Erdrich's 10th novel tells three stories from different time periods, united by a shared Ojibwe artifact--the titular drum--that passes from a North Dakota reservation to New Hampshire and back again.
Critic Reviews
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Outstanding
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Boston Globe Margot Livesey
Intricate and beautifully written pages.
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Outstanding
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San Francisco Chronicle Reagan Upshaw
Erdrich moves effortlessly between the Anglo and Indian worlds, telling her story in a style both lyric and precise. She is a master of the small detail that anchors a scene.
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Outstanding
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Washington Post Donna Rifkind
With fearlessness and humility, in a narrative that flows more artfully than ever between destruction and rebirth, Erdrich has opened herself to possibilities beyond what we merely see -- to the dead alive and busy, to the breath of trees and the souls of wolves -- and inspires readers to open their hearts to these mysteries as well.
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Outstanding
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Los Angeles Times Chitra Divakaruni
Erdrich soars in scenes that are resonant, poetic and exact, visions that will remain imprinted on the reader's mind because of their brilliant mythic overtones. [4 Sep 2005]
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Erdrich draws us into her exquisitely detailed world effortlessly, and even [The Painted Drum's] frequent excesses of summary cannot blunt the power of its narrative ingenuity and luminous prose.
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
Even at low voltage, Erdrich crafts a provocative read elevated by beautiful imagery.
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Outstanding
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Chicago Tribune Art Winslow
The Snopeses and the Kashpaws should get to know each other, and perhaps someone should introduce Dilsey to Fleur Pillager, too, for Faulkner's people and the Native Americans of Louise Erdrich's books are going to be neighbors for a long time in American Literature.
[18 Sep 2005]
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Favorable
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Library Journal Barbara Hoffert
[The Painted Drum's] parts do not hang together easily, and those set in the present don't seem to engage Erdrich's formidable imagination. But passages of stark and painful beauty remain. [1 Jul 2005, p. 65]
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Favorable
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Though [The Painted Drum] lacks the sweep and majesty of Erdrich's awesome The Master Butchers Singing Club, as with all her remarkable fiction, ''there is no telling when one event will stop bumping into the next.''
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review Benjamin Markovits
Spare, perceptive, unsentimental prose.
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Favorable
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Christian Science Monitor Marjorie Kehe
Longtime readers of Erdrich are unlikely to rank [The Painted Drum] among her very best, but it nonetheless bears the marks of her mastery as a writer: neatly etched characters, finely calibrated prose, and flashes of wisdom and wit throughout.
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Favorable
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Houston Chronicle Nora Seton
The strength of Erdrich's writing is at its peak when she conveys her Ojibwe legends in simple, muscular prose.
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Mixed
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Chicago Sun-Times Natalie Danford
Cunningly plotted yet overwritten.
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