Night Train

by Lise Erdrich

What does it mean to be a “fully processed” Indian in America today? In Night Train , Lise Erdrich offers a sharp-humored and powerful primer. Largely set in the small towns and reservations of northwestern Minnesota and western North Dakota, her literary snapshots capture the characters’ lives playing out against a backdrop of emergency rooms, supermarket aisles, backwoods parties, family breakfast tables, booze-soaked taverns, and sterile, but emotionally fraught offices. Taken at the very moment when the pressures of daily life collide with the insidiousness of history, these stories reveal the personal struggle and small triumphs of people facing the absurdities of bureaucracy, cycles of poverty and addiction, and out-sized notions of Indian legends and culture. It takes love, fortitude, and no small amount of humor to survive the sun-starved winters of the Great Plains, where finding reasons to keep going (and keep growing) can be the most profound accomplishment. Erdrich’s flashbulb-quick stories provide it all in cathartic doses and within the many voices of her tales, all the crazy starts to make sense. Lise Erdrich has worked in the fields of Indian health and education since the 1980s and is currently a school health officer at the Circle of Nations School in Wahpeton, North Dakota. Her stories have received a number of awards, including the Minnesota Monthly Tamarack Award, the Many Mountains Moving Flash Fiction Contest, and Best of Show at the North Dakota State Fair. Night Train is her highly anticipated first collection.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Indigenous, Native American

152 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2008

About the author

a.k.a. Liselotte Erdrich
http://www.citypages.com/2008-02-06/c...
The Short Review, interview by Tania Hershman
http://www.theshortreview.com/reviews...
Coffee House Press, interview by Jonis Agee
http://www.coffeehousepress.org/night...

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgur...
http://minnesotahistory.net/archives/...
http://www.startribune.com/entertainm...

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short pieces about - mainly - Native Americans getting married or getting drunk or high, or being in hospital, about relationships that grow and peter out, rape, mixed in with history, recipes and forms to fill in. The perspectives of a mountain lion and a mouse. The writing flows then brings you up short. Very good, I'm changing it from 4 to 5 stars.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Grandson who is not yet two loves her children's books and I love her sister's writings, too. This book of short stories taught me much about life and was interesting to me because of many characters who are so real, Ojibweys, teachers, students, merchants, and blondes in white linen. Will read this book many times over to learn about life.

[Malou · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading this book, but I was a little disappointed. Whereas there were a few stories I really enjoyed and appreciated, most of them were just ok. I didn't finish two of them because I simply couldn't get into these. In the stories I did like, I much enjoyed the humor, sarcasm and rawness. Overall, Erdrich's observations are noteworthy.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF I got about 1/4 of the way through and just could not go on. Disappointed in the book not being as good as its description. Some stories were enjoyable and the author has a great descriptive quality to her work. But many we just disappointing.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a galley of this book in a package of review copies from the good people at Coffee House Press - it was not the book I was specifically interested in, but it immediately got my attention. Lise Erdrich has filled Night Train with edgy stories and highly original sentences creating a style somewhere between Sherman Alexie (whose blurb appears on the front cover of the galley), Donald Barthelme, and Lydia Davis. Although most of the stories are in the 5 - 10 page range, my favorite is a seventeen word story called "Well Adjusted Individual." It's a good reminder that an original voice and vision can rewrite the world in a handful of syllables and still leave room for pie.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

In order to read Lise's writing, one must first delve into her life. The boy-man-children that is constant in her revolving door of her house are crazy. Don't forget her dog, who is somewhat more well mannered than the children as mentioned previously. To be around Lise is a learning experience, like learning how to make beer bread and getting drunk from the beer when making the bread.

[Kharm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Erdrich is like poetry in prose format: it's has lyrical and beautiful word choice, but as a whole it is entirely nonsensical. NOT the sort of thing I would read for fun, but apparently it makes more sense from an ADHD perspective.

[Ann B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the slam fiction format!

[Stelepami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories word poem salads. A flavor on my tongue like the aftermath of a Western, a little dust and grit in the sunset light and heart breaking seeing the ugly drunk and sorrow too.