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This book is beating me up. It’s so good.

It’s so interesting to me that because Erdrich does not explicitly call Nector’s assault of Marie or Henry Jr’s assault of Albertine “rape,” very few literary critics seem to accept this. One review said that in the end of “A Bridge,” Albertine is more of an adult than Henry Jr, even though she is 15. Hm. No fault of the book, of course.

Rereading and I remember less than I thought. What I love about Erdrich is that she never tells her readers what to think. Like King and Lynette or the sexual violence in the story— she doesn’t label it, she just lets you watch characters react to it, and they react the way we do in real life: haltingly. I love Albertine and Lipsha.