The Mighty Red: A Read with Jenna Pick

This book is another moving story by author Louise Erdrich. Once you start this book, you won’t want to put it down. You won’t forget it.

Love this writer! Love the short chapters, love the story! So you can see… love this book!

I eagerly await each new book from Erdrich. And though I have favorites each new one seems better than the last. This one, however, even exceeds that standard. Thank you Louise. You are a divine gift to us all.

This was a gentle book to read, intellectually absorbing, with an appealing cast of characters. It describes a world I know little about, but, though the issue is never directly addressed, the subtext for me was that Suburbanite Me would like to know these people, and I think they would be surprised to find that they would like to know me. Why is it, then, that we seem to exist on different planets? Erdrich's answer is that we're human and need to cherish that humanism. I live with my own Kismet, and she sustains me.

Perfect plot, character development, & lyrical storytelling creates this novel of metaphors of the life cycle of the planet and of s/hero journeys - it was slow to start but they became woven together as just like a powerful River

The book gave a good insight into the culture of native Americans and life in remote areas of north-Western states. I liked reading about the human nature and relationships. I learnt about the teenage culture of recklessness that I had not experienced growing up. All in all, this book was an interesting read.

I hate to not finish a book, but I had to quit after25% through. I wish I had stopped sooner; I usually love her books, but not this one

I loved this book! There were several different story lines going at once, and Erdrich does a masterful job of juggling the stories and keeping up suspense throughout the book. I wish I could read it again for the first time! I’m sharing it with friends.

Kismet Poe is graduating from high school and has two boyfriends. One of them, Gary, is a popular athlete with a tendency toward recklessness, but he presents Kismet with an engagement ring, and she is too shocked to say no. Her other boyfriend, Hugo, is planning to find a job in the oil fields so that he can earn enough money to win Kismet’s affection, whether she is married to Gary or not. As for Kismet, she seems smart and industrious but allows Gary to coax her into a marriage she doesn’t really want. Why she cannot extricate herself from this plan is somewhat of a mystery. Her mother, Crystal, is devastated that Kismet is abandoning her college plans to marry Gary, while Gary’s mother is ecstatically planning a lavish wedding. After Kismet reluctantly and hilariously says her wedding vows, she becomes something of a Cinderella figure, but Gary is no prince. We, and Kismet, finally become privy to the details of an event that puts Gary in an even worse light, if that is even possible. Since this book takes place in an agricultural community, Erdrich manages to weave in her concerns about the ecological impact of sugar beet farming, but she also sprinkles in more humor than I recall from her other novels. In fact, this is my favorite book of hers since The Master Butchers Singing Club. Crystal and Kismet are the delightful anchors here, and the storyline makes for an entertaining read. Even Gary, with all his flaws, is more pathetic than despicable.

I am a Louise Erdrich super fan, I own almost all of her books and I've read almost all of them more than once. (Incidentally, my favorite is The Bingo Palace.) This first thing I will tell you is that the love triangle in The Mighty Red is a replica of the love triangle in her early works between Lipsha Morrisey, Shawnee Ray Toose, and Nector Kashpaw. The characters of Lipsha and Hugo are, in my mind, nearly identical and, though the other two characters differ in important ways, the dynamic between the three is essentially identical as well. (As a side note the "Martin" character in this novel is much like her Gerry Nanapush character in other novels.) The character of Kismet in The Mighty Red disappointed me at every turn. She is exactly the type of passive character that writing instructors warn against. I could not understand how two guys fell completely head over heals in love with someone so truly average... I can't really think of one special thing about her. Hugo was annoying... he knew Kismet just as little as Gary, both of them totally romanticized her without getting to know her at all. The most interesting two characters in the entire book are, first of all, Gary... who was uninteresting for at least the first half of the book but steadily grew on me. The character of Eric, however, was simply stunning. I was blown away by his simplicity yet complexity, a dead ringer for your average good-hearted American boy.... many of our husbands, fathers, and brothers. Much more than meets the eye. I had to give this book three stars, however; first, because I know what this author is capable of (there is a reason The Night Watchman won the Pulitzer Prize), but also because I also thought this novel was kind of a mess. Too many characters. Too scattered. The story with Gary, Eric, Harlan, Jordan, Travis, and Charley was the most compelling narrative but somehow the story wasn't about them. WHY? I tend to think it's because a story of what happened with those boys would have been the saddest story ever told. (The Earth will tremble when Louise Erdrich writes a truly sad story.... I've seen her tell parts of books that are sad, as in Tracks and Four Souls, but not a book that is sad start to finish.) I also wonder if she is nervous to write that many white, male characters... I doubt that is the case, however... she has written many white characters and, IMHO, done an incredible job (see Master Butcher's Singing Club)... she also nailed the dynamic between these characters in the few scenes they were featured together in The Mighty Red. Anyway, I'm still a very big fan of hers... the prose was fantastic as usual... and some of the characterization was super well done... but this was not her strongest work structurally... I think it really hurt the novel overall... and I thought the editorial choices were too "safe." This could have been a stunning take down of toxic American male masculinity told through the eyes of these young men and this tragic event but it ended but being a so-so retread of many of the same themes I've seen from her in the past that come close but ultimately back away from anything too serious.

Not an easy read. Slow-going and lots of characters. It is a tale of sugar-beet farmers in eastern North Dakota and I was attracted to it because my wife grew up in sugar-beet territory in nearby Minnesota. The main characters are Crystal, who trucks sugar-beets for a living, her live-in Martin who runs off with the local church renovation fund, and teen daughter Kismet who marries in high school to a boy she doesn't love (her real love sneaks in and sleeps under her bed). And there is a mystery about a serious tragedy that unfolds late in the novel. Still, I liked this book partly because these flawed characters are interesting but also because little by little the author describes how these families have destroyed this fertile prairie through overuse and chemical herbicide. The soil has turned to dust. When Kismet starts a kitchen garden she has to buy soil. This is a world of glyphosate (Round-up) and neonic-coated seeds, a colorless world where the birds, butterflies, and lightning bugs have disappeared. It is a microcosm of the world we have become.

Why is it that it takes almost a third to half of a book to commit to finish it? Will have to think about that.

I woke up next day after finishing this novel more than a little bit gutted that it was over. Speaking for myself: TMR is easily one of her very best. I own them all so I can say that if I want to. At first the mini-chapter format concerned me. But no worries. I soon came to really enjoy getting more news about and enlarging my image of each main character in fast rotation like that. Moreover, especially some of the briefer segments, flow forward with brilliant lyrical intensity and detailed imagery. And yes, Erdrich illustrates people to a tee. What else is new? Seems to me she very successfully tried a little different story telling structure with this one. I could go on. But I'd rther you read it for yourself.

Book club choice - compelling story of coping with pain and fear. My husband was in the sugar industry for many years so the setting in North Dakota beet country really resonated. Karen Briscoe, author

This novel is only mildly Indian, in subtle ways. The story itself is compelling, although I, as a child of the 50’s, had a hard time relating to the drugs, booze, sex engaged in by young people. Nonetheless, a pretty fascinating read; a story line that is unusual at worst; and a study of choices and how they affect our lives.

The journey started as a hilarious adolescent rom-com. Then it morphed into a less humorous, yet engaging character study of not just one but several characters. Then about two thirds of the way through, the story turned deep and tragic into an unraveling of the mysterious party and accident that had been alluded to (foreshadowed) frequently. Then the story purposefully ambled toward a conclusion that tied up loose ends, but still left some wiggle room for life's subdued tones, the ones that lie between black and white.

The title refers to the Red River, which separates North Dakota and Minnesota. The Red River valley is famous for sugar beets, but it’s not exactly THE MIGHTY RED, although it does flood periodically during the spring.One of the principal characters, Crystal Poe, drives a sugar beet truck; otherwise the book doesn’t have all that much to do with sugar beets or the river. Gary Geist is in love with Kismet Poe, Crystal’s daughter. So is Hugo, Kismet’s best friend. She marries Gary, but only because he asks her. She feels she’s made a terrible mistake.Hugo strikes out for the fracking wells in North Dakota to save up enough money to win Kismet over. He doesn’t seem aware of Crystal decision to marry Gary, or if he is, he thinks he can lure her away.The other conflict in the story has to do with Martin, Crystal’s husband, who runs off with some money meant for charity.Gary and the other young men in the story are tortured by what happened to their friends in a terrible snow mobile accident. Gary was racing his machine towards a frozen lake and a wire fence. The other boys crashed their machines trying to catch up to Gary and were killed.Some of this stuff just doesn’t seem very realistic. Martin steals all that money but doesn’t seem to suffer the consequences anybody else would when he returns. Kismet doesn’t seem to know what the heck she wants. It seems like Erdrich went for the easy choices when she decided on resolution of conflicts.

Brilliant. Stirring. This is Pulitzer level writing. A deep dive into what makes humans tick--and makes women strong and resilient. Can't think when I've read a more profound and moving account of family relationships, a marriage that's a mistake, and love that endures through it all. Characters are so vivid you'll swear you know them. Told in language that is magical, simple, and captivating. I once lived in North Dakota, and this invoked so many memories. This book made me laugh aloud and at the same time tore my heart in two. It will remain in my soul for years. A must-read by a dazzling author.

The Mighty Red is the third novel written by Louise Erdrich that I have had the pleasure to read. The Roundhouse and The Night Watchman were centered at a Native American reservation, where interactions with white people were suspect. In contrast, in The Mighty Red, a number of characters have mixed white and Native American heritage, and Native American heritage is not treated significantly differently than East European heritage. If there is a difference, it is that the latter has been transplanted. But all of the characters are residents of North Dakota farm country, whose lives revolve around farming, although they might play different roles in the enterprise and its perennial challenges. The Mighty Red begins in 2008, and ends in 2023, and explores earlier periods through the memories of lead characters, demonstrating that the only changes are the tools that farmers use to face these challenges.The Mighty Red was engrossing. Although I found it to be a less powerful novel than either The Roundhouse or The Night Watchman, I highly recommend it.

After reading handfuls of her novels, this is what I want to say about Louise Erdrich.She finds the little things in life and describes them in the simplest, most perfect ways. Many times while reading her books I think to myself.. how does she always hit the nail on the head with her small, pleasing descriptions of ordinary every day life? It is something beautiful that many writers try to duplicate but usually miss their mark. She has a polish to her writing. It sparklers and glimmers.Also she expands on the grey in world and makes it glorious and relatable. When I read her books i almost always end up thinking - most people aren’t all good or all bad. Good people make bad choices. There is grey in the world. I don’t know how to explain it other than that, if you read her stuff, surely you know what I mean.Her novels very rarely have a “plot”. There’s a story line there but it’s usually thin, (which, in my opinion, usually means it’s a good book) and her stories are tightly strung together by the rich depth of her characters. She makes reading fun, thoughtful, enjoyable. I have read and reread many of her books because, at the end of the day, she makes her readers feel something. In every book. I always come back to Erdrich.I liked, but did not love The Mighty Red. Maybe on a second read I would enjoy more. It’s not my favorite Erdrich book and that’s all due to the characters in this book and just where their stories went. However. It is an excellent book and one I think people will appreciate and enjoy if they give it a chance. I will say if someone reads this and likes it, read more by her. If you did not care for The Mighty Red, also you should read more by her!! She is unlike any other. She is one of the best story tellers today.