Louise Erdich’s National Book Award Winner, The Round House, has been compared to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. While the themes are similar, I disagree that the characters of Erdich’s latest could even remotely be compared as memorable, human, or even likeable—to the ones in late 1950’s Alabama.
What Erdich does well, is explore the cross-cultural ties between native American Indians and white people - each inhabiting separate worlds, rules and codes of conduct. The only one in the cast of characters in this story that is remotely likeable is Joe, constantly searching for retaliation for his mother’s attack. Other than this, the plot line seems repetitive, wandering and confused.
Why is it that I find most National Book Award Winners to be an incredible slog? I would love to debate this with the panel of judges.
