<p>@SouthJerseyChessMom, I’m quoting Mary to answer your comment about Sonja returning to Whitey.
Sonja is going back to live the life she knows.</p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom, thank you (I think 
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<p>When I read statistics and personal stories such as the above, The Round House seems more like fantasy than reality, in the sense that Geraldine’s reservation community rises up in anger, with both men and boys responding via their own forms of vigilante justice. The New York Times article, on the other hand, suggests that in reality, the overriding sentiment following a reservation rape is apathy. </p>
<p>Maybe “impotence” would be a better word—an odd word choice under the circumstances, but I mean it as “powerlessness.” In real life, without funds, government support, or adequate police and hospital staffing, no effective action can be taken. In The Round House, however, Joe takes decisive action, which gives him sort of an underground hero status.</p>
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The scene with Sonya comes across as just that - a ‘scene’ perhaps written with film rights in mind. The scene with the priest feels the same way. I think Erdrich intended both as comic relief. If so, we have different senses of humor.</p>
<p>That said, the CC Book Club ran across passages in Let the Great World Spin and The Shadow of the Wind where others help infirm or dying old men obtain a prostitute.</p>
<p>^ Ha, I’d forgotten that. I don’t remember getting up on my high horse about those scenes, so maybe it’s just Joe’s youthful presence that made me uncomfortable. If Joe hadn’t been there, Mooshum and Sonja might have had some silly fun, but with Joe watching, everything becomes a little bit creepier (in my opinion).</p>
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<p>I don’t think Erdrich was writing with film rights in mind. None of her novels have ever been made into films. I doubt they ever would be.</p>
<p>Edit: Louise Erdrich and her husband collaborated on a novel called Crown of Columbus, “a lighthearted romantic mystery.” Apparently film rights were sold, but a film has not been made.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to put The Round House in the hands of most of today’s movie producers. I’d be afraid they’d turn Lark’s rifle execution by Joe into some kind of audience-cheering, yippee ki-yay triumph, and that’s not what it’s all about.</p>
<p>Shifting topics…What did you think of the good twin/evil twin mythology used in The Round House? Although we’ve seen it many times before, including in our CC Book Club (The Thirteenth Tale), I felt like Erdrich’s use of the standard was creative. Linda Wishkob’s perspective sort of turns things upside down: She imbues her twin with goodness (as an infant) rather than evil (which will possess him as an adult):</p>
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<p>The other unusual aspect of the twin story is the kidney transplant. @buenavista wrote in post #86 that Linda “gave Lark another chance at life, and wanted to be better to her birth family than they were to her, and look at all the horror that followed.”</p>
<p>Fr. Travis tells Joe that “the only thing that God can do, and does all of the time, is to draw good from any evil situation” (p. 268). In Linda’s case, it’s the reverse: evil results from good that is done. I thought that was sort of disheartening.</p>
<p>^ I read that line a few times when I read the book, I didn’t understand how Linda was “spared” ? </p>
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<p>Spared from growing up under the influence of the horrible birth mom?</p>
<p>“The compassion to crush against me”…Erdrich makes such perfect choices of words, paints such breathtaking pictures with the way she writes.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree about the writing (choice of words).</p>
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<p>That’s what I think, too. If Linda hadn’t ended up at the Wishkob home, she might have turned out like her brother.</p>
<p>I thought the notion of Linden Lark as a windiigoo, “a person who becomes an animal, and sees fellow humans as prey meat,” was borne out by the physical description of him: Linda refers to Lark’s “sharky mouth” and Joe describes his “black shining eyes that showed no white, just the speck of livid life” (p. 223). </p>
<p>Anybody a “Jaws” fan? When I read the description of Lark, I thought of Quint’s monologue: “You know the thing about a shark, he’s got… lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white.”</p>
<p>^^^Never read Jaws–but that’s a pretty good description of Lark! Also–this just hit me–Lark rhymes with shark!</p>
<p>I think the good twin/evil twin contrast is more about the good mother/evil mother. Rereading “Linda’s Story” I tried to find anything good about Linden Lark. I just can’t. Everything wrong with Linden, even his acceptance of Linda’s kidney seems to have originated with his parents, usually the mother. On the other hand, all of Linda’s goodness and character–from the shape of her head to her kindness and ability to give life (to Joe, her brother) can be traced back to her mom and the strong, loving family and community in which she was raised. </p>
<p>I agree that the quality of the parenting seems to be the most important thing. One of the things that I found a little hard to process was their attitude about underage drinking. If my 13 year old was going around drinking beer, I’d have been really concerned, but at some point it’s made clear that everyone knows that Joe and his friend have drunk all the beer they found near the Roundhouse and none of the adults seem upset at all.</p>
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<p>I would be beside myself if I had a 13 year-old son who was engaging in half the activities that Joe and his friends are. But I’m probably naïve. (I had the same thought when I watched the movie “Boyhood.” Really? Is that what they do when they leave the house?)</p>
<p>Given that alcoholism is such a huge problem among Native Americans, I would guess that the drinking starts early. This article is a few years old, but it’s probably still fairly accurate: <a href=“Alcohol exposure affects generations on Indian reservations | MPR News”>http://www.mprnews.org/story/2007/10/17/indianfasd</a>
“[Tribal Judge Anita] Fineday has seen 10-year-old alcoholics in her courtroom. She’s had 16-year-old pregnant girls roll their eyes at her when she lectures them about drinking.”</p>
<p>And from this more recent column by Nicholas Kristof: “The tribe says that more than 90 percent of arrests by the tribal police are alcohol-related, along with 90 percent of arrests of juveniles. Children often begin drinking in their early teens.” <a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-battle-with-the-brewers.html?_r=0”>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/opinion/sunday/kristof-a-battle-with-the-brewers.html?_r=0</a></p>
<p>I read Dorris’ Broken Cord, about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, before I became pregnant with my younger child, and the book made me horrified at the thought of having even a sip of an alcoholic beverage during that pregnancy. It is not known what the safe tolerance levels are. FAS is a particularly nasty type of developmental disability that prevents kids from learning by experience the way other kids do.</p>
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<p><a href=“Conversations with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris - Louise Erdrich, Michael Dorris - Google Books”>http://■■■■■■■.com/pvm9toe</a></p>
<p>Erdrich may have been drawing on long tradition by incorporating twins (with an almost mythic backstory) into her tale: <a href=“http://www.fofweb.com/History/HistRefMain.asp?iPin=NAMAZ316&SID=2&DatabaseName=American+Indian+History+Online&InputText=“Selu”&SearchStyle=&dTitle=twins+in+American+Indian+mythology&TabRecordType=All+Records&BioCountPass=0&SubCountPass=12&DocCountPass=1&ImgCountPass=0&MapCountPass=0&FedCountPass=&MedCountPass=0&NewsCountPass=0&RecPosition=7&AmericanData=&WomenData=&AFHCData=&IndianData=Set&WorldData=&AncientData=&GovernmentData=”>http://www.fofweb.com/History/HistRefMain.asp?iPin=NAMAZ316&SID=2&DatabaseName=American+Indian+History+Online&InputText=“Selu”&SearchStyle=&dTitle=twins+in+American+Indian+mythology&TabRecordType=All+Records&BioCountPass=0&SubCountPass=12&DocCountPass=1&ImgCountPass=0&MapCountPass=0&FedCountPass=&MedCountPass=0&NewsCountPass=0&RecPosition=7&AmericanData=&WomenData=&AFHCData=&IndianData=Set&WorldData=&AncientData=&GovernmentData=</a></p>
<p>A ridiculously long link for a very short article!</p>
<p>Here is the Boston Globe’s very positive review of The Round House—“concentrated, suspenseful and morally profound.” <a href=“http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2012/10/06/the-round-house-louise-erdrich/S7Z97YN7UN4GroVzFVZy6N/story.html”>http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2012/10/06/the-round-house-louise-erdrich/S7Z97YN7UN4GroVzFVZy6N/story.html</a>
I’m posting it because I thought @ignatius might be interested to read the reviewer’s one, brief criticism: </p>
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<p>Here is a less positive review from The Chicago Reader: <a href=“http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/spring-books-bogira-louise-erdrich-round-house/Content?oid=9203648”>Who's to blame for violence against Native women? - Chicago Reader; </p>
<p>I found this article interesting in light of our above posts regarding alcoholism and its associated troubles in the Native American community. The reviewer acknowledges but questions the statistic that 86% percent of rapes are perpetrated by non-Native men, and takes issue with the fact that Erdrich seems to skirt the problems in the Native American community by making the evil in the story comes from the outside:</p>
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<p>^Mary, if you have a long URL like that, go to this site and they will provide a shorter version you can use:</p>
<p><a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/”>http://■■■■■■■.com/</a></p>
<p>Here is the shortened URL for the link in your post #136: <a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/lpg3axf”>http://■■■■■■■.com/lpg3axf</a></p>
<p>Never heard of that! Thank you!</p>