The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

I thoroughly enjoyed Erdrich’s writing style, but on the whole I found this novel a bit odd. It seemed a little disconnected, a tad preachy at times, and overall lacking in direction. Part of me wonders if I just didn’t quite get it, though.

The first half of the book seemed very focused on the teenage protagonist and her two suitors. The second half continued the story but was also sprinkled with increasingly frequent interludes about the dangers of monoculture farming. (I don’t disagree with the points about farming, but they felt out of place to me.) It seemed like the story sort of ran out and dragged on towards the end.

Some parts of the plot struck me as rather far-fetched, too. I was surprised that Hugo’s parents didn’t step in when he forged an ID and fabricated a resume in order to go take a high-paying but dangerous job. I was also shocked by the ending of Martin’s story – how did he not end up behind bars?

I got the feeling that I was supposed to sympathize with more of the characters, to see their humanness and appreciate the good mixed with the bad, but I found myself disliking most of them. The whole story of the snowmobile accident, which I think was the key to understanding several of the characters, was withheld until nearly the end of the book, and by that point it wasn’t enough to change how I felt about them. Kismet and her mother were the only ones that I found myself rooting for the whole time.

Anyway, that all sounds rather negative. I didn’t hate the book. I was interested while reading, but as I look back on it I just feel sort of confused.