I had such a hard time finishing The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, despite enjoying its humour and its depiction of Native Americans finding ways of dealing with the madness of today's world... While the book's overall narrative — redemption through literature, I can get behind that! — attracted me, I found it rambling and disjointed. The author succeeded in making me care about her characters (I especially loved the main protagonist's colleagues), but not about what happened to them. She constantly pulled us into a direction only to abruptly stop and switch to a different one... Look, there's a ghost, a mysterious book, a surprise baby, COVID, race riots, and much more! As a reader, it became unclear to me what I was supposed to remember or find important to the rest of the story. Moments that appeared vital and transformative ultimately barely got a mention later on. I'm aware that this may not be the best introduction to Louise Erdrich's works; however, it certainly doesn't make me want to read more.
One for all, and all for one!
Reading some books can be a profound experience; listening to The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow certainly proved to be so. This beautiful, powerful ode to all types of sisterhood made me feel embraced both as a woman and as an outsider. (On many occasions while I listened, I had to press pause to whisper to myself, "It's sooooo goooood!") Surprisingly, although I'm not generally a fan of witch stories that involve actual magic, I was thoroughly engrossed by this tale of three estranged sisters who are pulled together again in a New Salem square just as a legendary black tower holding vast sums of magical knowledge mysteriously reappears, and attempt to revive the flames of women's magic which have been all but smothered in major purges all over the world, including in Old Salem two centuries earlier. I absolutely loved how the author played with fairy/folk stories and nursery rhymes, imbuing them with the words and ways required to work spells, and viewing them as ancient wisdom that must be preserved through cooperation across multiple cultures. The phrase "Remember who you are" recurs at various points in the story, a reminder of the possibility of redefining one's self, and a message I believe most women would benefit from hearing. It pains me to think that I could have missed out on the Eastwood sisters, since this novel has proved to be one of my very favourites ever. Alix E. Harrow writes female characters exquisitely. I need MORE from this author!
In other bookish news this week, I took advantage of a promo code to purchase the audiobook of The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. Along with its sequel, The Women of Troy, it's among my best-loved novels. I'm very impatient about the final instalment in the trilogy, focusing this time on Cassandra, which is set to be released in August of 2024.