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The Mighty Red
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fiction (2024)In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding.
Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his.
Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. He’s determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker.
Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughter’s and her own.
Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009. How much does a dress cost? A used car? A package of cinnamon rolls? Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky? These are the questions the people of the Red River Valley of the North wrestle with every day.
The Mighty Red is a novel of tender humor, disturbance, and hallucinatory mourning. It is about on-the-job pains and immeasurable satisfactions, a turbulent landscape, and eating the native weeds growing in your backyard. It is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. It is about a starkly beautiful prairie community whose members must cope with devastating consequences as powerful forces upend them. As with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor.
A new novel by Louise Erdrich is a major literary event; gorgeous and heartrending, The Mighty Red is a triumph.
Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his.
Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. He’s determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker.
Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughter’s and her own.
Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009. How much does a dress cost? A used car? A package of cinnamon rolls? Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky? These are the questions the people of the Red River Valley of the North wrestle with every day.
The Mighty Red is a novel of tender humor, disturbance, and hallucinatory mourning. It is about on-the-job pains and immeasurable satisfactions, a turbulent landscape, and eating the native weeds growing in your backyard. It is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. It is about a starkly beautiful prairie community whose members must cope with devastating consequences as powerful forces upend them. As with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor.
A new novel by Louise Erdrich is a major literary event; gorgeous and heartrending, The Mighty Red is a triumph.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2024
5191 people are currently reading
69415 people want to read
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 3,975 reviews
December 10, 2024
After reading more than a dozen powerful novels by Louise Erdrich, I venture into each of her new books braced for heartbreak. And yet I still find myself falling through comic trapdoors hidden under the carpet of her prose. Really, I should know better by now. This Native American author who has won practically every literary honor our country can bestow — including a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award — flexes through an emotional range that most writers would never dare attempt. Yes, there are books like “Shadow Tag” that present such adamantine despair that no splinter of mirth can worm in, but typically, even when confronting great suffering, her work is buoyed with scenes of striking levity.
In Erdrich’s latest novel, “The Mighty Red,” humor and sorrow are fused together like twined tree trunks that keep each other standing. The story begins in 2008 within a farming community in North Dakota’s Red River Valley. The Great Recession is biting hard. Everything here that still runs, runs on sugar beets — planting them, harvesting them, trucking them, processing them. The industry has bent the whole town around the pursuit of that ubiquitous sweetener, with bitter results. The soil is so exhausted that only a conspiracy of toxic chemicals and genetically modified seeds can keep these zombie fields ambling along.
The wives know what’s going wrong. At their book club, one of them says the wasteland Cormac McCarthy foresees in “The Road” needn’t come from an atomic bomb or a well-aimed asteroid: Just keep poisoning the ground.
Although Crystal Frechette hauls sugar beets for a living, she has more immediate worries than environmental collapse. During her 12-hour shifts on the highway, she can’t stop worrying about her daughter, Kismet. Once regarded as a strange goth girl who endured the cool kids’ derision, at 18 Kismet is suddenly hot, even though she still might wear, say, “a cap-sleeved black 1950s cocktail dress and a boa of iridescent black rooster feathers” from the thrift store....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
In Erdrich’s latest novel, “The Mighty Red,” humor and sorrow are fused together like twined tree trunks that keep each other standing. The story begins in 2008 within a farming community in North Dakota’s Red River Valley. The Great Recession is biting hard. Everything here that still runs, runs on sugar beets — planting them, harvesting them, trucking them, processing them. The industry has bent the whole town around the pursuit of that ubiquitous sweetener, with bitter results. The soil is so exhausted that only a conspiracy of toxic chemicals and genetically modified seeds can keep these zombie fields ambling along.
The wives know what’s going wrong. At their book club, one of them says the wasteland Cormac McCarthy foresees in “The Road” needn’t come from an atomic bomb or a well-aimed asteroid: Just keep poisoning the ground.
Although Crystal Frechette hauls sugar beets for a living, she has more immediate worries than environmental collapse. During her 12-hour shifts on the highway, she can’t stop worrying about her daughter, Kismet. Once regarded as a strange goth girl who endured the cool kids’ derision, at 18 Kismet is suddenly hot, even though she still might wear, say, “a cap-sleeved black 1950s cocktail dress and a boa of iridescent black rooster feathers” from the thrift store....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
July 15, 2024
2.5 stars
Before this one I read four novels by Louise Erdrich and loved all of them . She’s a prolific writer and there are more I want to read . Because I’ve enjoyed her writing and storytelling, I’m sorry to say I was disappointed in this one . It took way too long to connect with the characters and the story . I didn’t like any of the characters for most of the story, except Crystal. While I believed there is something important, Erdrich has to say here, I wasn’t able to see it as I waded through the daily lives of these characters.
Maybe it’s because I was preoccupied this week or maybe it was just my mood. I’m not sure , but I do know that I was not engaged as I was with other novels I loved by Erdrich such as The Night Watchman and LaRose which is one I’ll never forget. I warmed up to some of the characters, but not until close to the end . I thought Gary was just weird, but by the end felt for him . There’s a lot to dislike about Martin, Crystal’s husband until there are some revelations. I’m going to round up to three stars because of the quality of the writing, the recognition of dangers to the environment and I appreciated the ending . I just wish I had been able to engage sooner. This will absolutely not keep me from reading Erdrich’s other books. I still believe she’s a literary treasure.
I’m thankful I read this with Diane, my book buddy and I’m glad that it wasn’t just me.
I received a digital copy of this from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.
November 6, 2025
The absence of birds made Diz uneasy, but he wasn’t spraying birds, was he? Yet there were fewer birds around his farm. Used to be robins hunting worms in the furrows. Used to be blackbirds around the green bins. Owls at dawn, rats in their claws. Well, maybe he had a sudden thought those could have been the rats and mice he had to poison. He thought back to how birds used to chatter as the sun rose. Now, a few sparrows, maybe, or more often just the hiss and boom of wind.--------------------------------------
While working in her garden, Crystal appreciated how their families were like the Lord’s ivy, a weed ineradicable by human means. It grows low to the ground and can’t be mowed. It throws its stems long and roots straight down every few inches, just like the people along the river. There seems to be a Frechette or a Poe anywhere you land, but low-key, invisible. The Lord’s ivy, or ground ivy, creeping charlie, thrives under the leaves of other plants and goes wherever it is not wanted. It just keeps throwing itself along stem by stem and blooms so modestly you’d hardly mark the tiny purple flowers. People step down and pass, the weed springs up, uncrushable.But, implanted or not, there is plenty of stress to go around.
Louise Erdrich in front of her Minneapolis bookstore - image from The Paris Review - shot by Angela Erdrich
Romantic stress
The core of the novel is an ill-considered relationship. Kismet and Gary are teenagers, rich with hormones and needs. But are they ready to be married? She had planned to go to college. Gary is the star quarterback, but has a need for Kismet that has nothing to do with their romance. And then there is Hugo, brilliant, ambitious, and totally in love with her, (… he closed his eyes and thought about how he was helpless in the tractor beam of love.) centering his life on making himself successful enough to woo her away from Gary. Coming of age is a major element, and is wonderfully portrayed. Erdrich says in the B&N interview that she had really wanted to write a love triangle. Well, among other things. She also wanted to write about …
Financial stress
I really set it in 2008…because I don’t feel our country has ever really dealt with the fallout from 2008. I feel like there was so much that there was so much loss, that people lost homes, people lost jobs, things hollowed out in such a big way and that was never really addressed. We never really came back from that time, 2008, 2009 into the present, because the pandemic happened. - from the B&N interviewWinnie Geist lived through the Reagan era in which her family’s farm was lost, sold for a fraction of its worth. David Stockman is name-dropped from the 1980s.
While she was in high school, the government accelerated her family’s loan payments and blow after blow had landed. They’d lost their home, their farm, everything. Except one another, they kept saying, except us.Crystal Poe is Kismet’s mother. When ne’er-do-well-actor dad, Martin, goes walkabout, Crystal has to sell off possessions to keep afloat.
Erdrich would like to see Irene Bedard as Crystal - from the Hoda & Jenna interview - image from Wikipedia
Ecological stress
Connection to the land is always a feature of Louise Erdrich’s work. The Lord’s ivy quote at the top reflects the root of this. Winnie’s angst at the loss of her family farm offers another. There are multiple instances of characters expressing, and acting on, (or not) concerns for the well-being of the ground on which they live and work. It is the treatment of the land that gets the most attention, the tension between using chemical-based products to maximize production per acre, versus a less corporate approach that supports a more ecologically balanced, restorative brand of farming.
I don’t think about politics when I write. I think about the characters and the narrative. My novels aren’t op-eds. Nobody reads a book unless the characters are powerful—bad or good or hopelessly ordinary. They have to have magnetism. If you write your characters to fit your politics, generally you get a boring story. If you let the people and the settings in the book come first, there’s a better chance that you can write a book shaped by politics that maybe people want to read. - from the Paris Review interviewParental stress
Erdrich has four daughters, so has had plenty of experience with mother-child interactions. She says she loved being the mother of teens, seeing the excitement of their choices, and trying to be more of a guide than a hard-liner. Crystal struggles to influence Kismet without coming on too strong, which would predictably result in increased resistance. Gary’s mother clearly loves him, and goes out of her way to see to her baby’s happiness, maybe too far out of her way. Crystal and Winnie are definitely both afraid for their children, although for very different reasons.
Erdrich would like to see Isabella LeBlanc as Kismet - from the Hoda & Jenna interview - image from Minnesota Native News
A bit of fun
There is a series of flamboyant crimes committed by an outlaw, who acquires a nickname and a fair bit of public fame, in the same way that notorious historical criminals like Billy the Kid drew public interest and admiration.
This book is set during the economic collapse of 2008–09. What Martin does is only what a lot of people wanted to do. I didn’t think of what he did as villainy, but yes, I suppose it was absolutely crazy, and, you know, fun to write. I have to amuse myself. - from the Bookpage interviewThere was more that motivated Erdrich. She is from the Red River Valley of North Dakota, has much family in the area and returns frequently. She wanted to write about the changes she had seen there. (like the mighty Red, history was a flood.) One element of this was that her first job was hauling sugar beets. The industry was undeveloped at the time. She wanted to write about how it had evolved over the last thirty years. The original title of the novel was Crystal.
When I started it I thought I would be writing about the 2011 lockout by Crystal Sugar and how it impacted people who were working there. They lost a lot in terms of their insurance and their benefits and wages…it was a really tough lockout. I wanted to write about that at first, but then I started writing something else entirely and I enjoyed writing it more so I kept with that one and it became more about a number of people living along the river. - from the B&N interviewMany of Louise Erdrich’s novels (this is her nineteenth) have centered on Native American history, lore, and contemporary experience. While there are several characters here whose Native roots are noted, this is not really a book about the Native experience, the way that The Round House, LaRose, The Night Watchman, and others are.
Magical realism remains a sharp tool in Erdrich’s kit. Crystal listens to a late-night radio show that centers on strangeness, including angels. A caller wonders if her child is protected by a guardian angel, given the number of close calls they had had. One character is haunted by the ghost of a friend. The aroma of a used dress speaks to its new owner. One character has a presentiment about an imminent danger.
Erdrich would like to see Brett Kelly as Hugo - from the Hoda & Jenna interview - image from Alchetron
There is a mystery here as well. what happened at “the party” and why is it such a hush-hush subject? Something terrible is hinted at. There are ripples emanating from this event that inform multiple character arcs.
There are a few literary references applied here. Madame Bovary is one. If you know the story, the echoes will boom at you. If not, it is no trick to pull up an abstract. Ditto for Anna Karenina. (see EXTRA STUFF for links)
As with any work of fiction it requires that we relate, at least somewhat, to at least some of the characters. Erdrich has a gift for writing characters that, whatever they may do, we can appreciate their motives, even if we may not agree with their choices. This is a major strength of the novel. She crafts rounded humans, ambitious, frightened, rational, irrational, loving, thoughtful, feckless, smart in wildly divergent ways, and, ultimately, satisfying. She does this while incorporating a payload of ecological concern, relationship insight, and an appreciation of history’s impact on lived experience, while adding a layer of magic to aid our understanding, and including a few laughs to smooth the way. Louise Erdrich is a national treasure, a reliable source of quality literary fiction, and an ongoing delight to read. The Mighty Red is indeed a mighty read.
Review posted - 12/13/24
Publication dates
----------Hardcover - 10/1/24
----------Trade paperback - 11/04/25
I received an ARE of The Mighty Red from Harper (through my Book Goddess dealer) in return for a fair review. Thanks, folks, dear.
This review is cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi!
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Interviews
-----*Barnes & Noble Book ClubLouise Erdrich discusses THE MIGHTY RED with Lexie Smyth and Jenna Seery - with Lexi Smyth and Jenna Seery - video 45:37 – This is the one you want to check out
-----Today with Hoda and Jenna - Author Louise Erdrich talks ‘The Mighty Red,’ takes fan questions
-----my link text
-----The Paris Review my link text
-----Book Page - Red is an earth tone by Alice Cary
Other Louise Erdrich novels I have reviewed
-----2021 - The Sentence
-----2020 - The Night Watchman
-----2017 - Future Home of the Living God
-----2016 - LaRose
-----2010 - Shadow Tag
-----2012 - The Round House
-----2008 - The Plague of Doves
-----2005 - The Painted Drum
Items of Interest
-----Project Gutenberg - Madame Bovary - full text
-----GetAbstract - of Madame Bovary
-----Project Gutenberg - Anna Karenina - full text
-----ReWire The West - Anna Karenina: Summary and Analysis
-----North Dakota State University - WHY IS THE RED RIVER OF THE NORTH SO VULNERABLE TO FLOODING?
-----MPR News - 20-month lockout over, sugar workers brace for return to work by Dan Gunderson
September 20, 2024
I never ever thought I would be giving a Erdrich novel such a low rating, and yet…..It wasn’t until the last third that I liked any part of this. I didn’t find humorous what I think I was supposed to find humorous. Just kind of silly. Didn’t really like nor dislike the characters, though Angela who I read this with agreed, we both liked Hugo.
Did like some of the agricultural facts presented and the effects of climate change. But, if this wasn’t a buddy read with Angela, I would have quit reading it before I got to the last third.
Anyway, read this for yourself, if you’re interested and a fan of this author. It is always better to judge for yourself.
ARC from Netgalley.
Did like some of the agricultural facts presented and the effects of climate change. But, if this wasn’t a buddy read with Angela, I would have quit reading it before I got to the last third.
Anyway, read this for yourself, if you’re interested and a fan of this author. It is always better to judge for yourself.
ARC from Netgalley.
November 13, 2025
The Mighty Red was Mighty Dull.
Calling it before I invest anymore time.
Erdrich usually has my full attention. Not with this one.
Thanks TGH for sharing your copy - glad you got more out of it than I did!
Calling it before I invest anymore time.
Erdrich usually has my full attention. Not with this one.
Thanks TGH for sharing your copy - glad you got more out of it than I did!
November 1, 2024
Erdrich's latest is a chatty romp, a comic small-town family epic that centers on a love triangle, and, apart from its environmentalist undertones, constitutes a rather surprising entry for a Pulitzer winner. In North Dakota, young, poor Kismet Poe (okay, GREAT name) marries Gary Geist (fyi, Geist is German for "spirit), son of a wealthy landowning family - Kismet's mother works for the Geist family as a sugar beet hauler. But Kismet is also fascinated by nerdy Hugo, a sentiment she tries to suppress, and her constant reading of Madame Bovary does not help...
This main plot sprawls out into several sub-plots about the families involved and the community where they reside. Apart from, as you by now have probably already guessed, themes like capitalism, classism, family, habitus, love and its societal and personal rules, Erdrich also discusses modern-day farming and its perils (hello, Sérotonine, written by agricultural engineer Michel Houellebecq) as well as Native landownership. The thing is though: The text is a labyrinth of stories, crafted in a mostly light-hearted tone that frequently borders on beach read territory, and it does not come together as a coherent whole, as it's just too wordy and too long for what it has to say. It reads like the idea for a Netflix series, with a "will they, won't they" premise plus environmentalist concerns, set in a quirky community à la "Fargo, but make it a romcom with less snow".
So in part, it's just not what I expected, which isn't the author's fault (and Erdrich is from Minneapolis, my favorite American city, so extra points for that), but it's also convoluted and thus slow-moving. Maybe the Coen brothers (also from Minneapolis!) can fix it!
This main plot sprawls out into several sub-plots about the families involved and the community where they reside. Apart from, as you by now have probably already guessed, themes like capitalism, classism, family, habitus, love and its societal and personal rules, Erdrich also discusses modern-day farming and its perils (hello, Sérotonine, written by agricultural engineer Michel Houellebecq) as well as Native landownership. The thing is though: The text is a labyrinth of stories, crafted in a mostly light-hearted tone that frequently borders on beach read territory, and it does not come together as a coherent whole, as it's just too wordy and too long for what it has to say. It reads like the idea for a Netflix series, with a "will they, won't they" premise plus environmentalist concerns, set in a quirky community à la "Fargo, but make it a romcom with less snow".
So in part, it's just not what I expected, which isn't the author's fault (and Erdrich is from Minneapolis, my favorite American city, so extra points for that), but it's also convoluted and thus slow-moving. Maybe the Coen brothers (also from Minneapolis!) can fix it!
May 3, 2025
Strange. Humorous. Tragic. Hopeful. Poignant.
Gary Geist impulsively proposes to and marries Kismet Poe.
He is wildly in love with her.
Hugo, a gentle giant of a man, still dreams of Kismet.
He can't get her out of his head.
Crystal, Kismet's mother, worries for her daughter's future.
And her own...
The Mighty Red is set in North Dakota's Red River Valley during the Great Recession of 2008. It's about living from paycheck to paycheck and sometimes working two jobs; ordinary people striving to lead better lives than they did when they were growing up. Some never grow up, and poor choices abound. There is beet farming and hauling, as well as the use of pesticides and herbicides in the same landscape as a family's summer vegetable garden. And there are so many secrets it will make your head swim.
There is an abundance of characters and plenty happening, resulting in a slow start for me. Once I figured out who was who and what was what, I connected, and everything fell into place. Erdrich's writing is beautiful, detailed, and sprinkled with humor that helps distract the reader from the story's sadness. The story is heavy with this lingering sadness that seems to permeate everyone and everything. It is like a toxin you can't see or smell.
This was an immersion read; the audiobook is narrated by Marin Ireland, one of my favorite narrators, who recounts every word, every pause, and every inflection in this story perfectly. The result is an engaging and evocative experience.
The Mighty Red is my first read by Louise Erdrich, and I didn't want it to end. I'm looking forward to exploring this author's extensive backlist!
4.5⭐
Thank you to Harper and Louise Erdrich for the DRC through NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Gary Geist impulsively proposes to and marries Kismet Poe.
He is wildly in love with her.
Hugo, a gentle giant of a man, still dreams of Kismet.
He can't get her out of his head.
Crystal, Kismet's mother, worries for her daughter's future.
And her own...
The Mighty Red is set in North Dakota's Red River Valley during the Great Recession of 2008. It's about living from paycheck to paycheck and sometimes working two jobs; ordinary people striving to lead better lives than they did when they were growing up. Some never grow up, and poor choices abound. There is beet farming and hauling, as well as the use of pesticides and herbicides in the same landscape as a family's summer vegetable garden. And there are so many secrets it will make your head swim.
There is an abundance of characters and plenty happening, resulting in a slow start for me. Once I figured out who was who and what was what, I connected, and everything fell into place. Erdrich's writing is beautiful, detailed, and sprinkled with humor that helps distract the reader from the story's sadness. The story is heavy with this lingering sadness that seems to permeate everyone and everything. It is like a toxin you can't see or smell.
This was an immersion read; the audiobook is narrated by Marin Ireland, one of my favorite narrators, who recounts every word, every pause, and every inflection in this story perfectly. The result is an engaging and evocative experience.
The Mighty Red is my first read by Louise Erdrich, and I didn't want it to end. I'm looking forward to exploring this author's extensive backlist!
4.5⭐
Thank you to Harper and Louise Erdrich for the DRC through NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
November 16, 2024
The Mighty Red from Pulitzer-winning author Louise Erdrich is set in Tabor, a small farming community in North Dakota’s Red River Valley.
The plot focuses on a love triangle between three teens — with multiple connected storylines from a parade of the town’s memorable characters — amidst the 2008-09 financial crisis and its rippling consequences: local businesses are shuttering, lands and homes are being foreclosed upon, cars repossessed.
Books figure prominently throughout, including a book club that hilariously dissects (with much drinking and noshing as all the best book clubs do) Liz Gilbert’s memoir Eat Pray Love and Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road.
Erdrich weaves in the effects of mining, fracking, toxic pesticides and herbicides on the soil, water, wildlife, and people of the area.
Don’t miss this beautifully written ode to both the fragility of romantic love and our natural world.
October 26, 2024
I could’ve spent 400 more pages with these beguiling characters. This novel oozed charm and wit with a huge cast of colorful characters to help get the party going. Just go along for the ride.
Ultimately this book is about two things: desperation and love, with all the untidiness and unpredictability that come along with those two strong emotional forces.
The Great Recession (2008) is the backdrop, and with that we get to witness a community trying to survive in all the right and extra-wrong ways.
Loved this offbeat and surprisingly soul-stirring roller coaster ride.
Ultimately this book is about two things: desperation and love, with all the untidiness and unpredictability that come along with those two strong emotional forces.
The Great Recession (2008) is the backdrop, and with that we get to witness a community trying to survive in all the right and extra-wrong ways.
Loved this offbeat and surprisingly soul-stirring roller coaster ride.
September 30, 2024
A River Runs Through It
Like the mighty Red River that winds through the North Dakota landscape, Louise Erdrich's latest novel meanders and surges, carrying the reader along on a journey both intimate and expansive. Set against the backdrop of the Red River Valley's sugar beet farms and small towns, The Mighty Red weaves together the lives of a cast of unforgettable characters as they grapple with love, loss, and the inexorable forces of nature and history that shape their world.
Erdrich, a master storyteller and chronicler of Native American life, turns her keen eye to the complexities of rural Midwestern existence in this sweeping, multigenerational saga. At its heart is the ill-fated union of Gary Geist and Kismet Poe, whose hasty marriage sets in motion a series of events that will reverberate through their families and community.
Young Love and Old Wounds
As the novel opens, we meet Gary Geist, a young man poised to inherit two farms but paralyzed by fear and trauma from a tragic accident. Desperate for stability, he latches onto Kismet Poe, a free-spirited former Goth girl who seems to offer salvation. Their rushed wedding forms the novel's centerpiece, a bittersweet affair clouded by family secrets and unspoken doubts.
Erdrich excels at peeling back the layers of her characters, revealing their deepest insecurities and desires. Gary's need for redemption and Kismet's yearning for escape are palpable, even as we sense the fragility of their connection. Their storyline is intertwined with that of Crystal, Kismet's mother, whose own complicated past comes crashing into the present when her husband Martin disappears with the town's church renovation fund.
A Tapestry of Lives
Around this central drama, Erdrich weaves a rich tapestry of supporting characters:
- Hugo, the lovesick homeschooled boy who pines for Kismet
- Winnie and Diz, Gary's parents, struggling with their own marital tensions and farming pressures
- Eric, Gary's loyal friend harboring dark secrets
- Jeniver, the sharp-tongued lawyer fighting for Crystal
Each character is drawn with empathy and nuance, their individual stories building to create a vibrant portrait of a community in flux.
The Land as Character
As in much of Erdrich's work, the landscape itself becomes a central character. The Red River Valley, with its fertile soil and harsh climate, shapes the lives and psyches of those who call it home. Erdrich's prose shimmers with evocative descriptions:
"The fields flat, slick, glistening. The pounding in their heads a joy indecent—to be shit-faced drunk and traveling with gorgeous force and speed. Darkness pouring behind them like a cape of energy."
The cycle of planting and harvest, flood and drought, becomes a metaphor for the characters' own struggles with fate and free will. The author doesn't shy away from the environmental toll of industrial agriculture, weaving in poignant observations about soil depletion and chemical runoff.
Echoes of the Past
Erdrich deftly incorporates historical elements, touching on:
- The displacement of Native peoples
- The hardships faced by immigrant farmers
- The lasting impact of government policies on rural communities
These threads add depth to the contemporary story, reminding us that the present is always shaped by the past.
Love in All Its Forms
At its core, The Mighty Red is a meditation on love – romantic, familial, and communal. Erdrich explores the many ways love can uplift, wound, and transform:
- The passionate but troubled connection between Gary and Kismet
- Crystal's conflicted feelings for her absent husband
- The deep bonds of friendship among the young men in Gary's circle
- The complicated love between parents and children
Even minor characters are given moments of tenderness and vulnerability that illuminate the human capacity for connection.
Humor Amidst Hardship
Despite the often heavy subject matter, Erdrich infuses the novel with moments of wry humor and absurdity. From the antics of Winnie's hyperactive dogs to the town's fascination with bank robberies, these lighter touches provide welcome respite and reflect the resilience of the human spirit.
Masterful Storytelling
Erdrich's prose is, as always, a marvel. She moves effortlessly between perspectives, giving each character a distinct voice while maintaining a cohesive narrative flow. Her ability to capture the cadences of everyday speech alongside moments of lyrical beauty is unparalleled.
The novel's structure, with its interweaving timelines and multiple narrators, mirrors the meandering path of the Red River itself. While this can occasionally lead to moments of confusion, patient readers will be rewarded with a rich, multifaceted story.
Standout Scenes
Several scenes stand out for their emotional power:
- The tense, dreamlike sequence of Gary and his friends' ill-fated snowmobile ride
- Kismet's night swim in the river before her wedding
- Hugo's surreal experiences in the oil fields
- The poignant book club discussion about environmental apocalypse
Each showcases Erdrich's gift for creating moments that linger long after the last page is turned.
Themes That Resonate
The Mighty Red tackles a number of timely themes:
Environmental Concerns
- The impact of industrial farming on soil and water
- Climate change and its effects on rural communities
- The tension between tradition and modern agricultural practices
Economic Pressures
- The struggle to maintain family farms
- The allure and dangers of the North Dakota oil boom
- The ripple effects of financial fraud on small towns
Identity and Belonging
- The pull between staying rooted and seeking new horizons
- The complexities of Native American identity in rural America
- The ways trauma can shape individual and collective identities
Faith and Spirituality
- The role of organized religion in community life
- Characters' personal spiritual journeys and moments of transcendence
- The mingling of Christian and indigenous beliefs
In the Context of Erdrich's Work
Fans of Erdrich's previous novels, such as The Night Watchman and The Sentence, will find familiar themes and stylistic touches in The Mighty Red. Her ability to blend realism with touches of the mythic is on full display here. However, this novel feels more grounded in the contemporary moment, grappling with pressing issues facing rural America today.
A Few Critiques
While The Mighty Red is a triumph overall, a few minor quibbles:
- The large cast of characters can be overwhelming at times
- Some plot threads feel unresolved by the novel's end
- Occasional moments where the messaging about environmental issues feels heavy-handed
These small criticisms, however, do little to detract from the overall power of the work.
Final Thoughts: A River's Wisdom
In The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich has crafted a novel as vast and vital as the landscape it depicts. Like the river that gives the book its title, the story carries us through moments of turbulence and calm, always moving forward with an inexorable power.
Erdrich reminds us that our lives, like the land we inhabit, are shaped by forces both within and beyond our control. Yet even in the face of hardship and heartbreak, there is beauty to be found – in the resilience of nature, in the bonds of community, and in the enduring capacity of the human heart to love.
The Mighty Red is a profound meditation on what it means to belong – to a place, to a people, to oneself. It is a testament to Erdrich's unparalleled gift for illuminating the complexities of the human experience. Readers will find themselves swept along by this powerful current of a novel, emerging changed by the journey.
Like the mighty Red River that winds through the North Dakota landscape, Louise Erdrich's latest novel meanders and surges, carrying the reader along on a journey both intimate and expansive. Set against the backdrop of the Red River Valley's sugar beet farms and small towns, The Mighty Red weaves together the lives of a cast of unforgettable characters as they grapple with love, loss, and the inexorable forces of nature and history that shape their world.
Erdrich, a master storyteller and chronicler of Native American life, turns her keen eye to the complexities of rural Midwestern existence in this sweeping, multigenerational saga. At its heart is the ill-fated union of Gary Geist and Kismet Poe, whose hasty marriage sets in motion a series of events that will reverberate through their families and community.
Young Love and Old Wounds
As the novel opens, we meet Gary Geist, a young man poised to inherit two farms but paralyzed by fear and trauma from a tragic accident. Desperate for stability, he latches onto Kismet Poe, a free-spirited former Goth girl who seems to offer salvation. Their rushed wedding forms the novel's centerpiece, a bittersweet affair clouded by family secrets and unspoken doubts.
Erdrich excels at peeling back the layers of her characters, revealing their deepest insecurities and desires. Gary's need for redemption and Kismet's yearning for escape are palpable, even as we sense the fragility of their connection. Their storyline is intertwined with that of Crystal, Kismet's mother, whose own complicated past comes crashing into the present when her husband Martin disappears with the town's church renovation fund.
A Tapestry of Lives
Around this central drama, Erdrich weaves a rich tapestry of supporting characters:
- Hugo, the lovesick homeschooled boy who pines for Kismet
- Winnie and Diz, Gary's parents, struggling with their own marital tensions and farming pressures
- Eric, Gary's loyal friend harboring dark secrets
- Jeniver, the sharp-tongued lawyer fighting for Crystal
Each character is drawn with empathy and nuance, their individual stories building to create a vibrant portrait of a community in flux.
The Land as Character
As in much of Erdrich's work, the landscape itself becomes a central character. The Red River Valley, with its fertile soil and harsh climate, shapes the lives and psyches of those who call it home. Erdrich's prose shimmers with evocative descriptions:
"The fields flat, slick, glistening. The pounding in their heads a joy indecent—to be shit-faced drunk and traveling with gorgeous force and speed. Darkness pouring behind them like a cape of energy."
The cycle of planting and harvest, flood and drought, becomes a metaphor for the characters' own struggles with fate and free will. The author doesn't shy away from the environmental toll of industrial agriculture, weaving in poignant observations about soil depletion and chemical runoff.
Echoes of the Past
Erdrich deftly incorporates historical elements, touching on:
- The displacement of Native peoples
- The hardships faced by immigrant farmers
- The lasting impact of government policies on rural communities
These threads add depth to the contemporary story, reminding us that the present is always shaped by the past.
Love in All Its Forms
At its core, The Mighty Red is a meditation on love – romantic, familial, and communal. Erdrich explores the many ways love can uplift, wound, and transform:
- The passionate but troubled connection between Gary and Kismet
- Crystal's conflicted feelings for her absent husband
- The deep bonds of friendship among the young men in Gary's circle
- The complicated love between parents and children
Even minor characters are given moments of tenderness and vulnerability that illuminate the human capacity for connection.
Humor Amidst Hardship
Despite the often heavy subject matter, Erdrich infuses the novel with moments of wry humor and absurdity. From the antics of Winnie's hyperactive dogs to the town's fascination with bank robberies, these lighter touches provide welcome respite and reflect the resilience of the human spirit.
Masterful Storytelling
Erdrich's prose is, as always, a marvel. She moves effortlessly between perspectives, giving each character a distinct voice while maintaining a cohesive narrative flow. Her ability to capture the cadences of everyday speech alongside moments of lyrical beauty is unparalleled.
The novel's structure, with its interweaving timelines and multiple narrators, mirrors the meandering path of the Red River itself. While this can occasionally lead to moments of confusion, patient readers will be rewarded with a rich, multifaceted story.
Standout Scenes
Several scenes stand out for their emotional power:
- The tense, dreamlike sequence of Gary and his friends' ill-fated snowmobile ride
- Kismet's night swim in the river before her wedding
- Hugo's surreal experiences in the oil fields
- The poignant book club discussion about environmental apocalypse
Each showcases Erdrich's gift for creating moments that linger long after the last page is turned.
Themes That Resonate
The Mighty Red tackles a number of timely themes:
Environmental Concerns
- The impact of industrial farming on soil and water
- Climate change and its effects on rural communities
- The tension between tradition and modern agricultural practices
Economic Pressures
- The struggle to maintain family farms
- The allure and dangers of the North Dakota oil boom
- The ripple effects of financial fraud on small towns
Identity and Belonging
- The pull between staying rooted and seeking new horizons
- The complexities of Native American identity in rural America
- The ways trauma can shape individual and collective identities
Faith and Spirituality
- The role of organized religion in community life
- Characters' personal spiritual journeys and moments of transcendence
- The mingling of Christian and indigenous beliefs
In the Context of Erdrich's Work
Fans of Erdrich's previous novels, such as The Night Watchman and The Sentence, will find familiar themes and stylistic touches in The Mighty Red. Her ability to blend realism with touches of the mythic is on full display here. However, this novel feels more grounded in the contemporary moment, grappling with pressing issues facing rural America today.
A Few Critiques
While The Mighty Red is a triumph overall, a few minor quibbles:
- The large cast of characters can be overwhelming at times
- Some plot threads feel unresolved by the novel's end
- Occasional moments where the messaging about environmental issues feels heavy-handed
These small criticisms, however, do little to detract from the overall power of the work.
Final Thoughts: A River's Wisdom
In The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich has crafted a novel as vast and vital as the landscape it depicts. Like the river that gives the book its title, the story carries us through moments of turbulence and calm, always moving forward with an inexorable power.
Erdrich reminds us that our lives, like the land we inhabit, are shaped by forces both within and beyond our control. Yet even in the face of hardship and heartbreak, there is beauty to be found – in the resilience of nature, in the bonds of community, and in the enduring capacity of the human heart to love.
The Mighty Red is a profound meditation on what it means to belong – to a place, to a people, to oneself. It is a testament to Erdrich's unparalleled gift for illuminating the complexities of the human experience. Readers will find themselves swept along by this powerful current of a novel, emerging changed by the journey.
November 5, 2024
My life is too short to continue reading a book with confusing dialogue, irritating main characters, and non-descriptive scenes.
October 19, 2024
When picking up a Louise Erdrich novel, a reader usually thinks they know what to expect, and then she surprises them. In a departure from her usual themes of her native background, she creates a prairie community imbuing it with a full history and communal memory. A traumatic accident is raised from time to time, but its reality is impossible to experience until she reveals the facts of its reality. This is only one aspect of the book that kept me hooked from the beginning. Her writing is powerful, meaty, humorous at times and relevant.
July 17, 2024
Just magnificent and so SO funny. I've only read a few Erdrichs but her humor is one of the things that stands out most to me about her writing.
So does her brilliant writing of teens. The teenagers in this book (like in the darker "Round House") behave in deeply foolish but plausible ways, particularly Kismet, who absolutely should not be getting engaged to someone she finds annoying and yet is seduced by the prospect of love and devotion. Most of the characters in this book, unlike in "The Round House," for instance, are basically decent; at the worst they are scared and self-serving. And while this doesn't stop them from making terrible decisions, we can understand them.
Erdrich also evokes the exact moment of the financial crash in 2008 brilliantly, through the lives of normal people who are scared about their precarious finances and jobs. This, combined with her incredible rendering of the natural world, especially her attention to the details of farming practices, roots this novel in the the the wider world and in the earth itself, giving it a broader sense of heft and scope than its central teen marriage fiasco might belie. But of course that's how life is: small (but large) absurdities embedded in the whole big world.
I also appreciated that Erdrich chose not to foreground a Native political issue in this novel, as she has in others — it is her prerogative to not write about grand historical tragedies in every book — but that she seamlessly incorporated how the Native identities of some of her main characters affect the town's wider social dynamics and smaller interpersonal dynamics, and threaded in historical context for this also. Of course, our relationship with the land reaches back deep into the history of the indigenous people on this continent; all art is political. But I also want our great artists to be able to write about whatever they want with whatever approach to a subject moves them at a given time.
Just a tremendous joy of a book. It is such a privilege to read a novel and feel that you are in the hands of a master.
So does her brilliant writing of teens. The teenagers in this book (like in the darker "Round House") behave in deeply foolish but plausible ways, particularly Kismet, who absolutely should not be getting engaged to someone she finds annoying and yet is seduced by the prospect of love and devotion. Most of the characters in this book, unlike in "The Round House," for instance, are basically decent; at the worst they are scared and self-serving. And while this doesn't stop them from making terrible decisions, we can understand them.
Erdrich also evokes the exact moment of the financial crash in 2008 brilliantly, through the lives of normal people who are scared about their precarious finances and jobs. This, combined with her incredible rendering of the natural world, especially her attention to the details of farming practices, roots this novel in the the the wider world and in the earth itself, giving it a broader sense of heft and scope than its central teen marriage fiasco might belie. But of course that's how life is: small (but large) absurdities embedded in the whole big world.
I also appreciated that Erdrich chose not to foreground a Native political issue in this novel, as she has in others — it is her prerogative to not write about grand historical tragedies in every book — but that she seamlessly incorporated how the Native identities of some of her main characters affect the town's wider social dynamics and smaller interpersonal dynamics, and threaded in historical context for this also. Of course, our relationship with the land reaches back deep into the history of the indigenous people on this continent; all art is political. But I also want our great artists to be able to write about whatever they want with whatever approach to a subject moves them at a given time.
Just a tremendous joy of a book. It is such a privilege to read a novel and feel that you are in the hands of a master.
October 14, 2024
DNF. Read 30% and could not take it any longer. The chapters are very short, the book does not flow, and it is extremely choppy. The characters and setting are not described in a manner to where the reader can visualize them. The characters are just meh and boring. I am surprised, as I typically love anything by this author. I am disappointed that Jenna Bush Hager chose this as a book club selection and wonder if she really read it. Sorry to be harsh, but not worth the time when there are so many outstanding books to be read.
March 3, 2025
I have read and loved many of Louise Erdrich's books. The Mighty Red, however, was not a book I meshed with. I found the characters shallow and undeveloped, the narrative too tangential and trying too hard to find its way.
The book centers on a weak story, that of a marriage/relationship between Kismet Poe and Gary Geist. Gary comes from wealth, the son of the owners of a beet farm in rural North Dakota. Kismet comes from a lower middle class background with her mother being employed as a truck driver for Gary's family and her father a possible thief. Kismet doesn't really love Gary but for magical or superstitious reasons, decides to marry him. I couldn't figure out why she went through with it. I don't think Kismet had a clue either as to why she married Gary.
There is a leitmotif to the book, a shadow that underlies the narrative and most of the chapters. It is about a past party, one in which someone was hurt and perhaps Gary was involved in this incident.
I wish I could have enjoyed this book but it was not to be. It definitely is not up there with the best of Ms. Erdrich's novels, not even close.
The book centers on a weak story, that of a marriage/relationship between Kismet Poe and Gary Geist. Gary comes from wealth, the son of the owners of a beet farm in rural North Dakota. Kismet comes from a lower middle class background with her mother being employed as a truck driver for Gary's family and her father a possible thief. Kismet doesn't really love Gary but for magical or superstitious reasons, decides to marry him. I couldn't figure out why she went through with it. I don't think Kismet had a clue either as to why she married Gary.
There is a leitmotif to the book, a shadow that underlies the narrative and most of the chapters. It is about a past party, one in which someone was hurt and perhaps Gary was involved in this incident.
I wish I could have enjoyed this book but it was not to be. It definitely is not up there with the best of Ms. Erdrich's novels, not even close.
Read
May 21, 2025Wszedłem w tę powieść w ciemno, bez oczekiwań, bez założeń. Wiedziałem jedynie, że Louise Erdrich to autorka wielokrotnie nagradzana — i tyle mi wystarczyło. Ku mojemu zaskoczeniu, "Rzeka Czerwona" okazała się lekturą pełną... humoru. Tak, dobrze czytacie. Humor w powieści o kryzysie, rodzinnych traumach i społecznych napięciach. I to nie wymuszony, a inteligentny, celny, czasem absurdalny — tak dobry, że znów mam ochotę się zaśmiać.
Przeczytałem gdzieś, że to "wielowarstwowa opowieść wiejska" i to idealne podsumowanie. Mamy rok 2008, fikcyjne miasteczko Tabor w Północnej Dakocie i trójkąt emocjonalny pomiędzy Kismet Poe, zbuntowaną eks-gotką z korzeniami w społeczności Odżibwejów; Garym Geistem, dziedzicem farm buraków cukrowych; i Hugonem Dumachem, rudowłosym samotnikiem, którego serce bije dla technologii.
Oś fabularna krąży wokół prób tych młodych ludzi, by poukładać swoje życie po trudnych przejściach. Ale zamiast wypracowanej dorosłości — dostają dorosłość przypadkową. Kismet, trochę z przekory, trochę z zagubienia, przyjmuje oświadczyny Gary’ego, czym wzbudza niemałe poruszenie w lokalnej społeczności. W tle śledzimy też historię jej matki, Crystal — kierowczyni ciężarówki, która po zaginięciu partnera zostaje wciągnięta w finansowo-obyczajowy skandal. Mąż (nauczyciel aktorstwa!) znika, zabierając ze sobą fundusze kościelne i wszystkie oszczędności. A wszystko to na tle gospodarczego krachu 2008 roku.
Erdrich tworzy tu coś znacznie więcej niż tylko fabularną układankę. To powieść, która łączy satyrę społeczną z dramatem rodzinnym, romansem z fikcją klimatyczną. Mamy degradację środowiska, klasowe napięcia, halucynacyjne wstawki i portret wspólnoty na granicy rozpadu. Wielość postaci pobocznych nadaje całości głębi i realizmu. To głosy ludzi z tzw. prowincji, którym literatura rzadko oddaje sprawiedliwość. A przecież mają tyle do powiedzenia.
Spodziewałem się czegoś bardziej skondensowanego, surowego, może nawet mrocznego — a dostałem coś, co mnie rozczuliło, rozbawiło i zostawiło z poczuciem cichej nadziei. W tej pozornej prostocie chyba tkwi siła. Jeśli miałbym ją do czegoś porównać, to może do "Zbieraczy borówek" — choć tutaj ton jest łagodniejszy, a dramaturgia mniej melodramatyczna, mimo że znajdziemy też sceny prawdziwie bolesne, zbudowane wokół tajemnicy, która odsłania się stopniowo.
Słyszałem, że Erdrich wymieniana jest w kontekście Nagrody Nobla i po tej książce zupełnie mnie to nie dziwi. Zostaję z nią na dłużej. A "Rzekę Czerwoną" polecam z pełnym przekonaniem.
Przeczytałem gdzieś, że to "wielowarstwowa opowieść wiejska" i to idealne podsumowanie. Mamy rok 2008, fikcyjne miasteczko Tabor w Północnej Dakocie i trójkąt emocjonalny pomiędzy Kismet Poe, zbuntowaną eks-gotką z korzeniami w społeczności Odżibwejów; Garym Geistem, dziedzicem farm buraków cukrowych; i Hugonem Dumachem, rudowłosym samotnikiem, którego serce bije dla technologii.
Oś fabularna krąży wokół prób tych młodych ludzi, by poukładać swoje życie po trudnych przejściach. Ale zamiast wypracowanej dorosłości — dostają dorosłość przypadkową. Kismet, trochę z przekory, trochę z zagubienia, przyjmuje oświadczyny Gary’ego, czym wzbudza niemałe poruszenie w lokalnej społeczności. W tle śledzimy też historię jej matki, Crystal — kierowczyni ciężarówki, która po zaginięciu partnera zostaje wciągnięta w finansowo-obyczajowy skandal. Mąż (nauczyciel aktorstwa!) znika, zabierając ze sobą fundusze kościelne i wszystkie oszczędności. A wszystko to na tle gospodarczego krachu 2008 roku.
Erdrich tworzy tu coś znacznie więcej niż tylko fabularną układankę. To powieść, która łączy satyrę społeczną z dramatem rodzinnym, romansem z fikcją klimatyczną. Mamy degradację środowiska, klasowe napięcia, halucynacyjne wstawki i portret wspólnoty na granicy rozpadu. Wielość postaci pobocznych nadaje całości głębi i realizmu. To głosy ludzi z tzw. prowincji, którym literatura rzadko oddaje sprawiedliwość. A przecież mają tyle do powiedzenia.
Spodziewałem się czegoś bardziej skondensowanego, surowego, może nawet mrocznego — a dostałem coś, co mnie rozczuliło, rozbawiło i zostawiło z poczuciem cichej nadziei. W tej pozornej prostocie chyba tkwi siła. Jeśli miałbym ją do czegoś porównać, to może do "Zbieraczy borówek" — choć tutaj ton jest łagodniejszy, a dramaturgia mniej melodramatyczna, mimo że znajdziemy też sceny prawdziwie bolesne, zbudowane wokół tajemnicy, która odsłania się stopniowo.
Słyszałem, że Erdrich wymieniana jest w kontekście Nagrody Nobla i po tej książce zupełnie mnie to nie dziwi. Zostaję z nią na dłużej. A "Rzekę Czerwoną" polecam z pełnym przekonaniem.
October 21, 2024
ARC for review. Published October 1, 2024.
Review published in the Charleston Gazette Mail, Saturday-Sunday, October 19-20, 2024.
THE MIGHTY RED - Louise Erdrich, October 1, 2024, Harper, 384 pages.
Erdrich, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award sets her latest book in Argus, North Dakota, right at the onset of the economic downturn of 2008. Football hero Gary Geist is set to inherit two farms and is anxious to marry Kismet Poe, a former goth girl. He’s afraid, she’s impulsive.
Hugo also loves Kismet. A home-schooled boy, he’s determined to steal her from Gary. Hugo wants to leave town and make his way in the oil fields.
Kismet’s mother, Crystal, is a truck driver for Gary’s family, doing a continual loop each night. She sees guardian angels and is worried about the future. Kismet’s father, Martin, is a frustrated drama teacher and failed investor who has lost the local church’s savings.
Gary’s parents are Winnie, who is a bit of a monster because of some underlying trauma, and Diz, who was born to money. Hugo’s mother, Bev owns the local bookstore and she is married to Ichor.
Of course, something big happens that has the potential to change everything. There’s a book club in town that serves as a place for women to air things out.
Kismet is torn between Gary and Hugo. Each could fulfill different needs that she has. And both desperately want her. At one point Gary, who is not a reader, enters the bookstore. Hugo toys with the idea of Tasering Gary, but decides he cannot as he, as a book seller, “lived out a vow, almost mystical to help those who entered his domain find the book they needed.” And so Hugo does, even though he’s helping his arch-rival find a book to help his relationship with Kismet. And Hugo and Kismet never consider that if Kismet married Gary that would be any reason for them to stop seeing each other.
Argus is definitely feeling the effects of the financial crisis. Shopping at thrift stores, eating generic foods - these are a way of life for most citizens. Crystal tries hard to hide and save money, but Martin always seems to ferret it out and spends it on small luxuries for himself, like expensive coffee and high-priced shirts.
Perhaps Martin’s spending is his way of dealing with his issues, because the men of the Valley are stoic, “they didn’t generally talk about their feelings. They didn’t go deep into things. Their bond was work.”
The crop that gave the Geists their fortune, and what Crystal hauls each night, is sugar beets. But just like with the Red River Valley - “land…taken from the Dakota, the Ojibue, the Metis by forced treaties. The original people started working on the land they once owned.” - the sugar beets have a dark history, “every teaspoon of sugar that was stirred into a cup of pudding was haunted by the slave trade and the slaughter of the buffalo.”
“The Mighty Red” is a wide, grand story about the land and what we, as people, have done to it through climate change, the use of pesticides in farming and the ways we use our natural resources. Of course, it’s also about marriage and live - all kinds of love, how we take love and how we offer it to one another.
Review published in the Charleston Gazette Mail, Saturday-Sunday, October 19-20, 2024.
THE MIGHTY RED - Louise Erdrich, October 1, 2024, Harper, 384 pages.
Erdrich, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award sets her latest book in Argus, North Dakota, right at the onset of the economic downturn of 2008. Football hero Gary Geist is set to inherit two farms and is anxious to marry Kismet Poe, a former goth girl. He’s afraid, she’s impulsive.
Hugo also loves Kismet. A home-schooled boy, he’s determined to steal her from Gary. Hugo wants to leave town and make his way in the oil fields.
Kismet’s mother, Crystal, is a truck driver for Gary’s family, doing a continual loop each night. She sees guardian angels and is worried about the future. Kismet’s father, Martin, is a frustrated drama teacher and failed investor who has lost the local church’s savings.
Gary’s parents are Winnie, who is a bit of a monster because of some underlying trauma, and Diz, who was born to money. Hugo’s mother, Bev owns the local bookstore and she is married to Ichor.
Of course, something big happens that has the potential to change everything. There’s a book club in town that serves as a place for women to air things out.
Kismet is torn between Gary and Hugo. Each could fulfill different needs that she has. And both desperately want her. At one point Gary, who is not a reader, enters the bookstore. Hugo toys with the idea of Tasering Gary, but decides he cannot as he, as a book seller, “lived out a vow, almost mystical to help those who entered his domain find the book they needed.” And so Hugo does, even though he’s helping his arch-rival find a book to help his relationship with Kismet. And Hugo and Kismet never consider that if Kismet married Gary that would be any reason for them to stop seeing each other.
Argus is definitely feeling the effects of the financial crisis. Shopping at thrift stores, eating generic foods - these are a way of life for most citizens. Crystal tries hard to hide and save money, but Martin always seems to ferret it out and spends it on small luxuries for himself, like expensive coffee and high-priced shirts.
Perhaps Martin’s spending is his way of dealing with his issues, because the men of the Valley are stoic, “they didn’t generally talk about their feelings. They didn’t go deep into things. Their bond was work.”
The crop that gave the Geists their fortune, and what Crystal hauls each night, is sugar beets. But just like with the Red River Valley - “land…taken from the Dakota, the Ojibue, the Metis by forced treaties. The original people started working on the land they once owned.” - the sugar beets have a dark history, “every teaspoon of sugar that was stirred into a cup of pudding was haunted by the slave trade and the slaughter of the buffalo.”
“The Mighty Red” is a wide, grand story about the land and what we, as people, have done to it through climate change, the use of pesticides in farming and the ways we use our natural resources. Of course, it’s also about marriage and live - all kinds of love, how we take love and how we offer it to one another.
September 30, 2024
3.5 A thoroughly pleasurable read -- how could it not be, given the author's immense talents? In the end, though, I found it rather lightweight. It touches on real issues and its characters have depth and aspirations, but it's kind of all over the place: there's a love triangle (or is it a quadrangle?), class conflict, lies, crimes and misdemeanors, an awful secret, bank robberies, embezzlement of church funds...
That being said, I won't be surprised at all if it became a bestseller for precisely these reasons, or even gets stellar reviews elsewhere. But for me it was "less than." [As predicted, now that the book is being released it's being widely reviewed and widely praised. I suspect I wasn't in the proper frame of mind to appreciate Mighty Red. Perhaps I'll return to it.]
My thanks to Harper and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
That being said, I won't be surprised at all if it became a bestseller for precisely these reasons, or even gets stellar reviews elsewhere. But for me it was "less than." [As predicted, now that the book is being released it's being widely reviewed and widely praised. I suspect I wasn't in the proper frame of mind to appreciate Mighty Red. Perhaps I'll return to it.]
My thanks to Harper and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
July 11, 2025
Author James McBride likes to use humor in a book while featuring a difficult subject like slavery. In The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich does the same. She has written a playful, humorous book while addressing the hazards of industrial sugar beet farming (using toxic pesticides) and fracking for oil. The story is set in the Red River Valley of North Dakota during the financial/banking crisis of 2008. How can a book this serious come across as playful?
Kismet is a central character. She lives with her mother (Crystal) and attends high school. They are Native American. Kismet is one of the brainy girls and has recently gone through a Goth stage. Used to being ignored by the popular kids, Kismet is flattered when the school's quarterback starts paying attention to her (Gary). The only problem is that Gary is moving fast and wants to marry her ASAP.
Crystal (Kismet's mother) works the graveyard shift as a sugar beet hauler. Gary's family owns the largest industrial sugar beet farm in the area. Crystal ferries their harvest to a beet processing plant that turns the beets into sugar. Crystal adores her daughter and sees that Gary means trouble for her, but can't seem to get through to her. When does a daughter ever listen to a mother?
Hugo is Kismet's class-mate too. Hugo is head over heels in love with Kismet. He is sweet, good-natured, goofy and smart. Hugo is a nerd, whereas Gary is a jock (with emotional baggage). Who will Kismet choose?
Erdrich creates a large cast of characters in the novel. She writes her characters in a warm, witty way. Her plot moves along and has interesting surprises. I like her short chapters, complete with intriguing titles.
The only jarring note was how Erdrich used magical realism.
The book left me with a desire to buy organic produce, try to eat less sugar and ignore the weed patch in my yard.
4.5 stars
Kismet is a central character. She lives with her mother (Crystal) and attends high school. They are Native American. Kismet is one of the brainy girls and has recently gone through a Goth stage. Used to being ignored by the popular kids, Kismet is flattered when the school's quarterback starts paying attention to her (Gary). The only problem is that Gary is moving fast and wants to marry her ASAP.
Crystal (Kismet's mother) works the graveyard shift as a sugar beet hauler. Gary's family owns the largest industrial sugar beet farm in the area. Crystal ferries their harvest to a beet processing plant that turns the beets into sugar. Crystal adores her daughter and sees that Gary means trouble for her, but can't seem to get through to her. When does a daughter ever listen to a mother?
Hugo is Kismet's class-mate too. Hugo is head over heels in love with Kismet. He is sweet, good-natured, goofy and smart. Hugo is a nerd, whereas Gary is a jock (with emotional baggage). Who will Kismet choose?
Erdrich creates a large cast of characters in the novel. She writes her characters in a warm, witty way. Her plot moves along and has interesting surprises. I like her short chapters, complete with intriguing titles.
The only jarring note was how Erdrich used magical realism.
The book left me with a desire to buy organic produce, try to eat less sugar and ignore the weed patch in my yard.
4.5 stars
March 10, 2025
I have a love/hate relationship with my iPhone, but it came through for me this morning. I was reading this book on an Android device yesterday when the library recalled the book. I thought I was going to have to wait eight weeks to pick it up again. But it was still on my iPhone this morning, and I was able to finish it in between meetings (yay! first day back at work - booooo...).
Glad I finished it. Not sure I would've remembered where I was in eight weeks. There was so little action, that it's hard for me to express what happened in between the action in all the many, nearly 400 pages. There was definitely beauty in the book, as well as humor, sadness, more sadness, and even more sadness. Yes, it was a sad book.
The book is titled after a river which is the most powerful passive character in it.
I give it a thumbs up, but be prepared for a slow, slow sadness. At least each chapter is very short, which makes the book a lot easier to read, even with 112 of them!
Glad I finished it. Not sure I would've remembered where I was in eight weeks. There was so little action, that it's hard for me to express what happened in between the action in all the many, nearly 400 pages. There was definitely beauty in the book, as well as humor, sadness, more sadness, and even more sadness. Yes, it was a sad book.
The book is titled after a river which is the most powerful passive character in it.
I give it a thumbs up, but be prepared for a slow, slow sadness. At least each chapter is very short, which makes the book a lot easier to read, even with 112 of them!
January 14, 2025
Even if not all of Louise Erdrich’s books stick the landing, her storytelling is consistently compelling. The Mighty Red is no exception, featuring many of her signature traits: dysfunctional families, small communities, a focus on regret, contradictory feelings, and grief. Erdrich turns her sharp eye to human nature, revealing the hypocrisies and tensions that simmer beneath the surface of individuals and of tightly-knit, Church-going communities. Despite her frank, occasionally unsparing approach to these themes, her storytelling always has a humor to it that enlivens the dreary or downright tragic circumstances that her characters are in.
Set in Argus, North Dakota, during the financial crisis of 2008, The Mighty Red mostly revolves around the marriage between Gary Geist and Kismet Poe. Gary, a soon to be farmer, is eager to marry his high school girlfriend as soon as they graduate. Kismet, however, is hesitant. Her reluctance is misinterpreted by Gary and their community as assent, and she finds herself swept along by others’ intentions. Almost as if in a daze, Kismet goes through with the wedding. She then moves into one of the Geist farms, where she is burdened with maintaining not only her household but also caring for her in-laws. Despite her mounting dissatisfaction—Kismet may be unsure of herself and what she wants to do or be, she has no desire not to play Cinderella—she struggles to pry herself from Gary and his family’s neediness for her, which makes them unwilling for her to leave the farm. Meanwhile, Kismet’s mother, Crystal, on top of worrying for her daughter, faces the fallout of Kismet’s father’s betrayal. Without her knowledge, he mortgaged their house and took off with their church’s savings, forcing her to pay money for a lawyer and making her persona-non-grata with most of Argus.
As with many of Erdrich’s novels, The Mighty Red examines the thorny relationships within a small, usually Midwestern, community. But whereas her other novels are slightly more, raw I guess?— or maybe not raw, but unvarnished, The Mighty Red feels more vanilla, something closer to the realms of Anne Tyler, say. Yes, there is a sense of unease, which is particularly palpable in scenes depicting Kismet’s life with the Geists, as they wilfully ignore her desires and impose their own needs upon her…but the atmosphere never comes to its full realization. They are sus for sure, but the novel never goes there. I was waiting for more, but this “more” never solidified. Still, while the book lacks a tightly defined plot, the setting and character interactions provide plenty of compelling moments. And the storytelling is at its strongest when Erdrich is focused on exploring her characters’ fears and desires, their hypocrisy and passivity, as well as showing how the past haunts the present. However, compared to some of Erdrich’s earlier works, this novel doesn’t delve as deeply into the guilt and redemption its characters supposedly feel. It’s disappointing that the story’s climax hinges on Gary, a character portrayed almost exclusively as a buffoon. This seemed like an attempt to humanize him and his parents, but their backstory of collective trauma feels like a belated grab for sympathy that did not work with me, especially given how cartoonish they’ve been throughout. It’s not like I was expecting something more disturbing, along the lines of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, but I wanted more out of Kismet’s time with the Geists, or for them to be ultimately portrayed as merely misguided.
Kismet is a character who will definitely frustrate readers. Her indecision and passivity lead her into avoidable predicaments, despite the support and advice of her mother and friends to steer clear of Gary. Yet, this indecision is integral to who Kismet is. Her reading of Madame Bovary is no coincidence; like Emma Bovary, Kismet finds herself trapped by circumstances, though for different reasons. While Emma self-destructs in her pursuit of “more”—more love, more luxury, just more of everything—Kismet doesn't want anything in particular, and it is this lack of direction that leaves her vulnerable to others’ desires. I have come across similar female characters before, the kind of people that make you say “and you did this for what?” (usually in response to them dating or marrying questionable men or going along with things that have null advantages), so while I was frustrated with Kismet, I (mostly) understood how she found herself in this situation.
Her dynamic with her mother, Crystal, feels genuine and mutually supportive, and I often found myself wishing the book spent more time on their relationship. Instead, much of the narrative focuses on the loser men in the mother-daughter’s lives and showing how they try to deal with the fallout of said loser men’s actions.
There’s also another potential love interest for Kismet, whose fixation on her comes across as unsettling rather than romantic. For much of the story, I assumed his intentions were dubious, only for the narrative to frame his behavior as endearing. The resolution of his arc, along with that of another male character, felt undeserved, as if the story rewarded them for behavior that was either creepy or shitty. And it kind of goes against Kismet and Crystal’s character development since much of the novel questions and explores how they try to be independent from others, especially men who ignore what they want and do not even think to listen to what other people want.
But hey, even when she is not at her best, Erdrich still has that something that keeps my attention. I just love how candid she can be, and of how realistic, deadpan even, she is when it comes to portraying domestic&every-day life…yet also imbues her characters seemingly ordinary realities with a sense of something “other” playing a role into their lives, be it because her characters are religious or due to the story venturing into magical realism (presenting in a way that is not fantastical but just the way things are…be it ghosts, apparitions, fate, etc.). Ultimately,The Mighty Red succeeds in capturing the essence of life in a small town in the late 2000s. While not necessarily as atmospheric or perceptive as her other novels, The Mighty Red manages to be a compelling read that offers poignant moments and thought-provoking themes even if it falls short of fully realizing them.
Set in Argus, North Dakota, during the financial crisis of 2008, The Mighty Red mostly revolves around the marriage between Gary Geist and Kismet Poe. Gary, a soon to be farmer, is eager to marry his high school girlfriend as soon as they graduate. Kismet, however, is hesitant. Her reluctance is misinterpreted by Gary and their community as assent, and she finds herself swept along by others’ intentions. Almost as if in a daze, Kismet goes through with the wedding. She then moves into one of the Geist farms, where she is burdened with maintaining not only her household but also caring for her in-laws. Despite her mounting dissatisfaction—Kismet may be unsure of herself and what she wants to do or be, she has no desire not to play Cinderella—she struggles to pry herself from Gary and his family’s neediness for her, which makes them unwilling for her to leave the farm. Meanwhile, Kismet’s mother, Crystal, on top of worrying for her daughter, faces the fallout of Kismet’s father’s betrayal. Without her knowledge, he mortgaged their house and took off with their church’s savings, forcing her to pay money for a lawyer and making her persona-non-grata with most of Argus.
As with many of Erdrich’s novels, The Mighty Red examines the thorny relationships within a small, usually Midwestern, community. But whereas her other novels are slightly more, raw I guess?— or maybe not raw, but unvarnished, The Mighty Red feels more vanilla, something closer to the realms of Anne Tyler, say. Yes, there is a sense of unease, which is particularly palpable in scenes depicting Kismet’s life with the Geists, as they wilfully ignore her desires and impose their own needs upon her…but the atmosphere never comes to its full realization. They are sus for sure, but the novel never goes there. I was waiting for more, but this “more” never solidified. Still, while the book lacks a tightly defined plot, the setting and character interactions provide plenty of compelling moments. And the storytelling is at its strongest when Erdrich is focused on exploring her characters’ fears and desires, their hypocrisy and passivity, as well as showing how the past haunts the present. However, compared to some of Erdrich’s earlier works, this novel doesn’t delve as deeply into the guilt and redemption its characters supposedly feel. It’s disappointing that the story’s climax hinges on Gary, a character portrayed almost exclusively as a buffoon. This seemed like an attempt to humanize him and his parents, but their backstory of collective trauma feels like a belated grab for sympathy that did not work with me, especially given how cartoonish they’ve been throughout. It’s not like I was expecting something more disturbing, along the lines of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, but I wanted more out of Kismet’s time with the Geists, or for them to be ultimately portrayed as merely misguided.
Kismet is a character who will definitely frustrate readers. Her indecision and passivity lead her into avoidable predicaments, despite the support and advice of her mother and friends to steer clear of Gary. Yet, this indecision is integral to who Kismet is. Her reading of Madame Bovary is no coincidence; like Emma Bovary, Kismet finds herself trapped by circumstances, though for different reasons. While Emma self-destructs in her pursuit of “more”—more love, more luxury, just more of everything—Kismet doesn't want anything in particular, and it is this lack of direction that leaves her vulnerable to others’ desires. I have come across similar female characters before, the kind of people that make you say “and you did this for what?” (usually in response to them dating or marrying questionable men or going along with things that have null advantages), so while I was frustrated with Kismet, I (mostly) understood how she found herself in this situation.
Her dynamic with her mother, Crystal, feels genuine and mutually supportive, and I often found myself wishing the book spent more time on their relationship. Instead, much of the narrative focuses on the loser men in the mother-daughter’s lives and showing how they try to deal with the fallout of said loser men’s actions.
There’s also another potential love interest for Kismet, whose fixation on her comes across as unsettling rather than romantic. For much of the story, I assumed his intentions were dubious, only for the narrative to frame his behavior as endearing. The resolution of his arc, along with that of another male character, felt undeserved, as if the story rewarded them for behavior that was either creepy or shitty. And it kind of goes against Kismet and Crystal’s character development since much of the novel questions and explores how they try to be independent from others, especially men who ignore what they want and do not even think to listen to what other people want.
But hey, even when she is not at her best, Erdrich still has that something that keeps my attention. I just love how candid she can be, and of how realistic, deadpan even, she is when it comes to portraying domestic&every-day life…yet also imbues her characters seemingly ordinary realities with a sense of something “other” playing a role into their lives, be it because her characters are religious or due to the story venturing into magical realism (presenting in a way that is not fantastical but just the way things are…be it ghosts, apparitions, fate, etc.). Ultimately,The Mighty Red succeeds in capturing the essence of life in a small town in the late 2000s. While not necessarily as atmospheric or perceptive as her other novels, The Mighty Red manages to be a compelling read that offers poignant moments and thought-provoking themes even if it falls short of fully realizing them.
March 24, 2025
4.5 stars The Mighty Red is a sweeping tale of a farming community during the Great Recession of 2008. Louise Erdrich's Pulitzer Prize-winning writing style is evident in the immersive storytelling throughout as she tackles many difficult themes with humor and care. The narrative is told through the experiences of Kismet, an impulsive girl graduating from high school who marries Gary from a wealthy farming family. Her mother Crystal drives truckloads of sugar beets, the main crop of her daughter's new family, who is estranged from Kismet's father, Martin, for reasons that will also be revealed. Gary has some skeletons in his closet, and we don't know the circumstances of a recent tragedy or why his mother Winnie is the way she is. Kismet is also involved in a love triangle, which creates yet another layer of small-town drama and suspense. As always, the natural world and the Red River Valley is a character itself and further explores the effects of farming practices on the ability of the soil to sustain plentiful and healthy crops.
The Mighty Red is an engaging read exploring how the recession affected small town America, and I couldn't put it down. I loved Kismet and her mother Crystal, who were so fully fleshed out by Erdrich I thought I knew them as well as my dear friends. The women's community book club and the church were two of the great gathering places that add to the depth of the storytelling. I highly recommend this book that will stay with me for a long time.
The Mighty Red is an engaging read exploring how the recession affected small town America, and I couldn't put it down. I loved Kismet and her mother Crystal, who were so fully fleshed out by Erdrich I thought I knew them as well as my dear friends. The women's community book club and the church were two of the great gathering places that add to the depth of the storytelling. I highly recommend this book that will stay with me for a long time.
October 4, 2025
A compelling portrait of love, despair, and resilience in a small prairie town.
4.5 stars rounded up.
Set in the midst of a prairie farming community in the Red River Valley of North Dakota against the backdrop of the 2008-2009 economic crisis, love, hope, and despair run through this quiet novel like the river it is loosely named after. At its centre is a teenage love triangle: Kismet Poe, impulsive, free-spirited and resourceful, is courted both by Gary Heist, the town's former golden boy now marred by tragedy, and Hugo, who is both earnest and deeply intelligent. When Gary, desperate for stability, proposes marriage, the upcoming union has far-reaching consequences in their once close-knit small town.
It took me a good while to get into this story, but once I got to know them, the inhabitants of Tabor formed a rich and compelling tapestry of resilience and determination, poverty and perseverance. Expertly crafted and infused with urgent environmental undertones - the community's survival is depends on the farming of sugar beets, and pesticides, fracking, and mining all play a part in the story - "The Mighty Red" is a beautifully written portrait of a quintessential American town threatened by economic failure and an environmental crisis, and a homage to the unwavering spirit of its inhabitants.
4.5 stars rounded up.
"She could have walked for years in the fatal sunshine, over the poisoned earth, occasionally blessed by the acid rain, chemically altered by an occasional crop duster."
Set in the midst of a prairie farming community in the Red River Valley of North Dakota against the backdrop of the 2008-2009 economic crisis, love, hope, and despair run through this quiet novel like the river it is loosely named after. At its centre is a teenage love triangle: Kismet Poe, impulsive, free-spirited and resourceful, is courted both by Gary Heist, the town's former golden boy now marred by tragedy, and Hugo, who is both earnest and deeply intelligent. When Gary, desperate for stability, proposes marriage, the upcoming union has far-reaching consequences in their once close-knit small town.
It took me a good while to get into this story, but once I got to know them, the inhabitants of Tabor formed a rich and compelling tapestry of resilience and determination, poverty and perseverance. Expertly crafted and infused with urgent environmental undertones - the community's survival is depends on the farming of sugar beets, and pesticides, fracking, and mining all play a part in the story - "The Mighty Red" is a beautifully written portrait of a quintessential American town threatened by economic failure and an environmental crisis, and a homage to the unwavering spirit of its inhabitants.
June 27, 2024
Kismet is a senior in high school in North Dakota farm country. She is over her goth phase, and is applying to college. The school football hero, Gary, takes an interest in her and wants to get married. She likes another boy, but agrees to the marriage to the regret of her mom, Crystal. Her dad is the town pariah since everyone believes he ran off with the local Catholic church's money. The novel ends with Gary finally revealing his disturbing secret to Kismet, and the local farmers starting to realize the damage they are causing with the toxic chemicals they use. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the ARC.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2024
I have read many of the novels by Louise Erdrich. She has never let me down but at first, I thought she might do that with The Mighty Red. By the time I finished the book, I felt bad that I doubted her. I love her because she is fearless and tries various ways of relaying her ideas to readers, though her themes of family, love, Native American life in the current world, and the state of the world are always front and center.
The setting in this novel is the Red River that flows north through Minnesota and into Canada to Lake Winnipeg along the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. The river’s basin contains some of the richest soil in the United States. In the town of Argus, ND, it is 2008/2009. Sugar beets are the main crop of the area, but many conditions threaten this crop and its farmers.
The characters are all connected in some way to the sugar beet business. Crystal hauls the beets to market during long nights. Her daughter Kismet is being wooed by the son of the largest sugar beet farmer. That beet farmer’s wife is in a book club with Crystal. The book club is run by the local bookstore owner, whose son is also in love with Kismet.
The story reaches back to the beginnings of sugar beet farming, follows land disputes between farmers, details the depredations to the land by use of fertilizers and pesticides and by growing the same crop over and over. The claustrophobia of small-town rural life, the intermixing of Natives and Whites, and the heartbreaks of family life provide the drama.
Why did I doubt one of my most loved authors for about the first third of this amazing story? Because I thought she was being too silly with her characters and the romances and the incidents. Suddenly, after Kismet marries Gary, after many clues become clear, it took off and got almost too serious.
Kismet was my favorite character. The mother/daughter relationship is the beating heart of the book. The ending is perfect.
The setting in this novel is the Red River that flows north through Minnesota and into Canada to Lake Winnipeg along the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. The river’s basin contains some of the richest soil in the United States. In the town of Argus, ND, it is 2008/2009. Sugar beets are the main crop of the area, but many conditions threaten this crop and its farmers.
The characters are all connected in some way to the sugar beet business. Crystal hauls the beets to market during long nights. Her daughter Kismet is being wooed by the son of the largest sugar beet farmer. That beet farmer’s wife is in a book club with Crystal. The book club is run by the local bookstore owner, whose son is also in love with Kismet.
The story reaches back to the beginnings of sugar beet farming, follows land disputes between farmers, details the depredations to the land by use of fertilizers and pesticides and by growing the same crop over and over. The claustrophobia of small-town rural life, the intermixing of Natives and Whites, and the heartbreaks of family life provide the drama.
Why did I doubt one of my most loved authors for about the first third of this amazing story? Because I thought she was being too silly with her characters and the romances and the incidents. Suddenly, after Kismet marries Gary, after many clues become clear, it took off and got almost too serious.
Kismet was my favorite character. The mother/daughter relationship is the beating heart of the book. The ending is perfect.
July 9, 2024
Another melancholy book from Louise Erdrich. While I recognize the author as a brilliant writer, the theme of this book seems to be that happiness is for the privileged, most of the characters in The Mighty Red simply survive. For the right reader this novel might be a winner but it was not my favorite.
November 15, 2024
The characters in this novel are richly drawn and nuanced. Erdrich reminds me of Elizabeth Strout in the way she can build a small town community with so much warmth, sensitivity and depth.
This book explored themes of overreliance - on the land, on other people and on ideals which are outdated, harmful and irrelevant. There is beauty in Erdrich's non-judgemental writing style and gentle thought-provoking prose. Although she doesn't pull back when it comes to shocking deep emotions either.
I enjoyed this and feel it will stay with me - a sign of a great book.
This book explored themes of overreliance - on the land, on other people and on ideals which are outdated, harmful and irrelevant. There is beauty in Erdrich's non-judgemental writing style and gentle thought-provoking prose. Although she doesn't pull back when it comes to shocking deep emotions either.
I enjoyed this and feel it will stay with me - a sign of a great book.
April 17, 2025
This was a story that reminded me of a bunch of others in some ways, but not exactly - and so I kept on, and came to be glad that I did. Reminded me of J Michner, J Kirkpatrick, DJ Duncan, even I Stone. . . .where its about the tale as a whole, not just certain individuals.
It got difficult toward the end. . .nature's fatal waters are personal for me. . .but I made it through and pondered. 3.5 stars, bumptup 2 4.
25|52:2c
It got difficult toward the end. . .nature's fatal waters are personal for me. . .but I made it through and pondered. 3.5 stars, bumptup 2 4.
25|52:2c
December 31, 2024
At this point, and after her most recent few books and especially The Sentence, I would read Erdrich’s Notes App to-do list and be quite content. So, I’m not the most objective person to ask about this book. I really loved it, although I do get why some people may not. It’s an interesting mix of meandering slice-of-life, semi-magic realism, subtle cli-fi, and maybe parable or morality tale. This is simultaneously a quiet book and yet there are a LOT of plot threads/character development arcs and things going on. At core, it is most about environmental, family, and rural community consequences of colonialism and Big Ag/capitalism (including the national sugar and processed food addiction) and the creeping inevitable tragic aftermath of these. Erdrich describes how commercial and privileged entities who coercively took command of rural farmlands and traditional Native American communities failed to practice good stewardship of the land over time, to the point where even the very soil itself is fully depleted - it is no longer dirt, but dust - and replete with poisonous chemicals impacting the ecosystem and all its human and other living creatures as well as its non-sugar-beet plants and crops. The passages where various characters describe the disappearance of insects and birds once abundant are extremely poignant and saddening (and true). There is also an excellent mother-daughter relationship in the book, two strong women whose perspectives I appreciated. I am just sitting here waiting for Erdrich’s next book, if the planet is still around for it.
November 5, 2024
Definitely did not resonate with me. The characters were so shallow that I kept going back to see if this was meant to be a comedy of sorts, but I don't think it was.
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