Louise Erdrich's last book that I reviewed for Mmegi is Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2002). She is famous for a series of novels and stories, beginning with Love Medicine (1984) and including The Bingo Palace (1994), Tales of Burning Love (1996) and The Antelope Wife (1998), that explore the intertwining lives of the Kapshaws, Lamartines, Lazarres, Pillagers and Morrisseys and her beloved Nanapus all Native American, Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) families in the northern woods and marshes of North Dakota and east to Minnesota and west to Seattle on the Pacific coast.
The Plague of Doves occurred in 1896. The novel ranges across generations and families between 1880s through to 1980s, gothic tales with shades of magic realism. So far it has been hailed as perhaps the best of her 22 books. Five parts of The Plague of Doves already appeared in The New Yorker magazine. Unlike many authors, Erdrich sets up flag posts in her parts, chapters and section headings-ignore these to your peril. Start with the first chapter, but whatever you do, don't read the last chapter until you've gotten there.
