The Night Watchman

Much different than I had expected, in a more-so sort of way, and it just kept getting better. This is not, contrary to whay you may have heard, the Inspiring Story of One Man Standing Up to Powerful Forces — well, not only that. It's... I don't really know. It's a series of threads, of lives, touching irregularly but with startling force each time they do; their relationships building something powerful yet sublime and ephemeral while keeping each thread distinct. If Erdrich were a composer this would be one hell of a symphony.

This is my second Erdrich book; I will look for more. She writes with grace. Treats her characters with respect, spending time and words on each, giving them a vivid threedimensional life. The best way I can think of to describe it is, it's not like I “felt like I knew the characters”: more like I was fascinated by each one, and learned much about them, but never got to know them, which is so much like life: even our close friends and lovers are their own people, heck, we're often a mystery to our own selves. We will be innocent at moments, dignified others, we find strength when we need to, despair at other times; and when we find good people we want to be with them more, hold on to them, learn more. These were good people. (Not all. But that, too, is real life).

Solid 4.5 stars; rounding up because many hours after finishing I'm still thinking about the story, the characters, the small but vivid window into Native American life; and I'm feeling a lot of complicated emotions, most of all gratitude.