Native American Fleur Pillager heads to the Twin Cities to take revenge on the lumber baron who plundered her reservation.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Houston Chronicle Sharan McBride
Four Souls is that rare accomplishment, a great story well told.
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
A welcome addition, then, to a uniquely enthralling and important American story.
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Outstanding
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Richard Wagamese
It reads like a Norval Morrisseau painting: bright, alluring, yet imbued with a palpable depth of mystery. The mystical edge is the impetus, and the magical feel, like a Morrisseau canvas, gives the story focus. We're in the hands of a storyteller: wise, wily, sarcastic and entertaining. [4 Sept. 2004, D5]
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Favorable
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Washington Post Justin Cronin
[Four Souls], sequel or not, possesses many of the signature charms of its author's most accomplished work.
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Favorable
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Library Journal Starr E. Smith
Fleur's story, along with comic subplots involving the narrators, is marked by imagery both poetic and moving, if at times overwrought. Yet the beauty of Erdrich's writing compensates more than adequately for that minor flaw. Recommended for most collections. [15 May 2004, p. 119]
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Favorable
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Los Angeles Times Thomas Kurwen
Four Souls is one of Erdrich's shortest books and contains everything we expect from her writing. Episodic, ribald and at times incandescent, it fills an important niche in the cosmology she has been crafting since her first novel, "Love Medicine."
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Favorable
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Publishers Weekly
The themes of fruitless revenge and redemption are strong here, especially when combined with the pull of her lyrical prose; Erdrich may not ensnare many new readers, but she will certainly satisfy her already significant audience
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Favorable
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Booklist Joanne Wilkinson
Effortlessly moving between the sacred and the profane, between grotesquerie and transcendence, Erdrich continues to spin her unique and compelling fiction. [15 April 2004, p. 1405]
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Margot Livesy
At a time when questions of ownership and sovereignty, peace and vengeance, are particularly pressing, ''Four Souls" is not only a beautiful and absorbing novel but an extremely timely one.
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Favorable
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Chicago Sun-Times Sharon Barrett
Four Souls is proof the vine that began 20 years ago with Erdrich's award-winning first novel, Love Medicine, continues to flourish.
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Favorable
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Christian Science Monitor Ron Charles
Erdrich's most striking contribution may be her articulation of a value system that's wholly contrary to the culture of accumulation and competition that we're eager to export in our great white way. Given the vibrant success of her novels, the Indian wars may not be over after all.
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Mixed
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
While ''Four Souls'' has none of the strength and sweep of last year's ''Master Butchers Singing Club,'' it is a welcome, if modest, new piece in the ever-expanding Erdrich saga.
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Mixed
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Atlantic Monthly John Zobenica
Four Souls feels like little more than a low-stakes game among studiously eccentric old friends -- ”those whose seriousness becomes a mockery of itself and whose humor is entirely too insistent. Erdrich needs to work on her poker face.
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