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Love Medicine #4
The Bingo Palace
At a crossroads in his life, Lipsha Morrissey is summoned by his grandmother. He returns to the reservation, and falls in love for the first time.
274 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Louise Erdrich
129 books13k followersLouise Erdrich is one of the most gifted, prolific, and challenging of American novelists. Her fiction reflects aspects of her mixed heritage: German through her father, and French and Ojibwa through her mother. She is the author of many novels, the first of which, Love Medicine, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the last of which, The Round House, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012. She lives in Minnesota.
source: Amazon
source: Amazon
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 270 reviews
February 23, 2024
I must be on a fiction kick after reading a 700 page history book. My brain was telling me that it needed a break. Four books later, I think my break has been satisfied. It has been a few years since I selected a book by Louise Erdrich, and for no apparent reason. A few years ago one of my goodreads groups attempted reading one Erdrich book a month for a good part of a year. Most of us enjoy her writing, but in the words of a few members, “we are all Erdriched out.” I decided to take a break, she won a Pulitzer for her excellence, and I still did not return to her writing. One title kept calling to me; however, The Bingo Palace. I kept envisioning the Corn Palace off of I-80 where there is nothing else air conditioned for hundreds of miles and people stop to rest in a building that is literally made of corn. The Bingo Palace is no Corn Palace but the name evokes indigenous royalty. It had been a few years since I last read Erdrich’s writing about the extended Nanapush-Pillager family, and I decided it was finally high time for me to revisit this world.
Lipsha Morrissey is at what Erdrich describes as the cross roads of his life. He has returned to the reservation from the Twin Cities with neither a job or end goal of how to live his life to the fullest. His two grandmothers live in a senior citizen home, his mother is long deceased, and his con artist father is no existent. In this Chippewa reservation south of Fargo and a stone’s throw from the Canadian border, family relationships become muddied with each passing day. More so than the micro history depicted in the aber Queen, the people in the Bingo Palace become a mish mash of one extended, convoluted family. Lipsha has nowhere to live except for his mother’s blue convertible, his mother having long passed on, the reader realizing early on that Erdrich will employ heavy dosages of magical realism. One cannot live in a car long term, but that is what Lipsha does until something better occurs, and, despite all of the extended family members listed in the book, nothing better does come along, at least not initially. Lipsha is at the mercy of his half brother/half uncle Lyman Lamertine, one of the Lamertines who sold out to the federal government, and Lyman employs Lipsha as the original night watchman, to view the comings and goings at the local pool hall. With a semi stable job, it appears as though Lipsha might finally be getting his life in order, until he is stricken with the love bug.
As if Erdrich’s tangled web is not confusing enough, Lipsha falls for Shawnee Ray Loose, who happens to be the mother of Lyman’s son. The two compete for her as though she is a prize, and it is not apparent who Shawnee prefers. What Shawnee desires is to get off the reservation and make something of her life. A gifted seamstress and dancer, she desires a college education, which could give her the tools and training to become a successful businesswoman, perhaps getting away from the reservation once and for all. Unlike previous generations, Shawnee does not want to sell out to the government; rather she would like a better life for herself and for her son than the one she has now, staying in her grandmother’s dilapidated home. What she lacks is funding for school, and Lipsha attempts to help with his bingo earnings. Through a vision from his mother, Lipsha is gifted bingo numbers and tickets, and it turns out that he has a gift for the game. The boundaries between what is real and a bridge between the worlds fades here, speaking to Erdrich’s gift as an indigenous writer who employs high usage of indigenous religion, practices, and magic. Lipsha could have been a healer; yet, his hands were made for love and bingo playing, and he is determined to bring his dream of wooing Shawnee Ray to fruition.
I first noticed Erdrich’s character development in an early book of short stories. In that book, she has her characters ride across the upper Midwest in a red convertible, that still graces the cover of some volumes of Love Medicine. Here, the red convertible is exchanged for a blue one that carries messages across the realms. Erdrich’s poignant themes that she made clear in Love Medicine Return in this fourth book in her eight part series. Fleur Pillager returns either as a messager from the beyond or as an extremely old woman, which is left to the reader’s imagination. Relations with the government over land will never go away. In this case, Lyman Lamertine desires to build a casino aka the bingo palace on the shores of the same Lake Matchimanito that Four Souls inhabited one hundred years before. From decades of government deception, the Chippewa have little money left to build this casino that would be sure to bring much revenue to the entire reservation. Lyman has to choose whether to sell out to the feds or to support his people on the reservation; sadly, this is an issue that isn’t going away. Combining hot button issues with a love triangle and magical realism, Erdrich proves that she has been counted as a leading indigenous writer for decades.
An actual Bingo Palace or not, Louise Erdrich provides comic relief from well drawn out characters in her continuing story of the Pillager/Nanapush/Lamertine clan. With four books left in this series, I am intrigued to see how Erdrich will bring this story up to present day. Even peripheral characters who make cameos make appearances in future books, so I know I will be finishing the series, but not as at as fast of a pace as before. Gifted authors like Erdrich are to savor, not to read all at once, leaving the reader spent and needing a break. Whether or not she revisits the tangled web relationship that she created here, I am hoping that Erdrich chose to feature the characters she created here. She brings all of the elements to a quality historical fiction book that I enjoy, perfect for a gray winter day, so I have a feeling that I will not wait as long to read her adept writing this time around.
4 stars
Lipsha Morrissey is at what Erdrich describes as the cross roads of his life. He has returned to the reservation from the Twin Cities with neither a job or end goal of how to live his life to the fullest. His two grandmothers live in a senior citizen home, his mother is long deceased, and his con artist father is no existent. In this Chippewa reservation south of Fargo and a stone’s throw from the Canadian border, family relationships become muddied with each passing day. More so than the micro history depicted in the aber Queen, the people in the Bingo Palace become a mish mash of one extended, convoluted family. Lipsha has nowhere to live except for his mother’s blue convertible, his mother having long passed on, the reader realizing early on that Erdrich will employ heavy dosages of magical realism. One cannot live in a car long term, but that is what Lipsha does until something better occurs, and, despite all of the extended family members listed in the book, nothing better does come along, at least not initially. Lipsha is at the mercy of his half brother/half uncle Lyman Lamertine, one of the Lamertines who sold out to the federal government, and Lyman employs Lipsha as the original night watchman, to view the comings and goings at the local pool hall. With a semi stable job, it appears as though Lipsha might finally be getting his life in order, until he is stricken with the love bug.
As if Erdrich’s tangled web is not confusing enough, Lipsha falls for Shawnee Ray Loose, who happens to be the mother of Lyman’s son. The two compete for her as though she is a prize, and it is not apparent who Shawnee prefers. What Shawnee desires is to get off the reservation and make something of her life. A gifted seamstress and dancer, she desires a college education, which could give her the tools and training to become a successful businesswoman, perhaps getting away from the reservation once and for all. Unlike previous generations, Shawnee does not want to sell out to the government; rather she would like a better life for herself and for her son than the one she has now, staying in her grandmother’s dilapidated home. What she lacks is funding for school, and Lipsha attempts to help with his bingo earnings. Through a vision from his mother, Lipsha is gifted bingo numbers and tickets, and it turns out that he has a gift for the game. The boundaries between what is real and a bridge between the worlds fades here, speaking to Erdrich’s gift as an indigenous writer who employs high usage of indigenous religion, practices, and magic. Lipsha could have been a healer; yet, his hands were made for love and bingo playing, and he is determined to bring his dream of wooing Shawnee Ray to fruition.
I first noticed Erdrich’s character development in an early book of short stories. In that book, she has her characters ride across the upper Midwest in a red convertible, that still graces the cover of some volumes of Love Medicine. Here, the red convertible is exchanged for a blue one that carries messages across the realms. Erdrich’s poignant themes that she made clear in Love Medicine Return in this fourth book in her eight part series. Fleur Pillager returns either as a messager from the beyond or as an extremely old woman, which is left to the reader’s imagination. Relations with the government over land will never go away. In this case, Lyman Lamertine desires to build a casino aka the bingo palace on the shores of the same Lake Matchimanito that Four Souls inhabited one hundred years before. From decades of government deception, the Chippewa have little money left to build this casino that would be sure to bring much revenue to the entire reservation. Lyman has to choose whether to sell out to the feds or to support his people on the reservation; sadly, this is an issue that isn’t going away. Combining hot button issues with a love triangle and magical realism, Erdrich proves that she has been counted as a leading indigenous writer for decades.
An actual Bingo Palace or not, Louise Erdrich provides comic relief from well drawn out characters in her continuing story of the Pillager/Nanapush/Lamertine clan. With four books left in this series, I am intrigued to see how Erdrich will bring this story up to present day. Even peripheral characters who make cameos make appearances in future books, so I know I will be finishing the series, but not as at as fast of a pace as before. Gifted authors like Erdrich are to savor, not to read all at once, leaving the reader spent and needing a break. Whether or not she revisits the tangled web relationship that she created here, I am hoping that Erdrich chose to feature the characters she created here. She brings all of the elements to a quality historical fiction book that I enjoy, perfect for a gray winter day, so I have a feeling that I will not wait as long to read her adept writing this time around.
4 stars
August 9, 2008
OH LOUISEY, YOU DAWG! IT'S SO HARD TO EVEN BEGIN TO REVIEW THIS BOOK, BUT WE POOR SUBLUNARY CREATURES WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOIN ON UP THERE IN THE EXALTED SPHERES.
Okay no more shouting Alleluias in bold face: let's get down to work: I follow the dictums given to my students eons ago to decipher the novel's meaning. We deconstruct according to five topics:
SETTING: We are somewhere in and around The Dakotas. Fargo is mentioned but the setting becomes very "Pan's Labyrinth" so we are deep into the woods, in sweat tepees, in dusty arenas hosting Native American dance competitions. We are most importantly in the harrowing, barren but sometimes ravishing landscapes of the characters' minds. All of these places are unforgettable in details that pique and arouse the senses. Even Erdrich's description of a seemingly tiny item like a baby's moccasin shimmers in its singularity.
CHARACTER: I wasn't going here until last but it's hard to keep from proclaiming: what a cast! Shakespeare would have been proud to set these folk in motion. Yes, there is the flawed hero and his fair lady--Lipsha Morrissey and Shawnee Ray Toose. Witches and villains abound and all of the above (who are connected by rather incestuous ties) enact the most incredible deeds. They are informed by their ancient Chippawa customs and lore and tainted by the encroaching Western World, so stay tuned for the outcome of an epic battle between good and evil.
THEMES: check the last paragraph above about characters. Good novels cover most of the basic themes and they are popping up here: the power of love to defeat hate; the injustice of social repression; the evils of racism; the destructive power of greed, lust, envy, gluttony, pride, and the other two capital sins which elude me at the moment.
TONE: You want sad; it's here. You want hilariously funny; ditto, and surreal and frightening finish off Erdrich's palatte. The segment in which Lipsha and his n'er-do-well father, Gerry Nanapush steal and car (and a baby) and drive through a blizzard stands out as well as the scene where Fleur Pillager, the Ancient Matriarch of the tribe comes to town to gamble in a white cadillac accompanied by a ghostly young avatar of herself. These examples are not spoilers, just tantalizing coming attractions. Great novels run the gamut of tones. Dip your toes into this one; the water's fine.
PLOT: Well, we are all adults and are use to the modernist techniques of jumping about. Our minds, which hopefully do not run along linear paths (lest we die of boredom), are habituated to the flashback, the flash forward, the leap into the surreal, the change of narrators, as well as allusions to previous books involving these characters. That proposition being accepted, readers (with a bit of back-tracking),will follow the yellow brick road to the end. And what an ending. I think it ended really well.
This is not a Harlequin Romance.
Okay no more shouting Alleluias in bold face: let's get down to work: I follow the dictums given to my students eons ago to decipher the novel's meaning. We deconstruct according to five topics:
SETTING: We are somewhere in and around The Dakotas. Fargo is mentioned but the setting becomes very "Pan's Labyrinth" so we are deep into the woods, in sweat tepees, in dusty arenas hosting Native American dance competitions. We are most importantly in the harrowing, barren but sometimes ravishing landscapes of the characters' minds. All of these places are unforgettable in details that pique and arouse the senses. Even Erdrich's description of a seemingly tiny item like a baby's moccasin shimmers in its singularity.
CHARACTER: I wasn't going here until last but it's hard to keep from proclaiming: what a cast! Shakespeare would have been proud to set these folk in motion. Yes, there is the flawed hero and his fair lady--Lipsha Morrissey and Shawnee Ray Toose. Witches and villains abound and all of the above (who are connected by rather incestuous ties) enact the most incredible deeds. They are informed by their ancient Chippawa customs and lore and tainted by the encroaching Western World, so stay tuned for the outcome of an epic battle between good and evil.
THEMES: check the last paragraph above about characters. Good novels cover most of the basic themes and they are popping up here: the power of love to defeat hate; the injustice of social repression; the evils of racism; the destructive power of greed, lust, envy, gluttony, pride, and the other two capital sins which elude me at the moment.
TONE: You want sad; it's here. You want hilariously funny; ditto, and surreal and frightening finish off Erdrich's palatte. The segment in which Lipsha and his n'er-do-well father, Gerry Nanapush steal and car (and a baby) and drive through a blizzard stands out as well as the scene where Fleur Pillager, the Ancient Matriarch of the tribe comes to town to gamble in a white cadillac accompanied by a ghostly young avatar of herself. These examples are not spoilers, just tantalizing coming attractions. Great novels run the gamut of tones. Dip your toes into this one; the water's fine.
PLOT: Well, we are all adults and are use to the modernist techniques of jumping about. Our minds, which hopefully do not run along linear paths (lest we die of boredom), are habituated to the flashback, the flash forward, the leap into the surreal, the change of narrators, as well as allusions to previous books involving these characters. That proposition being accepted, readers (with a bit of back-tracking),will follow the yellow brick road to the end. And what an ending. I think it ended really well.
This is not a Harlequin Romance.
October 27, 2024
Pain comes to us from deep back, from where it grew in the human body. Pain sucks more pain into it, we don't know why. It lives, and we harbor its weight. When the worst comes, we will not act the opposite. We will do what we were taught, we who learnt our lessons in the dead light. We pass them on. We hurt, and hurt others, in a circular motion.
September 14, 2021
I stumbled across this book at in independent book store in Medora, ND. They had a massive display right up front of Louise Erdrich books, and I couldn't resist an impulse purchase. Apparently this book and I were Meant to Be Together. What have the mysterious Fates wrought?
I didn't realize it at the time, but The Bingo Palace is a continuation of Erdrich's earlier book Love Medicine, which I've swiftly added to by TBR list. Clearly, reading this one first didn't dampen my feelings for it in the least. When I finally got around to cracking the cover, I felt somewhat dutiful about it, like I was gamely hefting some kind of educational, "nutritious" tome. After all, it's literary, lyrical fiction. The POVs are scattered and the timeline is more a loose weave than a single thread.
By the time Lipsha Morissey (whom I can't help but picture as Ed Chigliak from Northern Exposure) takes Shawnee on their first unfortunate date (and his foil-wrapped brick of fruitcake is mistaken for drugs at the Canadian border), I had fallen for this book and the characters about as hard as Lipsha awkwardly, inappropriately, and messily falls for Shawnee Ray.
I love how Erdrich straddles ancient myth and contemporary reservation life in this book. She doesn't judge her characters, they all feel like individuals, from bingo owner and Lipsha's rival Lyman, to straight-shooting Zelda, to the terrifying matriarch Fleur Pillager. I also really liked the pervading strange sense of humor that gives the often bleak surroundings a humanizing bent and steers far clear of stereotypes. At one point, Lipsha goes on a "traditional" spirit quest and...I laughed so loudly at how it turned out. The author turned the whole thing into near-irreverence...but it totally worked for me. There's a generous slathering of magical realism here, but the story continually felt rooted and contemporary. I can't wait to read more books featuring these characters.
I didn't realize it at the time, but The Bingo Palace is a continuation of Erdrich's earlier book Love Medicine, which I've swiftly added to by TBR list. Clearly, reading this one first didn't dampen my feelings for it in the least. When I finally got around to cracking the cover, I felt somewhat dutiful about it, like I was gamely hefting some kind of educational, "nutritious" tome. After all, it's literary, lyrical fiction. The POVs are scattered and the timeline is more a loose weave than a single thread.
By the time Lipsha Morissey (whom I can't help but picture as Ed Chigliak from Northern Exposure) takes Shawnee on their first unfortunate date (and his foil-wrapped brick of fruitcake is mistaken for drugs at the Canadian border), I had fallen for this book and the characters about as hard as Lipsha awkwardly, inappropriately, and messily falls for Shawnee Ray.
I love how Erdrich straddles ancient myth and contemporary reservation life in this book. She doesn't judge her characters, they all feel like individuals, from bingo owner and Lipsha's rival Lyman, to straight-shooting Zelda, to the terrifying matriarch Fleur Pillager. I also really liked the pervading strange sense of humor that gives the often bleak surroundings a humanizing bent and steers far clear of stereotypes. At one point, Lipsha goes on a "traditional" spirit quest and...I laughed so loudly at how it turned out. The author turned the whole thing into near-irreverence...but it totally worked for me. There's a generous slathering of magical realism here, but the story continually felt rooted and contemporary. I can't wait to read more books featuring these characters.
March 4, 2011
Lipsha Morrissey is probably the least likely of all central characters. He is a ne'er-do-well extraordinaire. He sweeps the floors at the bingo palace and is sometime night watchman. But he loves Shawnee Ray Toose and we cannot help but feel for him. Not sorry for him, but want him to find a way to make a life with her. But she's not having anything to do with him - he is a Morrissey for one thing.
The Bingo Palace is so much more than this love story, it's impossible to put into words. I think it is the most spirtual of the Erdrich novels I've yet read, perhaps more so even than Tracks. To share some of that would be to take it out of context, which would be unfair to both the author and the reader.
One of my Goodreads friends, upon finishing Love Medicine, said she was exhausted. Erdrich will do that to you. Early in my membership at Goodreads, someone told me Erdrich puts her characters through a lot, and this cannot be said enough.
Louise Erdrich is my favorite author. It was difficult to realize this one is not worth 5 stars, but it is very close. The Bingo Palace takes place on the reservation but includes many of the same characters in her previous novels that took place in Argus, North Dakota. It isn't necessary to have read those, but some of the references would be more easily understood having done so.
The Bingo Palace is so much more than this love story, it's impossible to put into words. I think it is the most spirtual of the Erdrich novels I've yet read, perhaps more so even than Tracks. To share some of that would be to take it out of context, which would be unfair to both the author and the reader.
One of my Goodreads friends, upon finishing Love Medicine, said she was exhausted. Erdrich will do that to you. Early in my membership at Goodreads, someone told me Erdrich puts her characters through a lot, and this cannot be said enough.
Pain comes to us from deep back, from where it grew in the human body. Pain sucks more pain into it, we don't know why. It lives, and we harbor its weight. When the worst comes, we will not act the opposite. We will do what we were taught, we who learnt our lessons in the dead light. We pass them on. We hurt, and hurt others, in a circular motion.
Louise Erdrich is my favorite author. It was difficult to realize this one is not worth 5 stars, but it is very close. The Bingo Palace takes place on the reservation but includes many of the same characters in her previous novels that took place in Argus, North Dakota. It isn't necessary to have read those, but some of the references would be more easily understood having done so.
July 18, 2019
I may not have been fully engaged with the story the entire time but I still really enjoy Erdrich's writing so still a 4 star.
July 31, 2015
Very boring indeed! I struggled through the first forty pages, where too many different characters were introduced and then sort of left hanging. Thereafter, most of the book was about a young man who got infatuated by a girl. This part was really dragged out and nothing much happened. Then the end section reverted back to all the other people who had been introduced at the outset.
Technically, the problem with the book was that it was disjointed, that the main protagonist was not in the least bit interesting, and that the sections of first person narrative were repetitive and didn't really advance the narrative.
I suppose my main problem was that this was a ghost story and - here is a newsflash - ghosts don't exist. So I am baffled by any writer who chooses a ghost as a deus ex machina. Anyway, it didn't work for me. If I learned anything, it was that some native Americans have a mindset that makes them unable to function in the modern world. But I would have been much more interested in the peripheral characters who were doing something with their lives. I also hated the ending. It was as if Louise Erdrich suddenly lost interest and wound up the story as fast as possible.
All in all, a very disappointing book. I think this writer needed a good editor who could have pointed out the structural problems of the book before it got into print.
Technically, the problem with the book was that it was disjointed, that the main protagonist was not in the least bit interesting, and that the sections of first person narrative were repetitive and didn't really advance the narrative.
I suppose my main problem was that this was a ghost story and - here is a newsflash - ghosts don't exist. So I am baffled by any writer who chooses a ghost as a deus ex machina. Anyway, it didn't work for me. If I learned anything, it was that some native Americans have a mindset that makes them unable to function in the modern world. But I would have been much more interested in the peripheral characters who were doing something with their lives. I also hated the ending. It was as if Louise Erdrich suddenly lost interest and wound up the story as fast as possible.
All in all, a very disappointing book. I think this writer needed a good editor who could have pointed out the structural problems of the book before it got into print.
July 19, 2012
OK, so I didn't start in the best place when choosing an introduction to Erdrich, but it was her only tome on the shelves of my local library. Erdrich's writing is lovely and generous and wild, evoking a people and a way of living that I can only wistfully imagine. I loved her characters' stubborn faults, their ability to imagine and strive and stumble within their limits, and their rich, wild language of love.
Her writing sometimes made me nervous (for all the ways hearts can leap and bolt and trip and soar), but mostly made me feel the spark and reverence of a wholehearted life. I'm looking forward to more of her writing soon.
Her writing sometimes made me nervous (for all the ways hearts can leap and bolt and trip and soar), but mostly made me feel the spark and reverence of a wholehearted life. I'm looking forward to more of her writing soon.
May 25, 2010
This will go down as one of my favorite books by Louise Erdrich, but it's part of a trilogy, and its so long since I read the first two, that now I want to go back and read them, and put it into context.
Sometimes Erdrich's cultural perspective to keep the story cyclical loses me at the end of her books, but this one made perfect sense. And the strength and determination of absolute, all-encompassing love is beautifully demonstrated in Lipshaw's mother and father, as well as in his own life. Fleur Pillager even makes a final appearance, joining her family, as the story closes.
The passionate and dangerous love of Lipshaw and Shawnee is beautifully drawn in the center of the book, making for a well-defined plot mover. Including the politics of tribal gaming in the characters and action of the novel gave the story the modern twist, but allowed for the cultural and emotional story to weave the generations and the characters through a well-known, but seldom told saga of reservation life.
Erdrich has written a wonderful novel, and I can't wait to reread it in the order the trilogy was written.
Sometimes Erdrich's cultural perspective to keep the story cyclical loses me at the end of her books, but this one made perfect sense. And the strength and determination of absolute, all-encompassing love is beautifully demonstrated in Lipshaw's mother and father, as well as in his own life. Fleur Pillager even makes a final appearance, joining her family, as the story closes.
The passionate and dangerous love of Lipshaw and Shawnee is beautifully drawn in the center of the book, making for a well-defined plot mover. Including the politics of tribal gaming in the characters and action of the novel gave the story the modern twist, but allowed for the cultural and emotional story to weave the generations and the characters through a well-known, but seldom told saga of reservation life.
Erdrich has written a wonderful novel, and I can't wait to reread it in the order the trilogy was written.
April 2, 2015
The masochist in me has developed a strange yearning for Erdrich when the blistering winter chill starts to scrape St. Louis. Not that this place gets nearly as cold and for not nearly as long as her Dakota climes, but there's such a mysteriously gratifying level of sympathy, longing, and ironic warmth I get out of her world. I think this started when I read most of Tracks one December day three years ago, smothered in blankets next to a drafty window in a former apartment, when my heat had gone out due to a nasty ice storm the night before. And now that time has come again to take in another story.
I've had this book on my shelf for at least two and a half years, maybe longer. In my quest to read Erdrich's novels chronological in order of publication, this was the fourth stop on my trip. Only, it took me a few tries to really get through it, and in the meantime I broke the frustration of my chronological resolution and read a couple others that had been specifically recommended (Master Butcher and Last Report) (and both of those were superb). Something about The Bingo Palace just didn't jive well with me, but for a while I couldn't really put my finger on it. The strange thing was, though, between all attempts to read this, I remembered so much of the story I never had to back track to refresh my memory. Over the past couple years, whenever my mind wandered over to Erdrich, I would always think of this incomplete novel I could never seem to finish. I couldn't just let it be. So, as we've dipped plenty below freezing already this December, I picked it up again, and this time it wasn't any problem. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. Part of it, at least--I think I've identified what didn't rest well with me previously. It's the choppy narration. I'm down with different points of view, but it's tricky, and she's done it better in other novels of hers. Mainly, I found myself craving Lipsha's point-of-view, tearing down the pages as he told his story. I liked the other reporting alright, but it always seemed to feel like a slight disappointment to wander away from Lipsha's ravenous crush.
I can't say for sure, but I think in this last shot I gave it, the measures of insanity driven by feelings of lust or love really stirred up more empathy in me than before. I mean, like it really drove some of these people crazy. I blame it on my friends and family (and me, too, I guess...). I've witnessed it enough in my own life by now, and especially recently, that I felt a lot more comfortable with the characters.
But alas, since it took me so long to get through this novel, I don't feel any super-strong attachment to it like I have with ones prior. It's got its really driving moments for sure, but enough bumps in the road to average it out to OK. It was good enough to keep my winter soul searching for more Erdrich, and I'll leave it at that.
I've had this book on my shelf for at least two and a half years, maybe longer. In my quest to read Erdrich's novels chronological in order of publication, this was the fourth stop on my trip. Only, it took me a few tries to really get through it, and in the meantime I broke the frustration of my chronological resolution and read a couple others that had been specifically recommended (Master Butcher and Last Report) (and both of those were superb). Something about The Bingo Palace just didn't jive well with me, but for a while I couldn't really put my finger on it. The strange thing was, though, between all attempts to read this, I remembered so much of the story I never had to back track to refresh my memory. Over the past couple years, whenever my mind wandered over to Erdrich, I would always think of this incomplete novel I could never seem to finish. I couldn't just let it be. So, as we've dipped plenty below freezing already this December, I picked it up again, and this time it wasn't any problem. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. Part of it, at least--I think I've identified what didn't rest well with me previously. It's the choppy narration. I'm down with different points of view, but it's tricky, and she's done it better in other novels of hers. Mainly, I found myself craving Lipsha's point-of-view, tearing down the pages as he told his story. I liked the other reporting alright, but it always seemed to feel like a slight disappointment to wander away from Lipsha's ravenous crush.
I can't say for sure, but I think in this last shot I gave it, the measures of insanity driven by feelings of lust or love really stirred up more empathy in me than before. I mean, like it really drove some of these people crazy. I blame it on my friends and family (and me, too, I guess...). I've witnessed it enough in my own life by now, and especially recently, that I felt a lot more comfortable with the characters.
But alas, since it took me so long to get through this novel, I don't feel any super-strong attachment to it like I have with ones prior. It's got its really driving moments for sure, but enough bumps in the road to average it out to OK. It was good enough to keep my winter soul searching for more Erdrich, and I'll leave it at that.
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April 3, 2023This is novel from Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine collection of books. Generally that means a few things. Those books will be a little haunted by the two figures Nanapush and Fleur Pillager, as this book is, but it doesn't always mean that a book will be part of a "series" in terms of a continuing chronology.
Here we find ourselves in the contemporary of the 1990s and Lipsha Morrissey, a wayward and somewhat prodigal grandson, is called back home by his grandmother. While there, he is struck immediately by Shawnee Ray, the somewhat (middlingly) estranged wife of his uncle, and the mother of a son named Redford. The two become involved and this opens up a love triangle among Lipsha, Shawnee, and Lyman, the uncle. But life is never so easy as even that as Lipsha ends up needing his uncle's help, circling around his own issues, being visited by the ghosts and specters of both his past, his family's past, and even getting into a successful run of light gambling.
It's not been that long since I've read a Louise Erdrich novel, but the last few I have read were her more realistic fictions and the dreaminess, the light magical realism here, and a few other elements (how 1990s this book feels) gave me a kind of nostalgia about this time, novels from this time, and the earlier days of reading her fiction.
Here we find ourselves in the contemporary of the 1990s and Lipsha Morrissey, a wayward and somewhat prodigal grandson, is called back home by his grandmother. While there, he is struck immediately by Shawnee Ray, the somewhat (middlingly) estranged wife of his uncle, and the mother of a son named Redford. The two become involved and this opens up a love triangle among Lipsha, Shawnee, and Lyman, the uncle. But life is never so easy as even that as Lipsha ends up needing his uncle's help, circling around his own issues, being visited by the ghosts and specters of both his past, his family's past, and even getting into a successful run of light gambling.
It's not been that long since I've read a Louise Erdrich novel, but the last few I have read were her more realistic fictions and the dreaminess, the light magical realism here, and a few other elements (how 1990s this book feels) gave me a kind of nostalgia about this time, novels from this time, and the earlier days of reading her fiction.
March 14, 2024
Ok, third try at the review...2nd real one cause I accidentally erased the 1st real one...
Seems I'll always give 5 mystical, magical and poetic prose stars to any book in Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine" loosely wrapped 8 book series. By loosely wrapped, I mean that the books are not tightly wound together with each other, nor neatly linked within each book. There is a plethora of characters depicted across generations. In particular, we often encounter Nanapush and Kapshaw tribal members from the Ojibwe tribe around North Dakota and some european males who create family with them. This is something Louise Erdrich knows quite a bit about since she is half Ojibwe and half German-American.
"Bingo Palace" is predominantly about the love triad among Lyman, his nephew Lipsha and the object of both male's affection, Shawnee Ray. Nevertheless, there are plenty more well fleshed out anxillary characters including Lulu Lamartine, her son Gerry the criminal who is Lipsha's father. Even Redford, Lyman's 8 year old child with Shawnee Ray, is described in great detail even having visions, foreshadowing or dreams similarly to the adult characters. My favorite character Fleur Pillager reappears in BP. She is Lipsha's seemingly eternal great-grandma, a mystical spirit woman with special powers.
I won't go into too much detail about plot, but simply highlight my favorite passage from this book which will not spoil it for the dear reader. To set up the scene, Shawnee Ray needs to win a traditional indigenous dance competition to get $$$ for college. She must get away from the Lyman vs. Lipsha battle for her and make her own future. If she disappears in future books, I'll be extremely disappointed because she seems to be the Fleur Pillager of the future. After all, Fleur may seem eternal, but she won't be around forever!
So Shawnee Ray does have a little magic behind her to help her win the dance competition. Turns out that her father has passed some magic on to her when she was just a kid.
Shawnee Ray saw that he had a butterfly in his hands. She must have been eight or nine, wearing one of the boys' T-shirts Mama bleached in Hilex water. Her father held in his toughened hands the butterfly, brittle and long dead, but still perfect. It was black and yellow-orange, all charred lines and fire. He put his hands out, told Shawnee Ray to stand still, and then, glancing once into her serious eyes, he smiled and rubbed the butterfly wings onto her collarbone and across her shoulders, down her arms, until the color and the powder of it were blended into her skin.
"Ask the butterfly," he whispered, "for help, for grace."
Shawnee had felt a strange lightening in her arms, in her chest, when he did this. The way he said it, she had understood everything about the butterfly. The sharp, delicate wings, the way it floated over the grass, the way it seemed to breathe fanning in the sun, the wisdom of how it blended into flowers or changed into a leaf. In herself, Shawnee knew the same kind of possibilities and closed her eyes almost in shock, she was so light and powerful at that moment. Then her father caught her up and threw her high into the air. She could not remember landing in his arms or landing at all. She only remembered the last sun filling her eyes and the world tipping crazily behind her, out of sight.
I'm closing my eyes almost in shock at your powerful writing, Louise Erdrich! Looking forward to the last 3 books in this loosely crocheted series!
Seems I'll always give 5 mystical, magical and poetic prose stars to any book in Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine" loosely wrapped 8 book series. By loosely wrapped, I mean that the books are not tightly wound together with each other, nor neatly linked within each book. There is a plethora of characters depicted across generations. In particular, we often encounter Nanapush and Kapshaw tribal members from the Ojibwe tribe around North Dakota and some european males who create family with them. This is something Louise Erdrich knows quite a bit about since she is half Ojibwe and half German-American.
"Bingo Palace" is predominantly about the love triad among Lyman, his nephew Lipsha and the object of both male's affection, Shawnee Ray. Nevertheless, there are plenty more well fleshed out anxillary characters including Lulu Lamartine, her son Gerry the criminal who is Lipsha's father. Even Redford, Lyman's 8 year old child with Shawnee Ray, is described in great detail even having visions, foreshadowing or dreams similarly to the adult characters. My favorite character Fleur Pillager reappears in BP. She is Lipsha's seemingly eternal great-grandma, a mystical spirit woman with special powers.
I won't go into too much detail about plot, but simply highlight my favorite passage from this book which will not spoil it for the dear reader. To set up the scene, Shawnee Ray needs to win a traditional indigenous dance competition to get $$$ for college. She must get away from the Lyman vs. Lipsha battle for her and make her own future. If she disappears in future books, I'll be extremely disappointed because she seems to be the Fleur Pillager of the future. After all, Fleur may seem eternal, but she won't be around forever!
So Shawnee Ray does have a little magic behind her to help her win the dance competition. Turns out that her father has passed some magic on to her when she was just a kid.
Shawnee Ray saw that he had a butterfly in his hands. She must have been eight or nine, wearing one of the boys' T-shirts Mama bleached in Hilex water. Her father held in his toughened hands the butterfly, brittle and long dead, but still perfect. It was black and yellow-orange, all charred lines and fire. He put his hands out, told Shawnee Ray to stand still, and then, glancing once into her serious eyes, he smiled and rubbed the butterfly wings onto her collarbone and across her shoulders, down her arms, until the color and the powder of it were blended into her skin.
"Ask the butterfly," he whispered, "for help, for grace."
Shawnee had felt a strange lightening in her arms, in her chest, when he did this. The way he said it, she had understood everything about the butterfly. The sharp, delicate wings, the way it floated over the grass, the way it seemed to breathe fanning in the sun, the wisdom of how it blended into flowers or changed into a leaf. In herself, Shawnee knew the same kind of possibilities and closed her eyes almost in shock, she was so light and powerful at that moment. Then her father caught her up and threw her high into the air. She could not remember landing in his arms or landing at all. She only remembered the last sun filling her eyes and the world tipping crazily behind her, out of sight.
I'm closing my eyes almost in shock at your powerful writing, Louise Erdrich! Looking forward to the last 3 books in this loosely crocheted series!
February 2, 2026
Love Louise, but this read very much (because it is) like an early novel. Great writing, boring story. But still. I intend to read everything she’s written, boring or not.
July 8, 2020
4.5 stars
WOW. This book!! I think this book was as good as Tracks which is one of the very best I've read so far this year. And it was the perfect book end of the readalong. I have a review of the Love Medicine series coming later, but for now, let me say this: you want to read these books. The Bingo Palace was all the best elements of Erdrich's contemporary-set novels with the added weight and scope of her historical books.
The Bingo Palace follows one of my favourite characters from Love Medicine, Lipsha. He was such a compelling character in that and he doesn't disappoint in BP. Money and resulting greed, family relationships, blood relations, the power of dance and artistry, death and those who speak beyond death, love triangles and unrequited love, and womanhood.
WOW. This book!! I think this book was as good as Tracks which is one of the very best I've read so far this year. And it was the perfect book end of the readalong. I have a review of the Love Medicine series coming later, but for now, let me say this: you want to read these books. The Bingo Palace was all the best elements of Erdrich's contemporary-set novels with the added weight and scope of her historical books.
The Bingo Palace follows one of my favourite characters from Love Medicine, Lipsha. He was such a compelling character in that and he doesn't disappoint in BP. Money and resulting greed, family relationships, blood relations, the power of dance and artistry, death and those who speak beyond death, love triangles and unrequited love, and womanhood.
August 26, 2021
This one picks up after Love Medicine, with the same characters but a different focus. Lipsha Morrisey is our main guy, and he's flawed but we love him anyways. He has so much potential but no drive, and his obsession with Shawnee Ray clouds his judgement. But with every bad decision I still cheer for him. With his past, and the people in his life influencing him, who can really blame him?
Though I think my favorite character in the whole shabang is Fleur Pillager (who is mostly in Tracks), who makes some cameos here. Whenever she's around I grip my book with glee. The connections of all the generations, how everyone threads together in the community, is very present in this novel.
I wish there was a family tree like in Love Medicine in the beginning though! It's very confusing who begats who.
Though I think my favorite character in the whole shabang is Fleur Pillager (who is mostly in Tracks), who makes some cameos here. Whenever she's around I grip my book with glee. The connections of all the generations, how everyone threads together in the community, is very present in this novel.
I wish there was a family tree like in Love Medicine in the beginning though! It's very confusing who begats who.
April 10, 2017
I read this as a sequel to Love Medicine, interested in what happened to two of the younger characters--Lyman and Lipsha--featured toward the end of that novel. Both work in the bingo palace of the title and both are after one Shawnee Red. Lipsha's sections dominate the book, which is arranged in chronological order. The problem is that his musings, meditations, and actions mark him as an exasperating and hapless character; one has to work to remain sympathetic with him. The lively character stories that so envigorated the previous novel have been sidelined for an in-depth on a character who--truth to tell--has a very thin story, unfixed as he is.
November 4, 2010
Required reading for Am. Ind. Lit., Prof. Laura Furlan, UMASS-Amherst.
Erdrich is good. I'd only read "Love Medicine" before this, and didn't remember enjoying it as much as this, but I was probably just being a wiener when I read "Love Medicine".
I was surprised with all the comparisons Erdrich gets to Faulkner, but I see it, and agree with it in the sense of creating a fictional place and characters and using them across a decade plus of novels.
Erdrich is really funny. Legitimately funny novels in UMASS literature classes are hard to come by, so I'm lapping it up right now.
Erdrich is good. I'd only read "Love Medicine" before this, and didn't remember enjoying it as much as this, but I was probably just being a wiener when I read "Love Medicine".
I was surprised with all the comparisons Erdrich gets to Faulkner, but I see it, and agree with it in the sense of creating a fictional place and characters and using them across a decade plus of novels.
Erdrich is really funny. Legitimately funny novels in UMASS literature classes are hard to come by, so I'm lapping it up right now.
December 20, 2016
I reread The Bingo Palace with hopes of inching it into four star territory. But upon second reading, I still can’t in good conscience give the novel anything but three. The first half of the book is great. It positions at the center of the narrative a good old-fashioned love story that begins at a pow-wow which the author describes wonderfully, where the two protagonists meet and Lipsha develops his all-consuming passion for Shawnee Ray. Erdrich keeps this love story central while she whirls the stories of the various characters, familiar from her other novels, around its axis.
The second half of the novel is more problematic. It is, in essence, a series of vision quests, dreams and hallucinations. In the middle of these, the love story remains paramount, for the most part. But a long digression occurs involving a jail break, a plane crash, and getaway in a stolen car on a snowy night – all of which may or may not be “real” in the line of the story. (I guess the events are real, for in the epilogue-like fragmentary last chapters other characters hear about these things from the police and on the radio. But the exact occurrences are very confusing. And their relationships to the previous events of the story are nebulous.)
Among these hallucinatory sequences are some beautiful images. My favorite is the story that comes from the sweat lodge vision of Lyman Lamartine, Shawnee Ray’s other boyfriend and Lipsha’s rival for her affections, who happens to be Lipsha’s uncle. His brother Henry had died by drowning, probably complicated by PTSD left over from his Vietnam experience, and Lyman had in sorrow taken Henry’s “fancy dancing” clothes and worn them when he danced at pow-wows. During his sweat lodge experience, Lyman dances for the first time without wearing Henry’s clothes; it’s a moving experience of the shedding-of-grief while at the same time embracing it.
But the beauty of these, and other, dreams and their effect on the protagonists, doesn’t help in discerning what actually happens in the second part of the story. I’ve read reviews where readers who approached the book long ago say that today they can’t remember what happened – and I was much the same way. Upon rereading, I’ve come to believe that we can’t remember things happening – because they didn’t actually happen.
The second half of the novel is more problematic. It is, in essence, a series of vision quests, dreams and hallucinations. In the middle of these, the love story remains paramount, for the most part. But a long digression occurs involving a jail break, a plane crash, and getaway in a stolen car on a snowy night – all of which may or may not be “real” in the line of the story. (I guess the events are real, for in the epilogue-like fragmentary last chapters other characters hear about these things from the police and on the radio. But the exact occurrences are very confusing. And their relationships to the previous events of the story are nebulous.)
Among these hallucinatory sequences are some beautiful images. My favorite is the story that comes from the sweat lodge vision of Lyman Lamartine, Shawnee Ray’s other boyfriend and Lipsha’s rival for her affections, who happens to be Lipsha’s uncle. His brother Henry had died by drowning, probably complicated by PTSD left over from his Vietnam experience, and Lyman had in sorrow taken Henry’s “fancy dancing” clothes and worn them when he danced at pow-wows. During his sweat lodge experience, Lyman dances for the first time without wearing Henry’s clothes; it’s a moving experience of the shedding-of-grief while at the same time embracing it.
But the beauty of these, and other, dreams and their effect on the protagonists, doesn’t help in discerning what actually happens in the second part of the story. I’ve read reviews where readers who approached the book long ago say that today they can’t remember what happened – and I was much the same way. Upon rereading, I’ve come to believe that we can’t remember things happening – because they didn’t actually happen.
February 10, 2010
I have a favorable impression now that I've finished, but in the beginning I really wondered if I would like this. There are so many characters within the first ten or so pages and I absolutely could not keep them straight - especially since they are all inter-related in various ways. As the book went on, I figured out which ones mattered here and ignored the rest, but before I got to that point I did a lot of looking back. I wonder if this problem would have been less apparent if I had read the other novels Erdrich has written about these characters in Argus, ND. I have the sense that some of them are only mentioned in this novel because they are featured in another novel and readers would be interested to get a little bit of an update. Since this isn't a series though, this novel really should have stood alone a little better in the beginning. I did love the magic of this novel - Lipsha's communications with his mom, Zelda's power, and the fear of Fleur. All of these things could be read as reality or symbolically and I really enjoyed that dichotomy.
Themes: modern Native American culture, gambling, visions, superstition, crime and poverty as inescapable cycles, love, luck, dancing
Themes: modern Native American culture, gambling, visions, superstition, crime and poverty as inescapable cycles, love, luck, dancing
June 22, 2022
I have a stack of Louise Erdrich novels waiting for me -- along with heaps of other TBR books -- and always enjoy dipping into her spiritually rich novels about modern Native American life. I was pleased that this one shares characters with the last one I read (Tracks, in January), and realized I should take a closer look at the order of her works and how much they overlap. Not that one needs to read Tracks or any other Erdrich novel to appreciate this one, but I sense that they're better appreciated as parts of a larger vision. She writes them so fast that I'm not sure I'll ever catch up, but it's comforting to know that I have ten or so other novels on the shelf waiting for my attention. She's a smart and inspiring writer, and a master of detail and understatement.
September 22, 2010
in this fourth book of louise erdrick's we are once again taken back to the reservation. this time to watch modern day decendants of the clans, whose lives are so interwoven by marriages that everyone seems to be related. as they try to integrate the present and future, and still somehow honor their past traditions, all generations make decisions that have long term impact. filled with heartache, humor, love and the wisdom of the ages, it's a beautiful story that will stay with you long after you have turned the past page. ms. erdrick is a national treasure.
January 31, 2016
Lipsha, this protagonist, was a side character in her earlier novels and I'd be inclined to keep him there. But Erdrich is a lot smarter than I am. She is such a generous writer. That's the only word I can find for it. This is a book about a young man who is infatuated with a girl too good for him, a young man whose parents abandoned him to criminality and suicide, a young man who works in a casino and gambles his way to a new life, a young man who is every stereotype and none of them. She doesn't let you reduce him even as he reduces himself.
October 2, 2007
This book made me sick in the way only powerful artworks can...Like that movie Love Liza, or that gambling movie also with Mr. Hoffman. The thought of trading away the most important things in your life, your culture, for a few minutes of gambling thrill makes me afraid for my own life. Maybe I am doing things just as stupid without realizing it, throwing away the things that are most important.
April 27, 2020
Erdrich here revisits some of the characters who pop up in her work elsewhere, tracing the Kashpaws, Nanapushes, and Morriseys into the late 20th century. This one felt pretty uneven, much more in the vein of Tales of Burning Love (which I did not much like) than some of her other more lyrical work. It was fine; it just felt more disjointed than some, and sort of incomplete.
August 7, 2022
Oh,the mysteries of life and love! Ima round this one up to 4 clear,night-time stars shining in a wintry North Dakota sky bc some really poetic passages and sometimes a skunk is the one bringing you an important vision. How much of our lives is just pure luck? Enter the bingo palace and take your chances. Will you find true love?
December 26, 2017
Like all great storytellers, Erdrich's work speaks to a universal human experience of love, loss, and family, but is told through a unique and singular lens
March 31, 2021
Another wonderful Erdrich novel. Several more to read!
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April 28, 2022Just finished reading this book for school so I will not be rating it. It's just not my kinda book and I wouldn't have picked it up or continued to read it on my own.
August 5, 2022
Ugh, Lipsha!!!! Louise Erdrich is a master of character writing and this book is full of unforgettable ones. I would lay down my life for Lulu.
June 22, 2023
Shocked I hadn’t read her sooner. She’s a great writer. Too tired to elaborate more rn but book felt important to me and in some parts relatable in a way I didn’t know possible.
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