Join us to discuss Louise Erdrich’s LaRose, an emotionally haunting contemporary tale of a tragic accident, a demand for justice and a profound act of atonement with ancient roots in Native American culture. In late summer of 1999, Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots, but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he’s hit something else, a blur he saw as he squeezed the trigger. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor’s five-year-old son, Dusty Ravich. The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux’s five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing and rides into town; their children played together; and Landreaux’s wife is half sister to Dusty’s mother. Horrified at what he’s done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition—the sweat lodge—for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. “Our son will be your son now,” they tell them. The story that follows is a powerful exploration of loss, justice and the reparation of the human heart.
If you’d like to read ahead, December’s book is Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. Have a book suggestion for the Book Chat? Email Barbara Goldner.