I am the odd one out who usually does not follow peoples’ advices on book choices. For some reason I would usually dislike the suggested author and then end up being in a situation where I have to say something negative about the book. And that would not always end well..
And then two years ago I was gifted two books that some of my friends were ecstatic about. I had my doubts but generally accepted their opinion as true if only because those books were utter bestsellers in Lithuania and had won all the titles possible. It took me two years to read them but I was smitten. Silva Rerum is the bomb.
My point is, that after those two books I started listening more closely to the suggestions of my friends. And one of the suggested authors lately was Louise Erdrich. G seems to be quite crazy about her, which, naturally, made me sceptical at first, because generally we like different books. But something about this writer made me believe him and when we hit one of the book stores in Madrid this spring, I bought TWO of her books. Now, that was extremely uncharacteristic of me. I have been refraining from buying books for years and now I seem to let loose. I blame G, but shhh, don’t tell him.
What I found in ‘The Beet Queen’ was the world not quite like my own. I enjoyed the language and the mood immensely, however dark the mood. The book has this way of getting you in, attracting you with its unexpected turns and colourful characters. I enjoyed how Erdrich is not trying to play on your sympathies, she just tells things as they are without judgement or favours. You feel like watching an old movie of sorts, something from another era and foreign but quite exciting.
However, i was not able to relate to any of the characters in any way and that frustrated me a tad. I do believe the old saying that ‘when you read, you read yourself’ and I couldn’t read myself in this book. In fact, I did not like any of the characters, which is surprising, considering that I actually enjoyed the book.
I am quite looking forward to reading more of Louise Erdrich. Good thing that I have one of her books sitting in my to-read shelf as I type.
ReadIngaRead 