop listening to it.

Any additional comments?

None.

Fun read and went fast

It required/compelled my rapt attention to the different characters and the intricacies of the connections and relationships between them. Still I could hardly stop listening to all their intriguing and interesting stories and their relationships to each other all neatly revealed in the end.

beautiful moments, but not Erdrich at her best

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Erdrich's work is full of humor and wonderful vignettes. They are here, but in a narrative that is perhaps less cohesive than some of her others. If you are new to her work, I recommend Last Report on the Miracles of Little No Horse or The Round House -- even though the latter is somewhat atypical for her for having only one narrative perspective.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narrators disappointed me a bit. McInerney's voice is high and girlish, which doesn't quite work for me as a narrator of this book. James is lugubrious.

Great story, reading performance not so much

This story has all of Erdrich’s deep human themes and amazing insights. But if you love the beautiful readings Erdrich gives to many of her books, this will disappoint as these readers give a spirited reading but in the most generic way possible. I found the performance consistently lacking and found myself thinking “How would Louise have read this?”

Stunning and intricate!

Incredibly wonderfully woven intricate story of interconnected human lives. Great plot great, time spin. Captivating but with steady pace. One of those you are curious of next chapters but want the story never to end. The story is a whole alphabet. Closed clamp.

Great American Tale

This story is full of quirky, interesting charcters, touches of magical realism. This book unrolls across the generations and is a uniquely American tale. The audio version is smooth and easy to listen to.

Strong & wonderful beginning, with a anticlimactic ending

A story teller of unusual imagination, Erdrich’s mastery attenuates over too many characters over too many generations in this novel. I liked it for its first two thirds but took a star off for the last third.

LaRose was much better

If you’re a fan as I am of Erdrich, don’t let the performance and sometimes choppy narration deter you from her other works. I also strongly recommend books where she herself reads, as she puts the most life into the characters since she “knows” them. The production of this one was hard to listen to at times—as other reviews mentioned, the wrong voices for the characters. But, as I said, don’t let this turn you off to Erdrich’s writing—LaRose is wonderful and the version here at Audible features Erdrich reading it herself. I also recommend ‘The Sentence,’ though it is not part of the ‘Justice Trilogy.’

Another great take by Erdrich

I thoroughly enjoyed these stories of many different people whose lives are intertwined. I have always loved Erdrich's novels- the way she tells stories. It is somewhat poetic in the way she weaves their lives into words.

Erdrich is masterful

I read this book long ago, and reread by listening. The story is complex and moves about in time and has a number of narrators. But Erdrich pulls the threads together marvelously: the haunting histories become one interwoven tapestry. No one can escape. I enjoyed McInerney's performance of the female narrators more compelling than James's of the male. I'm not sure why but the tremulousness of his voice distracted me at times. Nevertheless, I LOVE the story of that fiddle and would listen to nearly anyone read it.

This is not an idle listening experience. You'll have to pay attention. But the story, or stories, are so worth that attention. Enjoy!