Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Night Watchman: A Novel

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2020

I love great storytellers like Louise Erdrich, but they are few and far between. A good book is often quickly forgotten, and a great book lingers in the heart and mind for a lifetime. The Night Watchman is a great book. The story of Thomas “Muskrat” Wazhashk and the story of the Turtle Mountain People during the 1950’s, one of many times the United States government attempted to renege on its treaties and steal Native land is, at once, heart-wrenching, heartwarming, and powerfully life affirming.

In the early part of this tale, readers will come upon a seemingly innocuous mention of Thomas Wazhashk’s family quilt. Immediately thereafter, the wonder of many lifetimes flows out as one of the most inspiringly beautiful passages I have ever read in my 69 years on this planet. Then, of course, just as when I read The Round House many years ago, Louise Erdrich follows with so many equally powerful passages that remind us why her books linger in the heart and mind for so long.

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The Past is Not Only Alive it’s not even Past

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2020

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The Night Watchman is an impressive literary feat. Written to preserve the memory of the US government’s attempt to close Indian reservations in the 1950s, only a small part of the book is actually devoted to narrating this controversy.

Instead it mostly focuses on the struggles of a young Native American woman. Can she find her lost sister, what is her romantic future, what to do with her deadbeat father, etc.

Through these interwoven narratives, Erorich breathes life into an Indian reservation in the post war era. It’s not an idealized image: poverty, violence and alcoholism do run rife throughout the text.

But it is a proud community conscious of a tradition and culture that long predates the European settlement.

And this is where the text is most impressive. In terse and uncomplicated prose, the story unfolds as if the imagined universe of the tribe is real. Just as Christian literature may cast angels and demons as characters, The Night Watchman makes the spirits, mythologies and shamanism not just literary ornaments but key drivers of the story. Look, for example, to the characters’ participation in the tribe’s creation myth, the presence of benign and malignant ghosts and the way shamanism is able to reveal key plot elements.

Given the extent to which cultural genocide has been perpetrated against Indian heritage, this is a much needed act of preservation. In some ways, The Night Watchman continues the effort of the characters to preserve their reservations; the book becomes a means by which Indian culture can be preserved and transmitted.

In short, crisp prose combined with a deep grounding of the book in a tribe’s collective imagination makes for a book worth reading.

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daschultz

A mystery within a great family drama, very pertinent to our times

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2020

It felt so wonderful to be back in the hands of a master storyteller and that is Louise Erdrich. The characters are extremely well developed and I felt as though I knew them all, I didn’t want to leave this story. The setting for a novel about American Indians in the 1950’s is a unique one, often books are about the start of our “elimination” of the Indians.I wanted to know everything about the reservation, the new bill that Congress was going to pass and how these incredible characters with all of their beliefs, visions and talents were going to survive if this bill should pass.

One of the main characters, Thomas, who is the night watchman at a jewel bearing factory is based on the author’s grandfather. He is a loving, tireless man who cares deeply about the Chippewa Turtle Mountain people and his own family.

There are several stories going on in this novel but they are all part of the whole. We will watch as Thomas writes hundreds of letters to those in the government who might listen to his plea that the tribe be allowed to keep the little bit of land that they have. This once powerful tribe of hunters and gatherers was forced onto a small plot of land and had to learn how to farm in order to exist. They were given very little help from the government but even this was in danger of being taken away. They must form a committee and address Congress directly.

At the same time we learn about Thomas’s family, he deeply loves his wife Rose who works tirelessly to keep their family together, fed and clothed. His oldest daughter Vera left for the city, and hasn’t been heard from in a while. Patrice, his other daughter works at the jewel bearing plant where Thomas is a watchman. Her job is working on a type of production line, cutting precise holes into small jewel panels.
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When Vera has been missing for a while Patrice saves up her money and goes to the city to find her. What happens to her there is eye opening as well as discouraging. We come back to that story later in the novel.

Thomas’s father, Bibon, lives with them, he is quite old but is filled with wisdom and inner strength. He will help Thomas in his quest to speak in front of Congress on behalf of his tribe.
“Make the Washington D.C.’s understand. We just started getting on our feet. Getting so we have some coins to jingle. Making farms. Becoming famous in school like you. All that will suffer. It will be wiped out.. . ..They sent us their tuberculosis. It is taking us down. We don’t have money to go to their hospitals. It was their promise to exchange these things for our land. “Long as the grass grows and the rivers flow.”

Scattered throughout the book there are references to Indian folklore and some magical passages which are beautiful and thought provoking.

The older generation has struggled with efforts to completely change their way of life. The younger generation still looks up to the elders but also wants what they see on TV and magazines, cute clothes, nice homes, cell phones, and to live in the city. They are often pulled in two different directions.

I don’t want to give away any more of this amazing story. Hopefully I have given you enough enticement to read this book. It is definitely one of my top books this year and is not to be missed. Ms. Erdrich will reward you with a great story, wonderful characters and a history of some of the terrible things that we have done to the American Indians. We virtually broke every treaty that we made with the Indians.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss

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PW

Nope!

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2020

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Nope just no! I appreciate her inspiration behind the book but I think that she must be a literary darling/untouchable bc I read so many positive reviews and it’s just not good! It’s dull and moves at such a slow pace that I wanted to rip my hair out and found myself cleaning the house to avoid reading it! I read it with a friend and she confessed to me that she found it boring and gave up on it! I think she’s just one of those authors who is well liked by book critics. I felt tricked by the reviews so I’m gonna give my honest opinion and tell you it’s not good! You’ve been warned !

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Peter Insabella

A promising plot...frittered away

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2020

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The basic plot, the story of the Indians of the Turtle Mountain Reservation threatened with dispossession of their land by white men in Washington who haven't the slightest concept of what's important to the Native Americans, is a good one. But the author introduces too many characters, doesn't define them properly, and muddies the central plot with a lot of extraneous sub-plots that she doesn't bring off very well and too many characters that she throws at the reader without developing them very well.
The whole novel is confused and annoying, and not well done. I stayed with this story until I was halfway through, and then I put it aside; I just didn't want to deal with it any more. It's just a poorly executed work of fiction.

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Plays for a living

Outstanding

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2020

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First, this story opened my eyes, my heart and my mind to the vast amount of discrimination that native people encountered and continue to encounter daily.
Second, this story brought forth laughter, tears, gasps of horror,and also appreciation for the hope that was evident in the characters.
I recommend this book to everyone. I know I have been changed for the good.

67 people found this helpful

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Uneven pacing (too slow, just right, too fast) diminishes its impact

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2020

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The uneven pacing throughout “The Night Watchmen” diminishes the power of its depiction of the hardships and maltreatment of Indigenous Americans, circa the 1950’s. I usually prefer character driven narratives, so I am used to slow building novels that require my patience because the emotional payoff is usually so much more satisfying. BUT . . . the first third of the book dragged on and on and on, focusing on a myriad of characters’ mundane daily activities to the point that I almost did not finish it.

The book picked up in the middle. I did enjoy the richly drawn characterizations, often humorous, of the many people trying to survive, defend their land and find love on Table Mountain’s Chippewa Reservation in the nether regions of North Dakota. It has some powerful moments and beautiful Native American spiritual nuances, but what is weird is that the book’s denouement comes at light speed - a series of Post-It-like notes that wrap up the plot, a technique that left me disappointed and unsatisfied. For me, less detail up front, more detail at the end would have created a more memorable read.

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Robert Kafes

TEDIUM PERSONIFIED, I'M VERY SORRY TO SAY

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2021

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This novel is a lesson into how to turn a sorrowful, immoral and tragic tragic story (the continual extermination of American Indians) into an endlessly dull read. Periodically I had to rouse myself from a snooze because I was faced with a multitudinous parade of thinly drawn characters in a plot that is told kaleidescopically. I never really cared much about any of them because they had my sympathy but not my empathy. Hard to believe that this story could be so lackluster and dry. I gave up with about 150 more pages to go. Just couldn't take it. Two stars for the author's choice of subject matter, but I'm profoundly concerned that this vital subject matter received such a monotonous and repetitive telling.

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Scott J Pearson

A persuasive account of Native American struggle to preserve their people

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2020

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Set in the 1950s, this story resides in the literary area of fictionalized memoir (though written about a family member’s experiences) or historical fiction. Erdrich writes about the struggle of a Native American tribe (the Chippewas) to retain the land on their reservation. This land was deeded to them in perpetuity by the United States government. However, U.S. Congress sought to disregard (discard?) these treaties and to take over autonomous land. The fight to overcome this blatant theft results in the tale of this book.

Along the way, the author cleverly crafts stories of the lives of Native Americans and reminds non-Native-Americans of their shared humanity. She shares stories of a boxer seeking to have more meaning in life than just sport, a beautiful, aspiring, and smart young lady with little economic opportunity, a college student seeking an academic career, a young lady caught in a web of drug addiction and sexual abuse, and an aging night security guard laboring to save the ways and lives of his people.

The story varies points of view from several characters. Although this has the effect of diminishing suspense, it simultaneously builds intrigue into the larger culture of Native Americans. The reader cannot help but empathize with these strong characters. Erdrich’s effective characterizations help the reader to see beyond race into shared humanity. To use a musical metaphor, the result is less of a short song and more of a resounding symphony of voices that function in a crescendo. Readers encounter a people and a culture, not just a lone protagonist. The Chippewa people themselves are a collective protagonist.

I recommend this book to those who seek to jump out of the narrative that white people have the only dominant voices in America. While themes of the inhumanity of slavery resound in contemporary societal discourse, African American voices are not alone; the Native Americans continue to suffer from having their continent – their home – stolen from them, with little recompense. This story reminds all readers of their perspective, told by Erdrich, one of their own. It is deeply moving, hopeful, and persuasive.

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Amy Hammond Hagberg

Deserving of a Pulitzer

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2022

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“Patrice had come to think that humans treated the concept of God, or Gizhe Manidoo, or the Holy Ghost, in a childish way. She was pretty sure that the rules and trappings of ritual had nothing to do with God, that they were ways for people to imagine they were doing things right in order to escape from punishment, or harm, like children. She had felt the movement of something vaster, impersonal yet personal in her life. She thought that maybe people in contact with that nameless greatness had a way of catching at the edges, a way of being pulled along or even entering this thing beyond experience.” ~ Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman.

Based on the extraordinary life of Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with elegant prose, subtle humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.

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5 star		61%
4 star		25%
3 star		10%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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