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sophia_sol) wrote2018-04-30 09:50 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2018-04-30 09:50 pm
Chickadee and Makoons, by Louise Erdrich
These two books are the last two in the Birchbark House series. They're a bit different in feel than the other three because instead of having one main character through whose eyes you see most things, these two books jump around a lot between the various characters that make up the family. There's some focus on Omakayas's two sons, yes, but they don't get the same degree of attention that Omakayas got in the first three books.
I didn't love the book Chickadee quite as much as the other books in this series, because the main antagonists (a pair of very stupid brothers) come across as basically cartoon characters, which seems out of place in the otherwise very real-feeling world of these books. The other aspects of the book were good but I could just never take the story seriously when those two brothers were on the page.
Anyways these books continue to be amazing and I continue to have a lot of feelings. There's just such a strong sense in this whole series of the importance of the connection both to the land and to your community.
The land is itself a character. And in these two books the family has moved westward into the plains, away from the forests they're used to, to keep from being forced into reservations. And there's this wonderful sense both of finding things to love about the plains, and also knowledge of the vast loss they're experiencing from leaving behind the land they knew so well before. But then in the midst of all these changes, Nokomis is reunited with her lost seeds and is able to once again at least plant a familiar garden in this new place.
And there's loss of community as well - we never again see the rest of Omakayas's extended family who were important secondary characters in the first several books of the series. As various people make different decisions in the face of the white people's encroaching westward expansion, the communities are broken up. New friends are made but others are lost. And then multiple beloved characters die too. NOKOMIS AND ANGELINE AND FISHTAIL NOOOOO.
AND THEN the last book, Makoons, ends with a verrrrrry strong hint that things are going to get way worse yet. I mean, the modern reader who knows things about history knows that things probably weren't going to go great anyway, but the book doesn't let you close out the story of this family with the ability to hold on to any comforting belief that these particular people would be spared. Which like, fair. But UGH I SOBBED.
This series is really good at presenting both the small everyday pleasures and annoyances of life and the Really Big Awful Stuff without either one of the two feeling out of place in the face of the other. And that's what life is like, really. There are annoying family members and pride in accomplishing difficult tasks and mosquitoes and candy and death.
I didn't love the book Chickadee quite as much as the other books in this series, because the main antagonists (a pair of very stupid brothers) come across as basically cartoon characters, which seems out of place in the otherwise very real-feeling world of these books. The other aspects of the book were good but I could just never take the story seriously when those two brothers were on the page.
Anyways these books continue to be amazing and I continue to have a lot of feelings. There's just such a strong sense in this whole series of the importance of the connection both to the land and to your community.
The land is itself a character. And in these two books the family has moved westward into the plains, away from the forests they're used to, to keep from being forced into reservations. And there's this wonderful sense both of finding things to love about the plains, and also knowledge of the vast loss they're experiencing from leaving behind the land they knew so well before. But then in the midst of all these changes, Nokomis is reunited with her lost seeds and is able to once again at least plant a familiar garden in this new place.
And there's loss of community as well - we never again see the rest of Omakayas's extended family who were important secondary characters in the first several books of the series. As various people make different decisions in the face of the white people's encroaching westward expansion, the communities are broken up. New friends are made but others are lost. And then multiple beloved characters die too. NOKOMIS AND ANGELINE AND FISHTAIL NOOOOO.
AND THEN the last book, Makoons, ends with a verrrrrry strong hint that things are going to get way worse yet. I mean, the modern reader who knows things about history knows that things probably weren't going to go great anyway, but the book doesn't let you close out the story of this family with the ability to hold on to any comforting belief that these particular people would be spared. Which like, fair. But UGH I SOBBED.
This series is really good at presenting both the small everyday pleasures and annoyances of life and the Really Big Awful Stuff without either one of the two feeling out of place in the face of the other. And that's what life is like, really. There are annoying family members and pride in accomplishing difficult tasks and mosquitoes and candy and death.