Mighty Red

Gabi's Review

Ojibwe writer Louise Erdrich's new novel The Mighty Red is essentially a love triangle set within the comic idiosyncrasies of a North Dakota community. It subtly embeds a compelling story in the larger theme of Indigenous displacement and intergenerational trauma. Louise Erdrich's books always leave me with a sense of what modern day cultures of the individual have lost in the values of family, connection and belonging.

The Mighty Red of the title is the river and life blood of North Dakota’s Red River Valley, where climate change and industrial agriculture have ravaged the environment in and around the small town of Tabor. Having been dispossessed of their land, many of the town’s inhabitants now eke out a living toiling for others. But their generous hearts also offer them second chances: unlike many other stories about colonial dispossession, which emphasise the marginalisation and impoverishment of Indigenous populations as well as the anger and guilt, Erdrich’s writing leaves the reader with a strong sense of community cohesion, a sense of optimism and sheer grit. A wonderful and immersive read about communities whose hardships have not prevented them from having each others backs.

Publisher's Reviews 

In Argus, North Dakota, a fraught wedding is taking place.

Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe. Gary thinks Kismet is the answer to all of his problems; Kismet can't even imagine her future, let alone the kind of future Gary might offer. During a clumsy proposal, Kismet misses her chance to say 'no' and so the die is cast.

Hugo has been in love with Kismet for years. He has been her friend, confidante and occasionally her lover - and now she is marrying Gary, Hugo is determined to steal her back.

Meanwhile Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly truck drives along the highway from the farm to the factories, she tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future - both her daughter's and her own.

Starkly beautiful like the landscape it inhabits, it is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets. And as with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendour.

A new novel by Louise Erdrich is a major literary event; gorgeous and heartrending, The Mighty Red is a triumph.