THE ROUND HOUSE: LOUISE ERDRICH

THE ROUND HOUSE won the National Book Award this past year, deservedly so though I would have been just as happy if BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALF TIME WALK had won..  But Erdrich's deserves it for this book as well as her many novels over the past thirty years.  I admit to not having read or taught her though I know some of my colleagues taught her back in the 1980s when she first became well known.

THE ROUND HOUSE revolves around  a real problem that Erdrich's explains in her afterword, the unprosecuted rapes of Native American women by non Native men.  One in three Native American women are either raped or sexually assaulted according to statistics from 2009.  From these statistics, Erdrich gleans her story, of the rape of Geraldine Coutts and the aftermath, all told through the eyes of her thirteen year old son. Joey.  Much of the story revolves around the escapades of Joey and his buddies, Zack, Angus, especially Cappy, the leader of the pact, all Native Americans, living on a reservation in North Dakota.  We are given an interesting and I assume realistic view of Native American life on the reservations, their habits, culture, poverty, and mixed attitudes towards the white man, especially the part history has played in their treatment.  It's easy to understand how unfair they feel the have been treated, even up to modern times, and their history is of one white lies and broken promises, every bit as disgusting as slavery. And no Civil War was fought over it.

The rape is complicated because Joey's mother is not sure where it took place, on Federal or Native American land, thus the perpetrator cannot be prosecuted though most are sure who did it, one Linden Lark, seemingly white trash, angry at the rights that Native Americans have recently secured.  The story is much more complex, as it makes manifest Joey's mother's pain, her attempts to right herself and with that, her family.  Joey understands, however, that she will never feel secure or happy while Linden Lark still lurks nearby.  And he knows that though his father is a judge, an arbiter of justice, it will never be served.  With the help of his best friend Cappy, Joey steals a rifle, learns how to shoot it and ends up shooting his mother's rapist as he holes in a putt on the local golf course.  Though Joey is never found out, his parents understand what he has done and his father especially makes clear to Joey that according to Tribe law, his death is justified, sparing his son the guilt that, nevertheless, he must live with for the rest of his life.  The story ends tragically as the boys' get drunk,  go on a road trip to see Cappy's girl friend, but they crash the car, killing Cappy.  Joey's distraught parents pick him up and drive him the long way home in silence.  And as Joey narrates, "On every one of my childhood trips that took place was always a stop for ice cream, coffee, and a newspaper, pie.  It was always what my father called the last leg of the journey.  But we did not stop this time.  We passed over in a sweep of sorrow that would persist into our small forever.  We just kept going."