The Painted Drum-Erdrich
I have copied and pasted this from the entry in BB&B.
The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich
I just finished reading Louise Erdrich’s latest and it did not disappoint. She did mention some of her previous characters in the novel: Fleur Pillager (I am not sure of the spelling) and decedents for one.
Faye Travers while appraising the estate of a family in a small New Hampshire town discovers a bunch of valuable Native American artifacts. She isn’t too surprised because the family is decedents of an Indian agent who worked on a ND Ojibwa reservation that is home to her mother’s family. She is surprised to find a a rare drum, made of a large moose skin stretched across a hollow of cedar. It has red tassels and other ornamentation and without touching the drum she hears a sound. From her discovery we trace the drum from ND to NH and back and the history of it told by Bernard Shawano, an Ojibwa whose grandfather fashioned the drum, and the reason for making it. He was grieving for a daughter who had been thrown off a wagon to the wolves to save the others on the wagon. I was disappointed when I read that because I have read that story before. However, the author admits that there are similar folk tales. One similar appears in Willa Cather’s My Antonia. I knew that I had read it someplace. The Chicago Tribune wrote that Erdrich writes with a warrior’s heart and a poet’s voice. I agree.
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it. I know some of you have read The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse and Love Medicine. The author lives in Minnesota with her daughter.