Review of Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

 Review of Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Erdrich, Louise, 2016; Love Medicine. Harper Perennial; Revised edition; ISBN: 9780061787423

PLOT SUMMARY

Love Medicine is a compelling novel by Louise Erdrich that delves into the lives of two Native American families. Set on a North Dakota reservation, the book explores themes of love, loss, and identity through interconnected stories spanning several generations. With vivid characterizations and rich storytelling, Erdrich paints a powerful portrait of the complexities of family and the enduring power of love.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Everyone needs a little love in their life and that’s what this book offers. This novel has to do with tragic love, familial ties, complex relationships, tradition, and struggles.  Something every family goes through in any given point of their life. In Love Medicine written by Louise Erdrich, the reader is taken into the intertwined lives of two native families living in North Dakota, the Kashpaws and the Lamartines. The story is about June Kashpaw, a woman tired of city life and tragically freezes to death while trying to walk back home to her reservation. June’s death becomes a important event that deeply affects her family.

After June’s death, many characters are introduced. Family who are taken aback unable to cope with problems. We meet her estranged husband, Gordie Kashpaw, who spirals into alcoholism and despair following June’s death. The story also introduces us to June's son, Lipsha, who is considered to have the gift of touch which is considered to have healing ability that supposedly can cure ailments and broken hearts. Lipsha attempts to use his gift to fix the relationship between his grandmother, Marie, and her husband, Nector. At his point the novel takes us back in time where the reader can see the origin relationship of the character’s Marie and Nector marriage is entangled in betrayal and resentment.

The story brings us back to the comparing of modern life to native American traditional and story progresses which is where Gordie the husband comes into the picture. The novel shows the tragic impact of loss from husband’s point of view which brings a disconnection from is native American roots.

In the final chapters of the book, the readers focus on the deceased’s niece, Albertine, who after many years returns to the reservation seeking a connection and understanding of her heritage. This novel makes the reader generate a deep move of emotion. It concentrates and tries to teach the reader that no matter obstacles we might have as humans, love endures, humans are resilient, and the importance of culture identity. 

The culture reference in this story is not unique. This novel tries to mix two different cultures together which could have succeeded in modern times but not back in time.  Communication, as with all relationships is the key to have a successful coexistence whether in marriage or in culture.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

“We know we are in the hands of an exceptionally skilled, sensitive, observant writer … Love Medicine is the work of a tough, loving mind.” — Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

“The beauty of Love Medicine saves us from being completely devastated by its power.” — Toni Morrison

“A masterpiece, written with spellbinding authenticity.” — Philip Roth

“Lyrical and funny, mystical and down-to-earth, Love Medicine entrances” — Christian Science Monitor

“A powerful piece of work . . . Louise Erdrich is the rarest kind of writer; as compassionate as she is sharp-sighted” — Anne Tyler

“A wondrous prose song . . . about the enduring verities of love and surviving, and these truths are revealed in a narrative that is an invigorating mixture of the cosmic and the tragic.” — New York Times Book Review

“A remarkable first novel that stares more boldly at many of the truths of Native American life in the country than any fiction I’ve read…. It is a deeply, if ironically, spirited novel.” — Chicago Sun-Times

 

CONNECTIONS

Books Connections

·        Marmon Silko, Leslie, 1986; Ceremony, Penguin Books; ISBN 9780140086836

·        Dorris, Michael, 1999; The Crown of Columbus; Harper Perennial; ISBN 9780060931650

 

·        Students consider the beginning, middle, and end of the story by writing or drawing.

·        Students consider the setting, characters, beginning, middle, end, problem, and solution of the story.

·        Students consider the setting, characters, rising action, conflict, climax, falling action, and resolution of the story.