The Night Watchman

by Louise Erdrich (Author/Narrator)

Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s  grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Audiobook, Native American, Historical, Indigenous

14 pages, Audible Audio

First published March 3, 2020

About the author

Louise 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

Reviews

[Roxane]

Hmmm. Uneven. Loved Patrice, her mother, Wood Mountain. It was two novels in one and I am not sure they came together well. A strange device of formatting it kind of like a play in certain chapters that was jarring. Erdrich is brilliant, though. I would read anything she wrote and enjoy the privilege.

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

On August 1, 1953, the United States Congress announced House Concurrent Resolution 108, a bill to abrogate nation-to-nation treaties, which had been made with American Indian Nations for “as long as the grass grows and the rivers flow.” The announcement called for the eventual termination of five tribes, including the Turtle Mountain Band of Chipewa.
My grandfather Patrick Gourneau fought against termination as tribal chairman while working as a night watchman. He hardly slept. - from the Author’s Note

The resolution was one of a series of like measures that sought to deny Native American tribes the benefits treaties with the U.S. government had conferred, things like the government providing medical care, schools, and food. More importantly, it made the tribes vulnerable to loss of their land, which was usually the purpose of such laws. In the case of the Turtle Mountain Band, it would mean, ultimately, forcing reservation residents to relocate to “the cities,” a place where sustaining traditional life would be impossible and living conditions were often appalling. The novel offers a payload of information about this legal abomination while keeping track of the watchman of the title on his nightly rounds at the plant, and in his dealings with his Chippewa community on a diversity of matters, personal and official.


Louise Erdrich - image from Citypages

Thomas Wazhushk is the fictional representation of Erdrich’s real-life grandfather. We follow his route, from awareness of the proposal, to seeking advice from more knowledgeable tribe members, to organizing resistance, to recruiting expertise, to appearing before the Senate committee that was considering it.

Patrice (Pixie) Paranteau is 19. She works at the Turtle Mountain Jewel Bearing Plant, (a real-world place) where gems and semi-precious stones are drilled for use in military ordnance, and Bulova watches, and which Thomas guards at night. The novel’s focus alternates between Patrice’s coming of age and Thomas’s representation of the tribe. Patrice faces many challenges. As a primary supporter of her family (pop being mostly an out-of-work alcoholic who steals rather than contributes, whenever he deigns to show up), Patrice must hang onto her job at all costs. Not a simple thing, as she is reliant on others for transportation to and from work, and lacking any sort of union protection, she can be let go on a whim. Asking for days off, for example, can be a fraught thing. But family comes first, and Patrice negotiates some time to go looking for her older sister, Vera, who has gone missing in Minneapolis. Vera’s absence certainly rings bells, given the ongoing travesty of Native American women and girls who continue to go missing year after year.

She is also well aware of the relationship choices facing her. A white teacher (and boxing coach) is puppy-dog smitten with her, or at least with his idealized image of her. And a local young man, Wood Mountain, finds himself interested as well. Patrice seeks some sex-ed from a good, and experienced, friend before even considering pursuing such interests.

She had seen how quickly girls who got married and had children were worn down before the age of twenty. Nothing happened to them but toil. Great things happened to other people. The married girls were lost…That wasn’t going to be her life.

Speaking of things sexual, the atmosphere at the plant is challenging for some of the women, but defenses are craftily erected, and major misery is mostly avoided. Unrelated to the plant, Patrice faces an attempted assault, barely escaping. Erdrich offers a look at a very dark side of Minneapolis, where exploitation, the worst of which occurs offstage, is extreme, and very disturbing.

The desire to experience the wider world comes in for a look. Patrice wants to see more of life than is possible on the rez, but has limited possibilities. Wood Mountain, on the other hand, feels deeply wedded to the land and would be more than happy to spend the rest of his days there.

Sometimes he found small ocean shells while working in the fields. Some were whorled, others were tiny grooved scallops…
“Barnes was saying there used to be an ocean here,” he said to Thomas.
“From the endless way-back times.”
“Think of it. [the] baby will be playing with these little things from the bottom of the sea that was here. Who could have known?”
“We are connected to the way-back people, here, in so many ways. Maybe a way-back person touched these shells, Maybe the little creatures in them disintegrated into the dirt. Maybe some tiny piece from that creature is inside us now. We can’t know these things.”
…”Sometimes when I‘m out and around,” said Wood Mountain, “I feel like they’re with me, these way-back people. I never talk about it, but they’re all around us. I could never leave this place.”

Vera and Patrice’s experience with “the cities” would hardly seem an inducement, but another young native woman, a grad student, who was raised in the city, which was not a horrifying experience, has to study, on-site, the rez, a somewhat alien place to her, to get a fuller appreciation of her own roots.

Overall, The Night Watchman offers a portrait of a community struggling to survive despite the onslaughts by forces official, religious and economic. Along the way, Erdrich offers a very deep and powerful look at life on the reservation, how Native Americans relate to each other, (living and dead) and interact with the wider non-native world beyond. The borders, however, are quite permeable. Many native women work at the Jewel Bearing Plant. The white world enters the reservation in person of Lloyd Barnes, a teacher and boxing coach. Two young Mormon missionaries stumble through the landscape as well. They are mostly there for comic relief.

Mormonism comes in for a look beyond the two young men, as Thomas studies Mormon teaching as a way to better understand the Senator behind the House resolution, and has a vision that is very resonant with Mormon lore. Erdrich often shows in her books connections between religions, usually between native beliefs and Catholic or Protestant Christianity. This is of a cloth with that.

She also devotes considerable attention to dark circumstances in native life. Her characters must often contend with poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, and domestic violence. There is plenty of that to go around here as well. But, while they are significant elements in the stories being told, they are not the focus. Thomas’s battle to save the community and Patrice’s growth toward finding her best road ahead are the lead narrative elements.

Erdrich employs a rich palette of magical realism in most of her books, and this one is no exception. The lines between living and not-living are blurry. A member of the tribe allows himself to be occupied by a spirit to facilitate an out-of-body search for a missing person. Thomas sees the spirit of a young man at the plant during his nightly rounds, and sees beings of light descend from on high, as well. A golden beetle emerges from the husk of a nut. Someone has a conversation with a dog. An evil-doer is cursed with a physical deformity. One character is changed after sleeping near a hibernating bear. Where living ends and the spiritual begins, where the past ends and the present and even future emerges are more curtain-like crossings than hard barriers. This is always a wonderful feature in Erdrich’s books.

One of my favorite elements of the novel was the transcendental experiences felt by some as they viscerally connect with the world in which they live. In one passage, Patrice is returning home, walking through woods when it begins to rain.

Her hair, shoulders, and back grew damp. But moving kept her warm. She slowed to pick her way through places where water was seeping up through the mats of dying grass. Rain tapping through the brilliant leaves the only sound. She stopped. The sense of something there, with her, all around her, swirling and seething with energy. How intimately the trees seized the earth. How exquisitely she was included. Patrice closed her eyes and felt a tug. Her spirit poured into the air like song.

In another,

She could hear the humming rush of the tree drinking from the earth. She closed her eyes, went through the bark like water, and was sucked up off the bud tips into a cloud.

We learn what happens with the Resolution, decisions are made about paths forward, characters find themselves, so there is much satisfaction to be had in the wrap up. And along the way we have picked up a payload of learning about native culture, about the relationship of the tribes to the government, a nugget or two about Mormonism, and been led on this journey by warm, relatable characters who are very easy to care about, through a landscape both harsh and ecstatic, to see realities pedestrian, brutal, and magical. What more could any reader want?

Review posted – February 14, 2020

Publication date
----------March 3, 2020 (hardcover)
----------March 23, 2021 (trade paperback)

June 11, 2021 - The Night Watchman wins the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Well deserved.

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal and FB pages. Erdrich's personal site redirects to the site Birchbark Books. She owns the store.

This is Erdrich’s sixteenth novel, among many other works. She has won the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, among many other recognitions. Her familiarity with cultural mixing is personal, her mother being an Ojibwe tribal leader and her father being a German-American. Familiarity with both native spirituality and western religion also stems from her upbringing. She was raised Catholic.

Other Louise Erdrich novels I have reviewed
-----2017 - Future Home of the Living God
-----2021 - The Sentence
-----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
-----Yump - ”In the Old Language”: A Glossary of Ojibwe Words, Phrases, and Sentences in Louise Erdrich’s Novels - by Peter G. Beidler
-----Ojibwe People’s Dictionary
-----Wiki on Lamanites
-----Timeline.com - Upset with mistreatment, Puerto Rican radicals stormed the Capitol and started shooting in 1954
-----NY Times – December 25, 2019 - In Indian Country, a Crisis of Missing Women. And a New One When They’re Found. - By Jack Healy
-----Emily Dickinson’s Success is counted sweetest - Patrice quotes from this

Songs
-----El Negro Zumbon
-----Bill Haley and the Comets - Crazy, Man, Crazy
-----Slim Whitman - My Heart is Broken in Three

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Congratulations to Louise Erdrich, 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner!
****************************************
I loved everything about this book - the writing, the characters, the story, the importance of it and that Louise Erdrich pays a wonderful tribute to her grandfather who inspired this story. It’s a beautifully written and depicts a strong sense of community, of family, and of the hard life on the Chippewa Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. It’s filled with characters that are easy to love, to admire, to root for as they fight for their identity, their land, not to be “terminated”, as they struggle with managing their daily existence.

Thomas Wazhushk, is a guard, the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, but it is his role as representative and defender of the tribe against the Termination Act of 1953 that is front and center. Patrice, his niece, is a smart and strong young woman. With an alcoholic father and a missing sister, she works at the factory to provide for her mother and her brother and it’s heartening to see her come of age as the novel progresses. Wood Mountain, a young boxer was born to be a father. Roderick is a ghost who stole my heart. Bibon, Thomas’ father is a wise man who even in his old age provided guidance to his son. With these and other characters, there are a number of story threads that Erdrich skillfully connects. There is even a pair of Mormon missionaries who provide Thomas with the Book of Mormon which helps him better understand Arthur Watkins, the Utah senator leading the charge in Washington and who according to Wikipedia was “influential as a proponent of terminating federal recognition is American Indian tribes”. One of the young missionaries gives us a very funny scene which provides a moment of humor much needed among the seriousness of what the tribe faces.

Through Thomas, we get a sense of what an amazing man her grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, must have been and she shares some of who he was in an afterword. This is piece of history, set in the not too distant past in the 1950’s. One that we would hope was over, yet I was not surprised that the current administration (in 2019) has brought the idea of termination of a Native American tribe forward again. Appalling. This is the third novel I have read by Erdrich, and she’s a prolific author so I’m very glad to have more to read.

I read this with my book buds Diane and Esil and it’s one that we all loved.


I received an advanced copy of this from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.

[Meredith (Trying to catch up!) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"But every so often the government remembered about Indians. And when they did, they always tried to solve Indians."

The Night Watchman is a novel about a senator who tried to “emancipate” Native American tribes in the 1950s and one of the men who led the fight against this so-called emancipation: “Emancipated. But they were not enslaved. Freed from being Indians was the idea.” It’s also about the people who live on Turtle Mountain Reservation, tracing their paths in life as emancipation looms. While this is about the history of the fight against emancipating the Indians, it's also about sexuality, gender, class, identity, love, “otherness,” and life on the margins.

Chapters alternate between Thomas, a night watchman at a jewel bearing plant and tribal leader; and Patrice “Pixie” Paranteau, a 19-year-old girl who also works at the plant. Other characters’ POV’s are woven in, but Thomas and Patrice serve as the primary voices. Erdrich’s characterization is exceptional. It was easy to visualize the characters and hear their voices as I was reading. Thomas is a compelling character, and while I loved his chapters, it was Patrice’s voice and character who got under my skin.

Patrice is extremely intelligent, strong, eager to grow, but at the same time, stuck, somewhat comfortably, in her life on the reservation. Happy with her current job, she longs for more in life. She carries the financial burdens of her family and acts as a protector to her mother, sister, and brother. She presents a tough exterior, but she is quite fragile. She knows the ins and outs of the reservation, but so little about the world. I finished this book some time ago and I am still thinking about her character.

I love Erdrich’s writing and her command over the language. She plays with the meaning of words, subverts norms, and makes her points subtly and quietly. She weaves in bits of humor to lighten the tone. I learned so much from reading this. Erdrich's author’s note at the end taught me even more. The fact that the current administration is trying to emancipate tribes doesn’t surprise me. It makes me nauseous and angry to think about. However, Erdrich's final sentences leave me feeling hopeful.

The Night Watchman is a powerful read filled with heart and soul. It serves as a loving tribute to Erdrich’s grandfather who fought for Native American Rights. The characters, their journeys, and the message of this book moved me and will stay with me for time to come. I highly recommend!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Dorie - Cats&Books :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

***CONGRATULATIONS, WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION***

It felt so wonderful to be back in the hands of a master storyteller and that is Louise Erdrich. The characters are extremely well developed and I felt as though I knew them all, I didn’t want to leave this story. The setting for a novel about American Indians in the 1950’s is a unique one, often books are about the start of our “elimination” of the Indians.I wanted to know everything about the reservation, the new bill that Congress was going to pass and how these incredible characters with all of their beliefs, visions and talents were going to survive if this bill should pass.

One of the main characters, Thomas, who is the night watchman at a jewel bearing factory is based on the author’s grandfather. He is a loving, tireless man who cares deeply about the Chippewa Turtle Mountain people and his own family.

There are several stories going on in this novel but they are all part of the whole. We will watch as Thomas writes hundreds of letters to those in the government who might listen to his plea that the tribe be allowed to keep the little bit of land that they have. This once powerful tribe of hunters and gatherers was forced onto a small plot of land and had to learn how to farm in order to exist. They were given very little help from the government but even this was in danger of being taken away. They must form a committee and address Congress directly.

At the same time we learn about Thomas’s family, he deeply loves his wife Rose who works tirelessly to keep their family together, fed and clothed. His oldest daughter Vera left for the city, and hasn’t been heard from in a while. Patrice, his other daughter works at the jewel bearing plant where Thomas is a watchman. Her job is working on a type of production line, cutting precise holes into small jewel panels.
.
When Vera has been missing for a while Patrice saves up her money and goes to the city to find her. What happens to her there is eye opening as well as discouraging. We come back to that story later in the novel.

Thomas’s father, Bibon, lives with them, he is quite old but is filled with wisdom and inner strength. He will help Thomas in his quest to speak in front of Congress on behalf of his tribe.
“Make the Washington D.C.’s understand. We just started getting on our feet. Getting so we have some coins to jingle. Making farms. Becoming famous in school like you. All that will suffer. It will be wiped out.. . ..They sent us their tuberculosis. It is taking us down. We don’t have money to go to their hospitals. It was their promise to exchange these things for our land. “Long as the grass grows and the rivers flow.”

Scattered throughout the book there are references to Indian folklore and some magical passages which are beautiful and thought provoking.

The older generation has struggled with efforts to completely change their way of life. The younger generation still looks up to the elders but also wants what they see on TV and magazines, cute clothes, nice homes, cell phones, and to live in the city. They are often pulled in two different directions.

I don’t want to give away any more of this amazing story. Hopefully I have given you enough enticement to read this book. It is definitely one of my top books this year and is not to be missed. Ms. Erdrich will reward you with a great story, wonderful characters and a history of some of the terrible things that we have done to the American Indians. We virtually broke every treaty that we made with the Indians.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss. The book is set to publish on March 3, 2020.

[MarilynW · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (Author, Narrator) 

Louise Erdrich does an excellent job of narrating her book, The Night Watchman. The story is based on the life of Louise's grandfather, (he is given the name of Thomas, in the book) who worked as a night watchman while also working during his time off, instead of sleeping or getting to spend enough time with his family, to fight against Native dispossession. It is 1953, on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota, and once again the United States Congress is trying to terminate the rights of Native Americans under the guise of emancipation. People are so ready to take away what little that the Native Americans have left, planning to set them adrift in the cities, with nothing but the rags on their backs, breaking up families and people who have supported each other, while struggling to subsist on the little that they were allowed to keep. 

The story also follows nineteen year old Patrice. Smart, determined not to settle for the life of a poor wife and mother and already supporting herself, and her mother and brother, with her poor paying job, Patrice wants so much more and is willing to work for it. Patrice is also trying to find out what has happened to her sister, who has left for the city and has now disappeared, with rumors of a baby and no marriage. There are other characters, all struggling but making the most of the existence they have on this poor reservation. Amidst all of this, love, bravery, compassion, and determination permeates this story. 

There is also a strong sense of the supernatural that I first thought was just hallucinations by both Thomas and Patrice. But as the book continues, the author makes it clear that these are not hallucinations but spirits of dead friends, family, animals, and nature, warning and guiding the living and sometimes punishing the cruel and wicked for their evil deeds. Mostly there is a strong sense of hope by the people who will not give up or give in. I feel like this book is made even better by Louise's narration, we know exactly the feelings that she wants each person to convey because we can hear those feelings in the voices she narrates. 

Published March 3rd 2020

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ½ stars

re-read: I decided to return to this post my new appreciation for Erdrich's work. I first read The Night Watchman back in 2020 and since then I've read several other novels by Erdrich, my favorite so far being LaRose. Anyway, The Night Watchman has many elements typical of Erdrich's work: a cast of lively, often dysfunctional, characters, plenty of chaotic family members, lots of banter. Erdrich's expressive storytelling is engaging, and most of the dialogues and events occurring in her work are incredibly immersive. However, the first time I read this book I didn't get any of that, which just goes to show how time/place can affect one's experience of a book! In this case, I think being more familiar with Erdrich's style also helped me, in that I knew the kind of humorous yet gritty tone I would find in her work. This second time around I also found myself growing attached to the characters, in particular the naive yet spunky Pixie, whose imperfections make her all the more likeable. We can see how her experiences during her short-lived yet memorable time away from home change her, so that she comes to resent her old friends. I will say that compared to most of her other books The Night Watchman feels more 'schematic', and I do think that Thomas' chapters were a bit tamer than Erdrich's usual. Still, this is a solid novel by Erdrich and I'm glad I revisited it.



original review:

After reading many reviews praising The Night Watchman, I had quite high expectations for this novel. Having now read it, I can't say that I found this to be either very good or bad.
Louise Erdrich’s own grandfather was the inspiration for the character of Thomas Wazhashk and for the events that transpire in The Night Watchman. Set in 1953 Thomas, like Erdrich’s grandfather, works as a night watchman. As a member of the Chippewa Council he loves and wants to protect his community. When he hears of Congress' new “emancipation” bill, he knows that is the United States newest threat against his people.
The serious and inspirational subject matter captivated my attention. Sadly, I think I would preferred to read a non-fictionalised account of this important story. In The Night Watchman Thomas' fight against Native dispossession is lost in a plodding narrative that follows an array of inconsequential characters. While I understand that shifting the focus on many different characters can give an impression of a certain family or community...here we also get entirely unnecessary segments on characters such as Barnes and two mormons.
Pixie Paranteau, a young woman who is beautiful, 'spunky', good at her job, different from other women, was a surprisingly grating character. The story tries so hard to make her into some sort of heroine that I just found her annoying. Her story didn't have the same tone as Thomas and felt very meandering. The first quarter of her arc seems to promise one of those 'my sister is missing' narratives...but then it reverts to her back at the reservation where she seems to occupied feeling 'righteously' angry/jealous of her friends and deciding which guy she fancies (everyone seems in love with her).
Thomas and Pixie struck me as very one-dimensional. Thomas has only the outlines of a personality...but he is mostly presented as simply being 'good'. Characters in general (regardless if 'good' or 'bad') lacked psychological complexity.
The prose often made characters sound silly. There is an overuse of exclamation marks. Some dialogues came across as stilted (as if two characters were being forced to interact for plot reasons) and there were one too may platitudes (such as “Women’s bodies make such miracles”).
There were few description of the characters' environment, and because of this I never had a clear picture of their surroundings.
The magical realism that threads this story was perhaps one of the elements I most liked in the overall novel.
All in all, I'm afraid that this novel didn't really inspire any strong feelings in me. I had a similar experience with Isabel Allende's A Long Petal of the Sea (which also draws upon real events). Both of these books tell important stories through rather one-dimensional characters.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge Congratulations to Louise Erdrich….
This book is the Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 2021!


Library overdrive ebook

I loved everything about this novel....
... The storytelling (highlighting a family’s strength and resilience), is exceptional!!!!
... The inspiration for this book is moving. (the authors grandfather)
... The characters (primary and supporting), are wonderfully developed
... The history is fascinating and important
... The writing is beautiful

If you absolutely love Louise Erdrich, like I do, you’ll enjoy this book too!

Thumbs UP 👍🏻 👍🏻 5 stars!!

Blessings ( again and again)... to everyone during these unsettling times.
🌍 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇬🇧 🇨🇳 🇫🇷 🇨🇦 🇲🇽🇮🇷 🌍 etc etc etc.

[Paromjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This deservedly won the talented author, Louise Erdrich, the 2021 Pulitizer Prize for fiction, an extraordinary and unforgettable novel, a blend of fact and fiction, inspired by the author's grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, where the characterisations shine, major and minor, documenting Native American history and people, folklore, family, beliefs, their deep connections with the past, nature and the environment, the culture, and the struggles and challenges they face. It is 1953 and the US government is planning on once again reneging on treaties made with the Native American Indians, stripping them of their land and the few benefits still accorded to them, bringing further impoverishment to a people who have already had so much taken from them.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing factory, but additionally plays an important role at the Turtle Mountain band of the Chippewa tribe in North Dakota, representing them in battling the government, taking the fight all the way to Washington DC. 19 year old Patrice 'Pixie' Paranteau is bright, working at the jewel factory, trying to provide for her family, her father, whenever he turns up, is an alcoholic who steals, making no contribution whatsoever. She wants to see more of the world than the reservation, and seeing how marriage and children wear out the women around her, she is not so keen to emulate their situations. There are two men interested in her, including the compassionate Wood Mountain. Her older sister, Vera, had left the reservation for the big city, Minneapolis, but is missing, and there are rumours of a child. When Patrice leaves to look for Vera, she is to discover just how dark things can get in the big city.

Erdrich does a stellar job in depicting life for Native Americans in the 1950s, the poverty, the drudgery, alcoholism, the abuse, the strength of family and community, the dark fates of so many of the women, the exploitation, the deep spiritual links with nature and the dead, the attraction of the outside world to the young and the magical realism. The highlight for me was her wide array of complex characters, vibrant, authentic, resilient, determined, and courageous in the face of an extremely challenging and hostile outside world. I found this to be a outstanding, hopeful, memorable and informative historical read, one I am unlikely to forget, which I highly recommend. Many thanks to the publisher.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authentic and amazing, are the two words I would choose to describe, not only this novel, but the majority of her books in general. I've heard much writing advice, telling one to write what you know, and Erdrich certainly did that and more. Here, she writes about her grandfather, a night watchman at the jewel board plant in North Dakota. So, along with a few other real life characters, we are introduced to others that make this reservation home. Set during the time when the government attempted to steal out from under them, the very land the Indians were given by treaty. How low can we go? I won't answer that. I think we know. Surprisingly, it was Nixon who put a stop to this. See, not everyone is all bad.

I didn't want to leave this story, not that it was all pleasant, but because she so vividly draws her characters, it feels like leaving family. I wanted to see what comes next for these people. She also includes elements, many outwordly, of their culture, their beliefs. Gifts passed down from one generation to the next. The struggles, financially and personally, are profound. The many who take advantage, just waiting for their chance. Yet, there is love, togetherness, a real sense of community and commitment.

Her grandfather's story is wonderful, a man who risking his own health, fought for those and in what he truly believed. Regardless of culture, color, Creed, we need men and women like this, now as much as ever. Erdrich shows us what came before, but also what is possible now. The writing is pretty wonderful, as well.

My monthly read with Esil and Angela, and I know Angela and I share a rating. Not sure yet what Esil has decided. These are reads of which I always look forward.

ARC from Edelweiss.

[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

EMANCIPAZIONE = ESTINZIONE


Fritz Scholder: The Blind Medicine Man, 1997.

Joseph Smith e i primi mormoni avevano fatto del loro meglio per uccidere tutti gli indiani che avevano trovato sul loro cammino attraverso il paese, ma alla fine non erano riusciti a completare l’opera. Arthur V. Watkins decise di usare il proprio potere di senatore per portare a termine ciò che aveva iniziato il profeta. Non doveva nemmeno sporcarsi le mani di sangue.

Joseph Smith (Sharon, Vermont, 23 dicembre 1805 – Carthage, Illinois, 27 giugno 1844), nella sua breve vita (trentanove anni) fu il fondatore del Mormonismo.
Mia personale opinione: non lo avesse mai fatto.

Arthur V. Watkins, senatore dello Utah - l’unico altro personaggio veramente esistito del libro, insieme al protagonista Thomas Wazhashk, nome dietro il quale Louise Erdrich nasconde suo nonno Patrick Gourneau – progettò (1953 – 1954) un disegno di legge che in nome di una fantomatica “emancipazione” mirava a cancellare le riserve indiane espropriando i nativi dell’ultima terra che era loro rimasta, e in sostanza puntava all’estinzione dei nativi americani.
Un genocidio autorizzato, e perfino legalizzato.




Gufo delle nevi

Thomas Wazhashk prende il cognome nella lingua chippewa dall’umile e laborioso roditore detto anche topo muschiato. Il topo muschiato ha alle spalle una storia antica: dopo il diluvio dio chiese aiuto agli animali, aveva bisogno che gli recuperassero un pochino di terra con la quale ricostruire il mondo. Il topo muschiato si immerse nell’oceano e rimase sott’acqua così a lungo che lo si dette per annegato. Invece, riuscì nell’impresa. L’unico. Un essere piccolo pronto a sacrificarsi per salvare gli altri.

Proprio come Thomas, il guardiano notturno che riceve le visite di un gufo delle nevi (quello sulla copertina), ed è il presidente del Consiglio direttivo della tribù dei chippewa della Turtle Mountain che a metà degli anni Cinquanta combatté contro il disegno di legge che puntava all'estinzione delle tribù e scrisse a mano decine di meravigliose lettere durante i suoi turni di guardia.
Un uomo buono, serio, affidabile come il topo muschiato.

E se anche alcuni di loro chippewa, forse molti, forse tutti, considerano gli elettroni ionizzati dell’aurora boreale spiriti danzanti, spiriti dei morti, gioiosi, liberi, benevoli, protettori della tribù: se anche qui e là, parecchie volte si sconfina nel mondo magico - che somiglia a un’estate che sciolse ogni cosa, anche se qui siamo dalle parti di Fargo e come il cinema ci ha più volte mostrato, Fargo vuol dire neve e ancora neve – questa storia non è meno vera, e i fatti non sono meno storici.


Turtle Mountain Indian reservation in North Dakota al confine con l’Alberta canadese.

Tutto intorno, Louise Erdrich crea un mondo che rimanda a quello delle riserve che lei, nativa americana, conosce bene: e lo popola di personaggi d’inesauribile ricchezza, inventati così bene da sembrare tanto autentici e veri quanto i due personaggi storici davvero esistiti.
Scaturisce una comunità, con un alto senso della collettività, dove c’è posto per l’ubriacone e il sobrio, lo spirituale e il disincantato, il bello e il brutto, il forte e il pauroso. Indiani chippewa incrociati ai mitchif venuti dal Canada: mitchif in inglese, mètchif in francese, meticci che mischiano la lingua cree algonchina col francese come alcuni cognomi di questi personaggi facilmente indicano.
Una comunità che è il punto di forza del romanzo, e che Erdrich racconta senza retorica, con abbondante dolce e tenera ironia, di quella che fa sorridere senza bisogno di graffiare.

Alcuni momenti rimangono nella memoria: l’aquastar, la sua pietà per il tossico, i due mormoni, i fantasmi (spiriti) indiani che non si possono integrare, la studentessa inconsapevolmente autistica e lesbica…

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on the life of her grandfather, The Night Watchman tells the story of Thomas Wazhashk who was not only a Night Watchman but a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the new "emancipation" bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. The bill threatens the rights of Native Americans by abandoning treaties made in good faith.

Patrice "Pixie Paranteau" was class Valedictorian and wants more out of life than a husband and kids. She is barely making enough money to get by and sets out in search of her sister, Vera who is rumored to have a baby. She sets out towards Minnesota to find her sister and baby, but what else will she find along the way?

The Night Watchman was slow to start for me as I got acquainted with the many characters and their subplots. Her various characters play both major and minor roles in the story which shows many of the characters using the strength of determination, courage, ingenuity, kindness, generosity, and love. We also see how they deal with adversity with wit, strength, intelligence, and determination. I always learn something when I read a book, Erdrich. Not only do I learn customs and traditions, I learn history and laws.

Although the book started slowly for me, it did pick up in the second half as everything came together. I always feel as if her books are labors of love for her as she writes about her ancestors and her community.

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 strong stars. I started listening to The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich right before the pandemic shut down my school. Since I as so many others were confined to my house I had to give up listening to this incredible book at that time. As soon as my library reopened I once again borrowed this audio CD and was delighted in how much I liked it. The audio CD was narrated and read by the author, Louise Erdrich herself. It was a real treat to hear her tell this story. She is most certainly a master storyteller. The story was based on the life of her grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, who among other things, was the night watchman of the plant that produced jewel artifacts in North Dakota in the early 1950’s. Louise Erdrich renamed her grandfather, Thomas Wazhashk, for the purposes of this book. Thomas was also the chairman of the Chippewa Turtle Mountain people. When he learned that Congress was trying reclaim the land owned by, lived on and given to the Chippewa American Indians in a non expiring treaty, he made it his mission to fight to retain their lawful land. The American government was trying to relocate these Native Americans to the cities where they would for all intents and purposes be eliminated. Thomas fought back by writing letters to congress and soliciting help from whoever he could. This fight led Thomas and his small committee all the way to Washington, D.C.

All the characters in The Night Watchman were so well developed. I particularly liked Pixie or Patrice as she liked to be called. She was a smart young woman who cherished the members of her family. Pixie worked at the jewel bearing plant and the money she earned supported herself, her mother and brother. Her family was quite poor but their love and devotion for each other made up for what they did not have in processions. Her older sister, Vera, had been missing for months. Pixie was determined to find Vera in Minneapolis where she had last been seen. When Pixie found herself immersed around questionable people with compromised morals and practices she knew she had to save herself and her sister’s baby by leaving Minneapolis. She had to leave her sister behind for the time being anyway and return home.

I really enjoyed listening to The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. That time in the history of the Native Americans living in North Dakota was unknown to me. I find it so enriching and interesting when an aspect of a family’s heritage can be shared so that the events and outcomes are not lost. I was totally absorbed in this story and was sad when it ended. All the characters were rich and well developed, even the secondary ones. I highly recommend this book.

[jessica yeung · Rating 4 out of 5]

prior to reading this book, i was familiar with the red power movement that occurred in the US during the 60s and 70s, where native american youth fought for the right to self-determination. but i had never heard of the house concurrent resolution bill 108, which called fro the eventual termination of all tribes back in 1953.

so im grateful to have learned more about his untaught moment in US history and i appreciate LE narrating a story around the experiences of her grandfather during that time. the struggles of thomas feel authentic and, even though this is a work of fiction, it feels like a firsthand account. i think this does a great job at depicting the importance of community and family, as well as the fight for identity and freedom.

my only complaint would be the heavy focus on side characters who arent necessarily that important, which kind of deterred the main focus of the story at times.

but overall, i really enjoyed reading and learning about a moment in history that i was unfamiliar with!

↠ 4 stars

[Meike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2021
Erdrich has written a captivating pageturner about the golden 1950's in the US - an era that was only golden if you were white, of course. While the black population suffered under Jim Crow, there were also widespread government efforts to terminate treaties with Native American tribes, which would have resulted in them losing their rights and status. The goal: Assimilation instead of self-determination. Erdrich's grandfather Patrick Gourneau, Chairperson of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians during that time, was the inspiration for the title-giving "Night Watchman": Together with his community, he was the first one to successfully fight Congress over the planned termination, and the tribe has secured its status and land in North Dakota until today (you can learn more about Indian termination policies between 1940 and 1960 here, and more about the specific case of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa here).

The novel's protagonist, Thomas Wazhushk, works as a night watchman in a juwel bearing plant near the reservation, and that's not the only valuable unit he protects: As Chairperson, he fights for the interests of the Chippewa at Turtle Mountain. When the news of the intended termination reaches the community, they start to develop a game plan and prepare to travel to Washington to personally make their case. In the second, closely related narrative strand, Thomas' young niece Patrice "Pixie" Parenteau, who works at the plant, travels to Minneapolis in order to find her sister Vera who disappeared in the city. Aided by her friend Wood Mountain, an aspiring boxer, she discovers what might have happened.

This novel shines through its fantastic, complex characters and the way the relationships between them are shown (not told): Pixie has an alcoholic father and a mother who is deeply knowledgeable about Chippewa culture, as well as a gang of female friends; there's Thomas' friend Louis and his a half-white daughter Millie who attends the University of Minnesota and uses her scientific knowledge to help the tribe; there's Juggie Blue, Wood Mountain's widowed mother, and his white boxing coach and high school teacher Barnes who falls for Pixie; there's Thomas' childhood friend Roderick, now a ghost; and many other members of the community. In Minneapolis, we meet outrageous criminals and discover whole new job opportunities feat. bodysuits with hoofs (cringe!), and throughout the text, we repeatedly run into two rather comical Mormon itinerant preachers (the serious background being that a Mormon congressman who wanted to terminate the Chippewa argued based on his religious beliefs).

Erdrich also does a wonderful job reflecting Chippewa beliefs and cultural practices just by showing them as part of her characters' approach to the world and as everyday actions. She portrays the hard life on an impoverished reservation, the difficult, multi-layered connections to the settler state, but also the resilience, intelligence and humor of the people living at Turtle Mountain - this author gives her characters dignity and humanity. Erdrich also did quite a bit of research, and it shows: Not only did her grandfather really write a lot of letters during that time, they were also preserved so she could read them; Vera's story was fueled by The Prostitution and Trafficking of American Indian/Alaska Native Women in Minnesota; meetings Erdrich describes rely on actual transcripts; and the study presented before the congressional committee was actually conducted - even the shooting incident she depicts really happened.

While not exactly daring in composition, this book offers a highly immersive reading exprience, and the narrative and the characters are intruguing - I couldn't put this novel down. Important to know: Trump has recently brought back the termination era, targeting the Wampanoag, the tribe that invented thanksgiving. So books like Erdrich's are not only a real treat for everybody who loves a well-told, captivating story, but they help to preserve history and to raise awareness about what's going on in the world right now.

You can learn more about the German translation Der Nachtwächter in our latest podcast episode.

[Trudie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Louise Erdrich and I have a checkered history. I struggled to finish LaRose and while The Night Watchman was a much more enjoyable experience, in the end I must conclude I don't really gel with this author's style.
Certainly, I admire this in parts but it grew increasingly fragmentary as the novel went on and despite outlining some important history, its focused seemed scattered. Maybe the early introduction of Pixie / Patrice Paranteau and the plight of her sister Vera, sent the wrong message as to how this novel was going to proceed or rather it was an indication of the part of the story that engaged me the most. I became frustrated with the hefty character count, people flitted in and out of the main story, many with dubious impact on the novel as a whole.

All and all this was a bit of a hap-hazard assemblage of lovingly written family stories which I admired but could not fully engage with. However, I am grateful to have been introduced to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and a slice of American history, unknown to me, the Indian Termination policies of the 1950s.

Undoubtedly a case of "it's not you, it's me".

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two years ago, Louise Erdrich thought she would never write again. The National Book Award-winning author of “The Round House” and more than a dozen other treasured novels had abandoned several manuscripts and given up. She was certain her “impetus had disintegrated.”

Fortunately for us, she was wrong.

One day, she woke from her depressed slumber impelled to read a cache of letters written in the middle of the 20th century by her grandfather Patrick Gourneau. He had been chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Advisory Committee during the tribe’s modern-day fight for survival. The threat at that time was legal but as potentially disastrous as earlier assaults: In 1953, the U.S. House passed a resolution declaring that a number of tribes should be rapidly “freed from Federal supervision.”

Ah, blessed freedom!

Beneath that glorious promise of emancipation lurked the government’s true plan: the unilateral abrogation of treaties, the wholesale termination of tribes’ rights and the abandonment of Native Americans already impoverished by centuries of genocidal policies.

Reminded of that dark era and her grandfather's heroic role in saving the Turtle Mountain reservation in North Dakota, Erdrich knew she had found the inspiration for her next book.

Erdrich’s career has been an act of resistance against racism — the hateful and the sentimental varieties — and the implacable force of white America’s ignorance. In one powerful book after another, she has carved Indians’ lives, histories and stories back into our national literature, a canon once determined to wipe them away.

“The Night Watchman” is more overtly political — it even includes a trip to Washington, D.C. — but it’s a political novel reconceived as only Erdrich could. Although the legislative history and the congressional battles of Indian termination rumble over the horizon, the story stays focused on folks living on the Turtle Mountain reservation. For most of them, the immediate concerns of. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...

[Canadian Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erdrich weaves a story within stories. The Nightwatchman, Thomas, is a Chippewa Indian who leads his people in fighting against the U.S government from taking away their land and relocating them to the city. Pixie, who searches for her sister who was part of a ‘relocation’ program is missing. What happens when the officials say a better life can be had but really isn’t the case.

The Indian culture is rich with imagery and the symbiotic relationship with animals and nature. The visions and dreams of animal spirits.
What happens when a culture is stripped then forced into assimilation.

Erdrich has a talent for creating memorable characters - Pixie, Wood Mountain, Thomas. And the challenges and struggles they face to hold onto family, culture and land.
4.5⭐️
This was a buddy read with Rich :)

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book based loosely on the author's grandfather's fight for maintaining reservation status for his tribe in the 50s. It is beautifully invoked in terms of ceremonies and the poetry of the culture of these Chipewas. The clash with Western values and Western exploitation is also vividly and horrifyingly described and this serves to make the narrative more exciting and edgy. There are a rich set of characters here who are well-drawn and very compelling. Definitely way up there in terms of Pulitzer hopefuls for 2021 in this reader's opinion.
UPDATE: Well-deserved win for this wonderful novel. Need to reread it. I do recall that the Night Watchman was both literal and figurative in the novel and that there was quite a lot of suspense. Highly recommended.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of Louise Erdrich, but this book never completely worked for me. Thomas, the night watchman of the title, is an elder of the Chippewa living at the Turtle Mountain Reservation in 1953. The same year that Senator Arthur Watkins proposed the “Indian Emancipation Act”, a fancy way of saying a way for the US government to terminate the treaties it signed - to sell off the reservation land and disband the tribes. Thomas is based on Erdrich’s grandfather.
The other main character is Patrice, a 19 year old working at the Jewel Bearing Plant and the main financial support of her family.
The story covers the hardship of the Indians on the reservation. Not just the economic struggles and lack of opportunities, but the prejudice and misogyny against the young women, the prevalence of alcoholism and domestic abuse.
While the themes of the book are important and the writing was gorgeous, this wasn’t a book I enjoyed. Appreciated might be the better word. It felt too helter-skelter, with too many different storylines.

There are some similar themes with William Kent Krueger’s Lightning Strike, which focuses on the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. I recommend that book to fans of this one.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be still my heart......

You are only as strong as the strength of your word....be it from the vastness of the government and its treaties to the inner workings and core of the single human individual.

Louise Erdrich gifts us with an amazing novel birthed from the letters and personal actions of her own grandfather. Erdrich, at one point, felt an arid dryness that visits upon talented authors when the story just does not come. But it was then that she considered visiting the source. The source, for most of us, are the links channeling back to where we find our beginnings: Family.

Erdrich takes us to the Turtle Mountain Reservation with the Chippewa in September of 1953. Thomas Wazhushk works as a night watchman at a jewel bearings facility. The bits of jewels are used in Bulova watches and in drilling for the Defense Department. Staying awake in the wee hours has been a challenge for Thomas. But Thomas vents a strong internal energy of trying to right the wrongs by the U.S. Government toward Native Americans.

A new law is being presented in 1953 that will cause the termination of Native American tribes living on reservations in North Dakota. The government visualizes that these tribes are self-sustaining and no longer need government assistance. They are ridiculed for not farming when the land where they reside is near barren. Poverty has taken root far deeper than any stalks of corn.

Thomas begins organizing his thoughts and his options and writes to congressmen, heads of committees, and government officials to make his case. Erdrich showcases Thomas' drive to empower those on the reservation to present their opposition to the pending law in Washington, D.C.. They will ban together and make the arduous trip with the strength of their convictions.

As the story unfolds, we will meet the members of Thomas' family and also the extended families of the reservation. Front and center will be the character of Patrice "Pixie" Paranteau who works in the facility. We will come to see the impact of her presence that extends from within herself, the tribe, and an unexpected trip to Minneapolis. Erdrich lines this story with remarkable characters who fill in both large and small deposits on the human spectrum. They are colorful, comical, lively, pensive, irreverent, determined, and complicated. The Night Watchman is a granddaughter's honorable blessing to those who came before her. And no one does it like Louise Erdrich.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to HarperCollins Publishers and to the talented Louise Erdrich for the opportunity.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not out here trying to offer up hot takes. This is a Pulitzer Prize winning book after all, so if anything the fault is probably mine if this elicits a noncommittal shrug from me.

I'm supposed to effuse about how I'm in good hands with this cavalcade of characters that traipse across the page. Thomas Wazhashk, based on Louise Erdrich's own grandfather, the night watchman and Chippewa Council Member for the Turtle Mountain clan fighting against a government bill of "emancipation" His niece Patrice, working the factory setting jewels where she's caught the eyes of the white boxing coach Lloyd Barnes as well as the boxer he's training, Wood Mountain - who joins Patrice as she sets off into the city to find her lost sister Vera. There's the pair of Mormon's cursing the cold and trying to convert the Indigenous Lamanites while secretly loathing each other, and graduate student Millie Cloud come down to fight the bill on its way to Congress.

Not to mention the ghost of a dead boy, a waterjack, and a gun toting Puerto Rican nationalist. And yes, Erdrich does manage to give each their due and clearly delineate them on the page. But I still found it plodding with multiple strange digressions and meandering threads that are simply noted in passing.

Stories built up over pages are resolved with a sentence or two and set aside. Perhaps a nod to the direct way the Indigenous folks in the story simply note things as they are in plain spoken English in contrast to the flowery word-smithing of senators hiding daggers in their innocuous ten-dollar words, looking to "emancipate the Indian." But I kept wanting more to grab onto here, something to warrant higher praise than "it was fine."

[Elle]

I just didn’t get into this one. I read halfway through and decided to set it aside for now. Honestly my TBR has been slowly outpacing my reading speed during the quarantine and making myself finish books I don’t want to isn’t helping with focus. I know a lot of people love The Night Watchman and Louise Erdrich, so maybe check out some of their reviews for better insight!

BUT while I have you here....part of the reason I was chomping at the bit to read this book was because of the subject. It’s historical fiction set in the 1950s that follows indigenous characters reckoning with another attempt by the US government to erase their tribal presence. So while I didn’t connect with the novel, I’m incredibly interested in the historical elements of the story. Interestingly, while I was reading The Night Watchman, I saw a relatively small story break that had some parallels to the struggles faced by Thomas and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

In Cape Cod, Massachusetts the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has been a recognized tribe of the Wampanoag people since 2007. On March 27, 2020, the tribe was notified that their reservation was being ‘disestablished’ and their land taken out of trust by federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Interior. 321 acres of tribal land are being snatched by the government in a way that hasn’t been done since the very same Termination Policy that’s at the forefront of this book.

But what launched this sudden backslide in American native policy—in the midst of a pandemic, no less? Their very status as a tribe was challenged because a billionaire, Neil Bluhm, was denied a bid to build a casino on tribal land. As retribution he funded an attack on their legitimacy as a tribe. This case was heard by no court and its status revoked solely by the current administration. The president even tweeted about it while invoking a native slur. This particular move is unprecedented, but it comes out of the same playbook our country has been using against indigenous populations for centuries. It’s cruel, unnecessary, unfair and likely to happen again.

I encourage anyone who was outraged by the way the characters in this book were treated to extend those feelings towards the very real native communities that are still being targeted today. And for those in Massachusetts, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey have pledged to fight this decision, but no matter where you live it probably wouldn’t hurt to reach out to your representatives.

[Esil · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enthusiastic 4 stars!

The Night Watchman is my first Louise Erdrich novel, but it won’t be my last. For me, this was historical fiction at its best. The novel is partially based on Erdrich’s grandfather, who worked as a night watchman in a jewel factory and who led the fight against “dispossession” of residents of the Turtle Mountain Reservation. In parallel, the story focuses on fictional sisters Patrice and Vera, who were born on the reservation. After moving to the city, Vera disappears, and Patrice is determined to find her. In combination, these characters allow Erdrich to pain a political and personal picture of this time in history. Life was very harsh and no one had much money. But the sense of community was strong. And despite some pretty dramatic hardship, Erdrich manages to infuse the story with some humour and optimism. This made for a great monthly buddy read with Angela and Diane. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

[Margaret M - (having a challenging time and on GR as much as I can) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If you should ever doubt that a series of dry words in a government document can shatter spirits and demolish lives”, let this book erase that doubt as we learn of the plight of the Native American Indians. Because every so often “… the government did remember about Indians. And when they did, they always tried to solve Indians.... It meant termination and they tried to solve us by getting rid of us.” Remembered Thomas.

Inspired by real life events and stories from her grandfather, the author Louise Erdrich narrates a wonderfully crafted story about the plight of the Native American Indians and the struggle to retain their own land, in particular the Turtle Mountain Reservation, and preserve their rights as a people.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at a jewel factory, but he plays a more important role at the Turtle Mountain reservation representing the Chippewa tribe in North Dakota in a battle against a government who once again is planning to renege on the treaties made with the Native American Indians, stripping them of their land and the few benefits still permissible. A battle that takes him all the way to Washington DC.

“In the newspapers, the author of the proposal had constructed a cloud of lofty words around this bill— emancipation, freedom, equality, success—that disguised its truth: termination.”

There are many threads and underlying themes to the book, but central to the story is a minority ethnic group fighting for survival and against injustice. What we are afforded as readers is an insight into the strong sense of community, the traditions the Indian population fought to keep and the despair of a people looking down the barrel of a gun. All of which will pull on your heart strings as we reflect on the reality and injustice experienced.

A highly recommended read. The story and plot of course are excellent and all too real, the character development is superb. All that said the book offers so much more, a wonderful depiction of the real struggles combined with fictional characters, stories and captivating themes all told with excellent pace and interest.

[Matt Quann · Rating 2 out of 5]

At this time in my reading I've come to realize that some Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction just aren't going to click for me. Sadly, despite anticipating this book for some time, The Night Watchman failed to grab me with a meandering plot and large cast of characters. This is doubly a shame because it's my first work from Erdrich and my wife has been singing the praises of her latest novel, The Sentence, over the past month.

The story revolves around two main leads, Thomas Wazhashk and Pixie...er Patrice Paranteau, but includes many other perspectives from the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Thomas is trying to mount a defence against a racist "emancipation bill" that seeks to take land from the Native American people of the Turtle Mountain Band. Patrice is trying to make ends meet for her family while tracking down her missing sister, Vera. Both of the leads are likeable and admirable, it's just that I wasn't very compelled to read on about their experiences.

Indeed, the novel has a slow pace filled with prose that luxuriates in the natural world. Scenes are painted with vivid background and obvious care has been taken to represent these characters with humanity and empathy. This is where I struggled: I've certainly loved novels like this in the past (Empire Falls by Richard Russo is similarly free of narrative thrust), but this one just felt like a chore every time I picked it up.

Worry not, this shan't be my last go around with Erdrich, but this one surely wasn't for me even it is of admirable quality.

[Brandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Night Watchman is the second book I've read by Louise Erdrich and it's safe to say I remain a huge fan. I loved The Sentence and really liked this story, about an indigenous group fighting against an emancipation bill that threatened Native American rights, land, and identity in the 1950s.

The tribe's fight is led by the night watchman at the local jewel bearing plant, Thomas Wazhashk, a character inspired by Erdrich's own grandfather, who fought against such Native dispossession himself. While Thomas is leading this effort, Patrice, another employee at the plant, is on a quest to find her sister, Vera, who disappeared with her baby recently. She can barely afford to miss work, but can't shake her unresolved feelings about Vera's fate and heads to Minneapolis in an attempt to find answers. Other characters include Patrice's family members, Thomas' family, coworkers at the plant, and Wood Mountain, a local boxer. I liked some characters more than others but really felt for all of them at parts of the story, and can't say I truly disliked any.

"So it comes down to this, thought Thomas, starting at the neutral string of sentences in the termination bill. We have survived smallpox, the Winchester repeating rifle, the Hotchkiss gun, and tuberculosis. We have survived the flu epidemic of 1918, and fought in four or five deadly United States wars. But at last we will be destroyed by a collection of tedious words. For the disposition of, for the intensification of, for the termination of, to provide for, et cetera."

Though The Night Watchman is set 70 years ago and some things have changed, once again, we have a book showing how little government has evolved since then and how much work still needs to be done. There was a scene where Thomas explained to a coworker why the tribe didn't want to accept this new bill — What if we killed you, took over your land, camped there and kicked you off? You said we were here first, then we said we don't care! This was a simple conversation but a telling one and one that sadly, is still likely happening in parts of the nation. I enjoyed reading about the strength of this community and its determination — 4.5 stars

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is so disappointing when a book tackles a way-underrepresented subject (here, Indigenous people in the US) and then it just doesn't work. I appreciate the plotline about trying to get the government to recognize and help the reservations, but there were way too many characters and stories going on for it to be memorable.

It really felt like some plotlines - like searching for the sister - were brought up and then dropped, which might be realistic, but was confusing to read. It was also just kind of too weird for me at times, like with the cow costume thing. This was so disjointed and long and I wish I felt anything at the end besides being happy that it was over.

[Bharath · Rating 3 out of 5]

The background to this story is very interesting- based on the author's grandfather Patrick Gorneau (Thomas in the book).

The US government is considering a bill to take over the lands of the Chippewa tribe in Turtle Mountain, North Dakota. This terminates a previous treaty between the government & tribe which was to be perpetual. This will require the tribe to disperse, move to cities, and it will be difficult as a majority of them are struggling as it is. The bill is made to appear as being in the interest of the tribe - to integrate them into a modern way of life. Thomas Wazhashk is a watchman at a factory, and he and his wife Rose also farm. Patrice (Pixie) is his niece who works at the jewel factory. Her sister Vera has moved to the city and later Patrice goes in search of her. There are a number of other characters including Barnes, Millie, Bernadette, Wood Mountain (for whom Patrice thinks she is developing some feelings). Thomas writes many letters opposing the termination of the treaty, and later forms a small group which is funded by the community to travel to Washington and present their case.

The character development is very poor - most are flattish, with the exception of Patrice. This despite the fact that the pace is very slow. The track involving Vera seems to have been introduced to outline many of the evils in that period but really comes across as disintegrated. It felt through the book, that the characters were holding back without revealing themselves. I really would have liked to see more of Thomas' frustrations, motivation & hopes in the story. The cultural context was interesting but sketchy. I did learn of the tensions between the Native Indians and the Mormon missionaries, the language, but lot more space is devoted to food & eating, and is repetitive. The later sections could have had something more interesting for Patrice's character.

I found the afterword very well written and inspiring, far more than the book itself. While I did not find the book as engrossing as I had hoped, this is a story which is unique & important nevertheless.

[Cule.Jule · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zdrs...

"Der Nachtwächter" ist ein komplexes, aber interessantes Buch, das einen eindrucksvollen Einblick in den Kampf gegen die Terminationspolitik dem Leser bietet.

488 Seiten, die eine Geschichte im Jahr 1953 aus der Sicht mehrerer Personen erzählen. Ich persönlich hatte am Anfang Schwierigkeiten in das Geschehene einzutauchen. Inhaltlich geht es unter anderem um Louise Erdrich's Großvater Thomas Wazhashk, der tagsüber Stammesratsvorsitzender des Reservates des Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota ist und nachts als Nachtwächter in einem Betrieb arbeitet. Aufgrund eines Entschlusses kämpft Thomas gegen die Enteignung und schreibt Briefe an die Regierung.

Als Leser erfährt man Rituale und (Aber-) Glauben und lernt so die amerikanischen Ureinwohner aus einer neuen Perspektive kennen, was ich persönlich mochte.

Wer ein anspruchsvolles Buch mit dem Schwerpunkt Ureinwohner Amerikas sucht, wird hier definitiv seine Lesefreude haben.

Dieses Buch wurde mit dem Pulitzer-Preis 2021 ausgezeichnet.