Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of My Ancestors

Description

For more than twenty years Louise Erdrich has dazzled readers with the intricately wrought| deeply poetic novels which have won her a place among today’s finest writers.
Her nonfiction is equally eloquent| and this lovely memoir offers a vivid glimpse of the landscape| the people| and the long tradition of storytelling that give her work its magical| elemental force.
In a small boat like those her Native American ancestors have used for countless generations| she travels to Ojibwe home ground| the islands of Lake of the Woods in southern Ontario.
Her only companions are her new baby and the baby’s father| an Ojibwe spiritual leader| on a pilgrimage to the sacred rock paintings their people have venerated for centuries as mystical “teaching and dream guides|” and where even today Ojibwe leave offerings of tobacco in token of their power.
With these paintings as backdrop| Erdrich summons to life the Ojibwe’s spirits and songs| their language and sorrows| and the tales that are in their blood| echoing through her own family’s very contemporary American lives and shaping her vision of the wider world.
Thoughtful| moving| and wonderfully well observed| her meditation evokes ancient wisdom| modern ways| and the universal human concerns we all share.
“This book is a treasure and a delight.”–“Minneapolis Star Tribune”