The sentence louise erdrich reviews6/19/2023 ![]() ![]() Tookie works at a bookshop that notably resembles Louise Erdrich’s own Birchbark Books, from its location and its repurposed confessional booth to its focus on Indigenous literatures. ![]() The Sentence hovers in a realm of magic realism heavily laced with contemporary verisimilitude. It’s also a snapshot of the novel’s uncanny metatextual resonance. The characters’ exchange is a snapshot of the novel’s central themes of language and literature, their power for both harm and healing. She pushes still further: “What I’m trying to say is that a certain sentence of the book-a written sentence, a very, very powerful sentence-killed Flora.” Louise is quiet for a while and finally replies: “I wish I could write a sentence like that.” Sadly, or heroically, depending on the way you look at it, books do kill people.” But Tookie isn’t satisfied. The bookshop owner, Louise, doesn’t quite catch Tookie’s drift and resorts to a literary platitude: “Books aren’t meant to be safe. Midway through Louise Erdrich’s novel The Sentence, published in November, its protagonist Tookie has a conversation with the owner of the Minneapolis bookstore where she works about how a book killed one of their devoted customers. ![]()
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