Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Round House digs deep into unearthing the very nature of justice in a world that is rarely just and seldom fair. Our narrator - an Ojibwe lawyer named Joe Coutts - recalls his 13th summer from the perspective of time. Joe's position as the only child of tribal judge Bazil Coutts and tribal clerk Geraldine Coutts kept him feeling loved and secure until his mother is brutally and sadistically raped as she attempts to retrieve a potentially damning file. Although the rapist is rather quickly identified, the location of the rape--in the vicinity of a sacred round house - lies within that "no-man's land" where tribal courts are in charge and the neighboring Caucasians cannot be prosecuted, no matter how heinous the crime. Thrust into an adult world, Joe and his best friends Cappy, Zack and Angus are propelled to seek their own answers. This novel shines for many reasons, particularly because of the urgency and power of the descriptions. The aftermath of the rape is described in unflinching and dynamic prose - no manipulation, and no turning away. One of the ancillary yet important characters - the damaged and conflicted Father Travis, a war veteran - is so beautifully and powerfully fleshed out that it is impossible to not be riveted to the page. Each character, in fact, is realistically drawn, complete with the ambiguities that reside in each of us. This is a finely nuanced novel that, like a Rubik's cube, examines violence and our responsibilities in a number of ways. One of them is through the prism of religion: the Roman Catholic belief that every evil ultimately can be transfigured to good as opposed to tribal justice traditions. Ms. Erdrich ties in a tale about a "wiindigoo" or evil spirit, which makes a person "become an animal, and see fellow humans as meat." In instances like this, the destruction of the wiindigoo is the only possible answer. Throughout, Ms. Erdrich uses symmetry as she contrasts one belief to the other. the contrast of ideal justice versus best-we-can-do justice. Past beliefs versus contemporary realities. The dark and the light that reside in each of us. And perhaps most glaringly, the "bad twin" and his spiritually generous twin, named - appropriately - Linden and Linda, two sides of a coin.(Interestingly, within these personas, evil is portrayed as seductive and attractive and good is physically ugly and needy. All is not what it appears on the surface, the author appears to say). I have not read much of Louise Erdrich before, so I cannot contrast this book with those that came before it. I will say this: it is unlikely to recede from my mind anytime soon.