Foothills Book Club discussion

The Round House

The Round House is a harrowing work of fiction evolving around the rape and near murder of Geraldine Coutts, a Native American woman on a North Dakota reservation. The events are told by Joe, Geraldine’s thirteen-year-old son. In the narrative, Joe and his father, Bazil, must piece together a series of flimsy clues to try to make sense of Geraldine’s attack. The story is fast-paced, and the riveting chapters are interspersed with the daily lives of the characters as they come face to face with the concepts of good, evil, love, and morality. The title takes its name from an old round house, a sweathouse, built on the reservation for communing with the Creator. Native American tradition weaves itself throughout the narrative as Joe, his family, and friends face the realities of reservation life, including the justice and/or injustices of tribal law.

I read this a long time ago and it is an excellent book. The review above calls it "harrowing", and sure, a rape and murder is harrowing, but I mostly remember the book focuses on reservation life, tribal law, how the intricacies of how tribal law intersects with non-tribal law enforcement.

Central themes are family ties, violence, the murkiness of the law, and friendships.

I listened to this book and didn't read it. Louise Erdrich's words have a poetic and mesmerizing quality. I have read other books by her, and her words bring you to a different space.
-Regina

PBS New Hour interview with Louise Erdrich (Oct 26, 2012)

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new...