Recommended Reading... LaRose

      "Where the reservation boundary invisibly bisected a stand of deep brush--choke-cherry, popple stunted oak--Landreaux waited.  He said he was not drinking, and their was no sign later.  Landreaux was  a devout Catholic and who also followed the traditional ways, a man who would kill a deer, thank one God in English, and put down tobacco for another god in Ojibwe."  So begins Louise Erdrich's novel LaRose  it's the prelude to an event that determines the entire book, the final book of her trilogy that began with The Plague of Doves and was followed by The Roundhouse.
        Erdrich, half German American and half Native American, is a gifted story teller and is the author of fifteen novels. The Round House won the National Book Award for fiction while The Plague of Doves was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.
      All of her books are multi-layered, in fact Plague of Doves so beautifully complex I found it worth reading three times.  I read it, and,sometime later it was chosen by my book club so I read it again.  After the book club discussion I read it a third time.  Perhaps LaRose is the least complicated of the three.  Some charterers appear in all them all.  For example Father Travis, the ex-Marine, has a significant role in all three. At the very end of LaRose he is reassigned and the name of his replacement is worth the price of the book.
      LaRose is the most redemptive of the three and. while not exactly a happy ending, it is more hopeful than the first two,  Certainly there is much in it that causes me to look forward to the discussion of it at book club.   I give it five of five possible stars.

Business, South Dakota Style

    Spring is sprung and it's time to chop the corn stalks.  On  Monday I inflated the tires on the stalk chopper and on Wednesday when I hooked the tractor to the chopper one of the tires was flat.  So it was back to the garage with the tractor and out with thetruck, a jack and tire wrench.  With the flat tire in the truck bed I headed to the local co-op for tire repair,
    Entering the co-op shop I found Jim working on a trailer.  He looked over at me and asked "Tire problems Al?"  I suppose the fact that I was carrying a tire was a big clue.  He left his project, put the tire on the tire changing machine and said "The tire's very old"...remember white sidewalls? Yup, it was so old it had a white sidewall.  He pulled out the inner tube and patched it as we made small talk. Then he went into the back room and returned with a used tire, mounted the tire and tube, took me to the office and charged me $30....$20. for the tire and $10. for the repair and in 15 minutes I was on my way.
   So what's the big deal?   Nothing, really, but I found it amusing that he never asked me if I wanted a used tire, told me the cost or involved me in anyway in the decision making process.  Jim knew what was needed so no discussion and I left a happy customer, even if slightly bemused.

Further Thoughts about "Hillbilly Elegy" and also the late Marjorie Davies

     It was huge crowd that spilled far into the overflow area from the church sanctuary.  Arriving just as the funeral was about to start I was amazed to see that they parking lot was full of cars.  Marjorie (Bergh) Davies born September 15, 1920 died March 22, 2017. the fourth of eight children, lived a remarkable life which was testified by the large crowd (300?) at the funeral.  That seldom happens for one who dies at age 96.
    Marjorie spent 30 years as a missionary in Africa. Since 1969 she had lived in Hutchinson. MN.  Her older sister lived with her many of those years.  Marjorie was a "people collector" who through acts of kindness gathered about her a huge fan club who spoke eloquently at her funeral about her compassion.
   Marjorie's father, Oscar, was my mother's brother so Marjorie and I were cousins.  Oscar was full of life and energy and when he entered a room it came alive. His lively sense of humor was found in all of his children, of whom only Dorothy is left.
   There was a very large family contingent at the funeral spanning four generations. J. I., one of Marjorie's nephews teaches high school honors English.  We like to trade book titles so I asked him if he had read J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy?  Not only had he read it he had taught it at his high school.      In the book Vance asserts that his people, Scotch-Irish, who migrated from Kentucky to Ohio, have a penchant for refusing personal responsibility, i.e., nothing is their fault.  Vance argues that the political right has exploited this tendency by telling them "it's the government's fault."  As J.I. were discussing this I remarked that was a far cry from the way I was raised where it was easy to believe "everything is my fault and I am responsible for everything."  That struck a chord with J.I., who is a generatinon younger than I, but apparently grew up with the same ethic.  That ultra developed sense of responsibility must come from our Scandinavian culture.