Understanding Louise Erdrich by Seema Kurup (review)

THE INCLUSION OF Louise Erdrich in the "Understanding Contemporary American Literature" series attests to her position as one of the most important American authors writing today. Though fans and scholars of Erdrich's work would argue this has been the case since she won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award with her debut novel, Love Medicine, this position was irrefutably cemented when she won the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2015.

Kurup's aim here is to provide an introduction to Erdrich's writing, and she succeeds in giving a fairly holistic overview. This book places Erdrich's work into the context of her life, upbringing, and cultural identity, which is ultimately framed in the context of Erdrich's Ojibwe heritage. This is a challenging task to undertake in a short text—indeed, just over one hundred pages—for any author, and particularly so for an author as prolific as Erdrich. Kurup therefore does not attempt to incorporate all of Erdrich's work: rather, she highlights key texts, grouped together by chronology, genre, or theme, and situates them within the context of Erdrich's oeuvre. Yet an ambitious amount of material is covered in a short number of pages. Rather than undertaking an in-depth analysis of each text, Kurup reads her chosen texts through the lens of selected themes: primarily, Ojibwe experiences of settler colonialism, assimilation, and cultural survival. Kurup situates the works within their socio-historic contexts, making this a useful guide to those unfamiliar with the historical experiences of Indigenous peoples under the U.S. government.

Kurup impressively foregrounds connections across Erdrich's oeuvre, arguing that she has "created a literature of place" (6) imbued with the traumatic legacies of settler colonialism and the memories of the Ojibwe. However, by choosing key themes through which to analyze Erdrich's work, some are inevitably omitted. Viewing Erdrich through this lens means that some of the most exciting and challenging elements of her work are overlooked—particularly her engagements with gender and sexuality. Considering the series title, it is also somewhat surprising that Kurup does little to position Erdrich in relation to her literary influences and a broader literary tradition. In addition, it would be interesting to see more focus on Erdrich's work in the context of contemporary issues faced by Indigenous people in North America. There are brief moments of illumination in which Kurup discusses Erdrich's work in relation to contemporary concerns, such as climate change and global capitalism, but the discussion primarily focuses on the settler-colonial history that informs Erdrich's writing.

Though essential for an introductory text, much of the material Kurup includes in the first few chapters has been covered elsewhere. For example, details of the "Silko-Erdrich controversy," as it has become known, are included in most accounts of Erdrich's work. The most interesting sections, and opportunities for real insight, come in the later chapters focused on Erdrich's more recent novels, nonfiction, her children's series, and her poetry—all of which have, thus far, received comparatively little critical engagement. Kurup's core argument is that all of Erdrich's works should be read together—and her analysis of Erdrich's poetry and children's books alongside her more critically received works is convincing. The chapter on Erdrich's Birchbark House series is particularly engaging, in which Kurup argues that the inherently political nature of Erdrich's writing transcends genre and form. Focusing on her radical use of Ojibwe language in these books, which "preserves and records the language… for generations to come" (74), Kurup observes that "language is inextricably tied to history and place for the Ojibwe; losing it could have devastating consequences" (75). The focus on Erdrich's poetry, too, offers valuable insight. Kurup's analysis of the 1984 poem "Runaways," which highlights the neglected histories of the residential boarding school system, is remarkably prescient in light of Erdrich's most recent novel, LaRose (2016). Kurup's analysis of this poem, written at the start of Erdrich...