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Feb. 21st, 2012 09:51 amI really liked Louise Erdrich's The Birchbark House, so I've been meaning to try her adult novels for . . . wow, two years? Datestamps say two years, so it must be so, goodness.
That being said, I really wasn't sure how much I would like The Master Butcher's Singing Club -- People Live Through Hard Times, Experience Crushed Dreams is not usually my thing so much -- but I actually really loved the first 50 or 60% of the book!
The decoy protagonist is Fidelis Waldvogel, a German butcher-singer who starts out the book by surviving WWI and coming to a small town in America. The real protagonist is Delphine Watzka, a strong and self-sufficient lady who comes back to the selfsame small town (her hometown) while juggling:
- a gay vaudeville performer fake husband
- an alcoholic father who is surprised to discover three dead bodies sealed in his basement
- one best ladyfriend, her theater buddy from when they were kids, who has grown up into the badass town mortician
- and the other new best ladyfriend, who is Fidelis Waldvogel's also-badass wive Eva
These plotlines are all plotlines I was incredibly invested in, especially Daphne's friendship with Eva, which is basically an EPIC DESTINED TRUE LOVE. But I was also curious about the dead bodies in the basement! And intrigued by the lady mortician! And sympathetic to the gay fake husband!
But by about two-thirds of the way through the book, most of these plotlines have kind of faded away with half-satisfying resolutions and everything, including Daphne, has gotten increasingly mundane and melancholy. There is, I am sure, a deep message somewhere in there, and perhaps the fault is in me that I pretty much lost interest when that happened.
. . . but the first two-thirds were great!
That being said, I really wasn't sure how much I would like The Master Butcher's Singing Club -- People Live Through Hard Times, Experience Crushed Dreams is not usually my thing so much -- but I actually really loved the first 50 or 60% of the book!
The decoy protagonist is Fidelis Waldvogel, a German butcher-singer who starts out the book by surviving WWI and coming to a small town in America. The real protagonist is Delphine Watzka, a strong and self-sufficient lady who comes back to the selfsame small town (her hometown) while juggling:
- a gay vaudeville performer fake husband
- an alcoholic father who is surprised to discover three dead bodies sealed in his basement
- one best ladyfriend, her theater buddy from when they were kids, who has grown up into the badass town mortician
- and the other new best ladyfriend, who is Fidelis Waldvogel's also-badass wive Eva
These plotlines are all plotlines I was incredibly invested in, especially Daphne's friendship with Eva, which is basically an EPIC DESTINED TRUE LOVE. But I was also curious about the dead bodies in the basement! And intrigued by the lady mortician! And sympathetic to the gay fake husband!
But by about two-thirds of the way through the book, most of these plotlines have kind of faded away with half-satisfying resolutions and everything, including Daphne, has gotten increasingly mundane and melancholy. There is, I am sure, a deep message somewhere in there, and perhaps the fault is in me that I pretty much lost interest when that happened.
. . . but the first two-thirds were great!
