Genealogy Books - The Plague of Doves: A Novel

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: She has created a masterpiece....again!
Comment: I read tracks years ago, and was so taken with the book that I named everything on my computer after
characters in the book so I wouldn't forget them (I realize that is a tad odd). Anyway, a friend
just got me this book and I have to say, it rivaled the above mentioned and I would recommend it to
anyone.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Would rather that it was published as an anthology.
Comment: First off, let me give credit where credit is due. The book is stylistically very good, lyrical,
descriptive, and generally highfalutin'. The characters and the situations she writes about are
individually very interesting and absorbing. There's crime, mystery, lesbians, and a host of other
interesting albeit random things in Erdrich's book.

Now for the bad part- the
disjointed nature of the book makes it painfully obvious that she took short stories and haphazardly
stitched them together in order to market a novel. At the end, after all the connections between the
characters and their actions had been revealed, and the initial joy of having finally understood
what was going on passed, I was left feeling cold, empty, and unenthusiastic.

In the
end, this book has neither a cohesive plot nor theme, and no character is developed to the extent
that it even qualifies as a novel.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Beautiful stories, not a novel
Comment: The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health and Well-being When You Have a Chronic Illness
I
have loved Louise Erdrich for years, ever since I found Love Medicine in the 80s. She tells amazing
stories about her overlooked people, the Indians of the North Plains. She writes with stunning
attention to detail that makes every scene and character come alive. She faces terrifying history
and powerful emotions without flinching.

Over the years, I have really liked The Crown
of Columbus and many of her others. Lately, she seemed to have lost something, or maybe I was
finding some of the stories repetitious. But The Plague of Doves, to me, contains her best stories
in years. Reading this book, you will spend equal amounts of time crying, laughing, and imagining
the vivid worlds she unfolds.

Unfortunately, you will also spend time trying to figure
out who the characters are and how they relate to each other, and even in what time period each
story takes place. Plague of Doves really isn't a novel; it's a collection of loosely connected
stories. The characters who are central at the end are completely different from the ones you grab
onto at the beginning. You want to find out what happens to Evelina and Corwin and others, but you
won't, really.

But if you treat it as a collection of stories, I feel confident you
will love it. These are truly powerful, some of the best I've ever read.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Surrendering to a Skilled Author
Comment: My first time reading Louise Erdrich, well, second if I were to count starting over with the same
book: by the fire in the afternoon, instead of just before bed. This was a lovely experience to
share, told like a series of meetings between complex friends, the way we get to know our own
histories and assocoiates.

The author was in total control of my impressions,
sympathies, and prejudices. The sexuality, vivid in its personal and interpretive nature caused me
to blush, to feel joy, to squirm, to laugh and to feel restfulness. Look for the sound of humanity
played by a violin, but heard through the author's mastery of words.

I thoroughly
enjoyed the critical and highly intuitive look at an upstart rural religion, as if the religion
itself were one of the many literary characters. Every part of the book: the landscapes, the town,
the stores, the coffe shop, were knowable in their own right, but not overdone.

Customer Rating:

Summary: The Plague of Doves
Comment: A very powerful writer although book was at times hard to follow and got mired down in sexual
content. Still all in all a good read.

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