The Round House by Louise Erdrich

On Thursday, August 14^th, the Fixed on Fiction Book Group met to discuss The Round House by Louise Erdrich. Here is a brief summary courtesy of Goodreads:

One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.While his father, who is a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning.

When I asked readers for their overall vote, I received five thumbs-up and three so-so’s. No thumbs-down…hooray! Here are some of the initials comments made:

• This is an intense subject (on Native American rights). I think that all of us should know more about these things. The more we know the more we can change.
• The story was very interesting to me but I thought the cohesiveness could have been better. The lack of quotation marks really frustrated me (several other members agreed on this point). This made me think about history- what are we teaching children about Native American history?
• This was certainly a hard read- I also found the lack of quotation marks challenging. I really appreciated that Erdrich wrote Joe’s parents as upstanding people. I also enjoyed that it was a very descriptive read.
• I think I gave more thought to this story than any other we’ve read so far in group. I loved the character development of Joe. I also found his father, Bazil, to be reminiscent of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.
• The book opened up my eyes about society, culture, and prejudice. We all need awareness.
• This was a thumbs-up read for me but I don’t know if I’d read another Erdrich. I really enjoyed her description, but I didn’t really get into the book until the end with the shooting. It was an educational read, all of my stereotypes were smashed. It was maddening at some points regarding the unjust laws…that got me angry.

During the initial comments, one reader referenced the book title and asked why the crime happened at the round house, specifically. I bounced that question back to the other group members, here are some of their responses:

• Lark had nothing to do with Native American culture, but maybe he knew how insulting it would be to commit this crime on holy ground. It was a desecration.
• The round house, literally, isn’t linear. But the way Native Americans teach (customs/ceremony/etc.) isn’t linear, or traditional, either. I saw a lot of parallels between the house’s physical structure and Native American culture.
• Lark was likely aware that the round house rests near multiple land borders which would make taking a case to court very difficult given the tangle of state, federal, and tribal laws.

We brought up Erdrich’s rich descriptions throughout the text- some readers greatly enjoyed this aspect while others felt that some details slowed down the plot. While there was a lot of symbolism throughout the text, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask readers what they thought of the “roots scene” at the beginning of the novel. On the day of the attack, Joe and his father are trying to remove invasive roots that are disrupting their home and he references the roots a few times over the course of his narration. I asked the group what the roots symbolized…

• The roots were literally crumbling their home’s foundation, but symbolically they represented this crime which crumbles both the family’s foundation but also the tribe’s.

Of course we had to discuss Joe’s moral dilemma, and his ultimate decision to take matters into his own hands. I asked readers about their reaction to Joe’s crime-

• What other choice did he have? I was secretly urging him on, hoping he would kill Lark.
• I was actually really surprised that he did it.
• Joe was extremely angry. Angry at Lark, angry that his dad (a judge) couldn’t do anything. He was a teenage boy who acted out of anger.
• Joe took matters into his own hands because no one else would. He saw that his dad, who he expected to have some legal power, could not do anything. Joe wanted to take action and DO something.
• Really, Joe had to do it because the court wouldn’t do anything. What would happen if he hadn’t? Lark would have terrorized his family.

Lastly, I asked the group members if they had any final comments and one reader mentioned her love for Erdrich’s cast of secondary characters- and the majority of the group agreed with this point. She enjoyed that the “secondary characters were multi-faceted. Nobody was good or bad, everyone had flaws.” We briefly discussed some of our favorites: Cappy, Father Travis, Sonia, etc. Overall we had a very lively discussion on a powerful story. If you enjoyed this month’s selection you might enjoy Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves which features some overlapping characters from The Round House.