The Plague of Doves in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Nov 05, 2019 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 100-best-of-21st-c, fiction, people-named-neve-niamh-lily-nadine, all-time-favorites, historical-fiction, audio

When we are young, the words are scattered all around us. As they are assembled by experience, so also are we, sentence by sentence, until the story takes shape.

This book is amazing! It’s complex brilliant rambling unexpected and beautiful.

The story was a complex tapestry woven so tightly and beautifully; I thought the ending would be just as tight, but it’s not. It sort of unravels. I found it a bit deflating.

The GR blurb makes this sound like its some sort of Native American murder myster ...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Nina rated it liked it

Shelves: bookgroup, literary, novel

I really enjoyed this book, though perhaps I enjoyed talking about it more. Also, enjoyment feels like the wrong word to use when so many of the tales (and it is a series of linked stories) are grim. But the characters are amazing--I especially like the story of Marn and her slender husband, Billy, who becomes larger than life and a cult leader. This is an interesting network of characters, and their ties get messier and messier the more we read.

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Jun 24, 2008 Jessica rated it it was amazing

I wish I could remember what book this one is reminding me of, not so much in storyline as in characterization and feeling. I simply adore every character in this book! I find myself laughing out loud at ever turn. I love how it reads as short stories almost... like you're getting a snap shots of time.

I wish I had a big chunk of time to just sit and finish this. ...more

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Jun 17, 2008 Carrie rated it really liked it

This score is probably more a result of my disjointed reading than Erdrich's writing which is great as always. Having read this in spurts it took me a long time to figure out how everything was fitting together.
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Jun 03, 2009 Melle rated it really liked it

Shelves: indigenous, multiple-perspectives, family-dynamics, north-dakota, anishinaabe, metis

One of the most brutal and beautiful books about killing, about the northland, about the strangeness of relationships between people and events... Emotionally hard-to-read but very much worth the heartbreak.

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