The Book Nook
Old murder links past and present
An unsolved murder is at the heart of Louise Erdrich’s fiction “The Plagues of Doves”. The horrific act serves both as motivator to propel readers to finding the truth and as an event permeating the plot and holding the story together.
The novel opens at the scene of the crime, which occurred in the late 1800s and had lasting consequences for those living in a small town in North Dakota and on the nearby reservation. Distorted facts about the crime and land disputes fueled an on-going tension between the two groups that resonated throughout the generations.
Four different characters narrate the chapters with unique voices and section headings to distinguish one from another. Through them we learn about the locals, with four families featured most prominently.
One of those speakers is Evalina Harp, an ambitious girl with a sense of humor and a tendency to fall deeply in love. She and her brother love listening to the stories of their grandfather Mooshum. His stories are not created to amuse but are recollections of past events. He seems to know something about everyone, especially family members. After hearing about someone she knows, Evalina can’t help seeing them in a new light.
The old man seems particularly well-informed about the horrible crime, which occurred when he was young. As he relates this particular tale, Evalina notes that “It wasn’t like he was talking to us, or even using his usual storytelling voice. This was different. Now it was like he was stuck in some way, on some track, like he couldn’t stop the story from forcing its way out.”
Evalina learns that when people started searching for who committed the crime, assumptions and bias trumped evidence and innocent people paid the price. This story sets her on an obsessive hunt to determine what really happened. She questions everyone she knows, trying to work out the convoluted lineage of her and other families to get answers. Solutions are evasive and Evalina learns the past cannot be forgotten or erased and that some events have a ripple effect that reach into the future.
This is a character-driven novel that’s told mostly via memories and stories. In fact, there’s debate as to whether this is a stand-alone novel or a collection of stories. While it has the feel of a short story collection, the common threads throughout the book and cohesive final chapters make it a novel.
I found the shifting timeline challenging until familiarity with the characters and their place in time unified the storyline. As with other loosely structured plots I’ve found note-taking helpful to clarify complex books or those with tangled genealogies or an overwhelming number of characters. At first the stories seem unrelated as the chapters move through various points in time, but historical threads tied everything together, particularly towards the end. The beautiful writing, intricate inclusion of multiple topics, cultures and venues along with vivid characters made this a worthwhile read.
Louise Erdrich shows sympathy towards each character, but without an overly sentimental tone. Similar to Mooshum, the author’s depictions seem more like people she knows rather than characters she invented. It’s reminiscent of cultures that share information via oral histories, handing details down from one generation to the next. Some of her work has been compared to those of Laura Ingalls Wilder for its evocative ability to pull readers into the world of America’s West.
The author moves easily through various periods in time and emotions, providing highly-layered observations of human nature and the natural world. Many of the scenes are richly described as she gives us stories of love, passion and crime told with humor and sadness. As in her other books, themes of justice and injustice are examined without judgement or criticism.
Louise Erdrich has been hailed as an important American author of books for children, poetry and novels and is a member of the Chippewa Indian tribe. “The Plague of Doves” won the Anisfield Wolf Book Award, which is given to authors who advance appreciation of cultural diversity. It was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and while it didn’t win, Erdrich’s later book, “The Night Watchman” won the Pulitzer Prize in 2021. She owns a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Recently I mentioned this book at an informal gathering and was shocked to learn that many indigenous women and girls go missing every year. I didn’t realize the number was so high that murder is now the third leading cause of death for this group. Media coverage is so minimal or slanted against victims that the problem is all but invisible to the public. Federal policies, stereotyping attitudes and other factors push these cases far down law enforcement’s list of priorities.
Both Native and non-Native people have joined forces to raise awareness in the hopes that politicians, law enforcement and the public will help with this crisis. Those wishing to help or learn more can find information by searching for MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) online or at their library.
