The Night Watchman

De: Louise Erdrich

Narrado por: Louise Erdrich

WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

WASHINGTON POST, AMAZON, NPR, CBS SUNDAY MORNING, KIRKUS, CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING BEST BOOK OF 2020

Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.

Beautiful

Louise Erdrich is an incredible author. I think I would have to be her to write a review that could do this justice but I’ll try- I enjoyed the Night Watchman so much that I’m going to buy a copy so that I can reread it, and so that I can dog ear the pages-there many profound and poetic moments in this book: “what was it to be dreamed of by a bear?” I will be recommending this one widely. Also this book is read by the author, and her voice is wonderful.

Engaging story if you like magical realism

Why did the author day that Puerto Rico was a country? Why didn't she do enough research to properly pronounce "Lamanite" and to accurately address mission hierarchy?

So good! My book club will love this!

So many interesting characters weave their way in and out of this tale of my homeland. I laughed out loud. My soul wept. This brought back so many fond memories of my childhood in the Turtle Mountains.

Erdrich knocks it out of the park yet again

I love all of Louise Erdrich’s books. This one was definitely among her best. The characters were very interesting, multi dimensional, and well written. A very compelling story!! And read by the author which can be dicey but Louise Erdrich has a wonderful reading voice.

Absolutely wonderful

An incredibly nuanced and beautiful portrait of an indigenous community as well an insightful heartbreaking look at the U.S’s horrific history against First Nations. Louise Erdrich never disappoints!

Loved It

First book I’ve been exposed to by this author, and I couldn’t “put it down.” Compelling story, great characters, and being read by the author was a highlight (lovely voice and Chippewa language/speech cadence).

Wonderful! Highly recommended!

Excellent novel

Hits all points - great characters, plot important story. A gem. To hear it read by the author herself, who has a rich storytelling voice, makes it even more special.

Excellent story needs a different narrator

Louise Erdrich is a fantastic writer, but I wish she would leave the narration to others. Her pronunciation is excellent but her voice is low and breathy and doesn’t change for different characters. Her pacing is slow, but 1.15 speed addresses that.

Aside from that, great story and characters. Finished with the paper copy because I was tired of the narration. Won’t be buying The Sentence because she narrates that as well.

Elegant writing & performance !

I lived this book & it’s performance by the author !
Poetically she brought me into a glimpse of native life
& values, struggles & achievements during last mid century when I began my life. I so wanted to begin to understand the first peoples here in the Americas. She helped my shine a light on the small part of myself that is of native blood. Their connection to the land & all nature is of deep experience & knowledge we need to connect to in these times .

Wonderful Historical Fiction

Beautiful narrative filled with interesting characters, a touch of mysticism, and historical context. I learned more about the racist treatment and annihilation of Indians and fell in love with the spiritualism.