You know those bookstore patrons you just can’t get rid of? What if they died and you still couldn’t get rid of them?
That’s all I heard about this book by Louise Erdrich before picking it up. The concept sounded like such a cute, cozy book.
Having read a couple of other Erdrich’s other books, I should have known better.
Not only do books play a prominent role in Erdrich’s fiction, but so does racism between Native Americans and white invaders, and this book is no different.
Our main character and narrator, Tookie, is a Native American woman who had a rough go in life that started with a bad drug habit and ended when a couple of her friends set her up to commit a felony without her knowledge. She got caught, her friends escaped all responsibility, and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
She spent time in prison, but her sentence got commuted after a few years (not sure it’s ever said how many years.)
Throughout her sentence, she used books to escape her situation, so when she finally gets out, she manages to make her way to a bookstore and applies for a job. It just so happens that the owner of the store was a teacher of Tookie’s who always believed in her and kept her supplied with books while she was incarcerated. She’s willing to hire Tookie despite Tookie’s history as a convicted felon.
So Tookie gets to spend the rest of her days working with books and live happily ever after.
And she marries the guy who arrested her all those years ago. He quit the force after that incident because he felt so guilty about being responsible for Tookie getting locked away for two decades when she clearly didn’t deserve that.
It’s impressive that the two of them (mostly) manage to move past it, although it does kind of hang over their heads for the rest of their lives. They just pretend it’s not there.
Despite the fact that Tookie works in retail and her husband is a former cop, he made some good investments at the right time with his money. They’re not rich, but they’re comfortable and they don’t seem to worry about money.
Tookie and her husband are both Native American and at least one other employee of the bookstore is Native American.
Flora, the bookstore patron who never leaves, is white, but convinced she has Native American heritage. She’s the annoying white person who immerses herself in Native American culture, but also does good things for the community, so they can’t complain too much. They just roll their eyes behind her back.
She even fostered a Native American girl she ended up unofficially adopting.
When the bookstore staff hear Flora died while reading a book, they assume that means they’ll never again hear her shuffling around her favorite parts of the bookstore.
They assumed wrong.
At first, Tookie just hears Flora moving around.
Then Flora starts throwing books around.
When Tookie starts listening to music to try and drown out the sounds that shouldn’t be there, Flora changes the music.
Then Flora starts talking.
Then Flora tries to take over Tookie’s body, and that’s when I realized I shouldn’t be reading this book before bed.
As is typical of Erdrich’s work, this book is about a lot of things, which is impressive considering it’s not very long.
It’s about the often-tense relationships between Native Americans and the white people they’re forced to coexist with.
It’s about white guilt manifesting in really weird and obnoxious (and sometimes terrifying) ways.
It’s about the tense relationship between the police and communities of color, including Native American communities.
It’s about the power of books … for good and for evil.
There’s so much going on in this book, but it never felt overcrowded or unfocused. It should, but somehow Erdrich always manages to weave everything together so perfectly we never even notice what she’s doing.
I love her writing so much!