Book review — The river flows swiftly through ‘Mighty Red’
(Nov. 27, 2024) — What fun to recommend the latest Louise Erdrich novel, “The Mighty Red.”
And I say “fun” because before I even opened the book, I could hear the lyrics of the song “Red River Valley.” Erdrich’s Red River is that of North Dakota, and its direction is north (one of the 22 north-flowing rivers in the United States). The origins of the song do not refer to Texas cowboys or the south-flowing Red River.
“The Mighty Red” is set in the plentiful sugar beet fields of North Dakota, where the river and its flow has everything to do with farmers’ lives. The names of the main characters are almost secondary to how they fall in and out of love; how they thrill and disappoint their families; how they dream of planting their beets with government help; how one family insists on returning to more ancient ways of farming; and their loyalty to a rural community and its dependence on an agricultural industry that precariously continues to sustain it.
Erdrich shines in “The Mighty Red.” No movie stars, millionaires or business entrepreneurs, only real people who are trying their best, and sometimes their worst, to get ahead and make sense of their lives. As always, the roots of many of Erdrich’s characters are Native American.
A youthful novel
What makes this story special is the breadth of subjects covered. Her attention to beet farming and its history as it relates to the planting of crops and the weather that can define the success or failure of what is planted is handled without preachiness while passing on valuable information.
“The Mighty Red” is a youthful novel in the sense it deals with teenage sons and daughters and their mothers and fathers. It is a rural community that has its favorites and not so favorites. It is a story of young love, too young to succeed, and older love finding its way.
There are secrets that need to be revealed, along with forgiveness. The misbehavior in the story is not limited to the young. An errant husband creates criminal slapstick. It is a betrayal not only of his wife and daughter, but members of the community who then are in disbelief that the wife is not involved.
Erdrich has written a story with humor, history, mystery, dramatic action and, above all, compassion and hope. The ending is wonderful. The best part is that it occurs gradually. There is no flourish of wrapping things up with a big bow.
These may not be the folks living next door to you, but they are a people about which a reader can care deeply.
Now, going back to the song and history of “Red River Valley,” unless I miss my guess, Erdrich knew the original meaning of this song before she ever wrote “On a mild summer night in the Red River Valley of North Dakota…”
Visit Sunny Solomon’s website at bookinwithsunny.com for her latest recommendations or just to ‘talk books.’
Sunny Solomon
Sunny Solomon holds an MA in English/Creative Writing, San Francisco State University. She is a book reviewer for “The Clayton Pioneer” and her poetry and other writing has been published in literary journals, one chapbook, In the Company of Hope and the collection, Six Poets Sixty-six Poems. She was the happy manager of Bonanza Books, Clayton, CA and Clayton Books, Clayton, CA. She continues to moderate a thriving book club that survived the closure of the store from which it began. Sunny currently lives next to the Truckee in Reno, NV.