LOUISE ERDRICH The Night Watchman. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey
A look back at the novel that won Louise Erdrich, most recently author of The Sentence, the Pulitzer Prize.
Towards the end of Louise Erdrich’s excellent novel The Night Watchman are the words ‘Ambe bi-izhaan omaa askiing miinawa.’ Spoken by a Chippewa woman to her daughter, these are words many readers will not know the explicit meaning of, but such is the skill of Louise Erdrich they comprise one of the most moving phrases in the novel.
Set in the early 1950s, The Night Watchman tells the story of Thomas Wazhushk, a prominent member of the Chippewa Council, and his efforts to stop the US government’s proposed bill to abrogate nation-to-nation treaties, which would force Native Americans off the land given to them. In a brief introduction Louise Erdrich tells us Thomas Wazhushk is based on her grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, who fought against the termination of the treaties – the termination, in effect, of the tribes. If this sounds a little dry, then it is possible you have not read Louise Erdrich before.
The Night Watchman has many characters, not least Thomas himself, although the character who really stands out is Pixie Paranteau, or Patrice, as she prefers to be known. Patrice works in the Turtle Mountain Jewel Bearing Plant, but it is clear Patrice, if given the chance, is capable of better things. She lives with her father, a violent drunk, her mother, and Pokey, her brother, and as well as supporting her family it also becomes Patrice’s job to find her sister Vera, who has gone missing in the ‘Cities’. Intelligent and strong, Patrice works out her frustrations by chopping stove-size wood, so when she goes to the ‘Cities’ to find Vera, it is hard to imagine much can happen that she can’t handle.
Erdrich cleverly pre-empts Patrice’s obvious future, a future that Patrice’s friends – the gaily named Valentine Blue, Doris Lauder and Betty Pye – actively search for. Patrice clearly sees what is coming and manages to navigate her way around it. That at the same time, and with great skill, Erdrich is also able to create a love story, is only one of many surprising developments in the novel.
There are over a hundred characters in The Night Watchman, and even the most conscientious reader may have to go back to reacquaint themselves with the more peripheral of them. But when they arrive on the page, whether for the first time or the fifth (and some only make a few appearances), Erdrich gives them a fine introduction, expertly creating characters with a few deft strokes, sharp enough to make them memorable. As are their names, which work beautifully to create quick but lasting impressions: Eddie Mink, once brilliant but now often spending his nights singing in fits of drunken joy; Buckie Duvall; Juggie Blue; Moses Montrose; Wood Mountain; and Millie Cloud, who had to ‘counter everything … [by wearing] outfits of strict black and white lines’.
Erdrich writes with wit, and she movingly conveys tragedy, mostly with the lightest of touches, and sometimes with humour. Surprisingly, active amongst the Chippewa people are two Mormons, Elnath and Vernon, whose prejudices and aspirations are always working against them. Thomas, wanting to learn more about Mormons – a nice twist, as the Mormons are not interested in learning anything about the Chippewa – reads a description of Native Americans from The Book of Mormon to his wife Rose:
‘Their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they become wild and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry … and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins.’
‘What do you think, Rosey?’ said Thomas. ‘It’s us.’
He read the description again.
‘No,’ said Rose, ‘that’s more like Eddy Mink.’
Near the end of the book Patrice accompanies Thomas Wazhushk, Juggie Blue and Millie Cloud to Washington where, in the House of Representatives, she witnesses Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebron firing bullets into the ceiling, while her fellow Puerto Ricans shoot, but do not kill, five congressmen. That Erdrich brings this shocking but true event into her story gives some idea of its scope. That she does so without missing a beat, tells you why this was the book that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2021.
Louise Erdrich The Night Watchman Little Brown 2020 PB 464pp $22.99
Catherine Pardey has reviewed for Rochford Street Review and The Beast.
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