Product Description

Set in North Dakota at a time in this century when Indian tribes were struggling to keep what little remained of their lands, Tracks is a tale of passion and deep unrest. Over the course of ten crucial years, as tribal land and trust between people erode ceaselessly, men and women are pushed to the brink of their endurance--yet their pride and humor prohibit surrender. The reader will experience shock and pleasure in encountering a group of characters that are compelling and rich in their vigor, clarity, and indomitable vitality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16104 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03
• Released on: 1989-08-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060972455
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
This "beautifully fashioned, powerful novel," set in North Dakota in the early 1900s, limns Fleur Pillager, a Native American woman who is rumored to be a witch, and whose life mirrors that of crumbling Indian culture and community. "This is a stunning story about people caught in the grip of passion and in the inexorable flow of history," lauded PW. $100,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In her splendid new work, Erdrich retrieves characters from her first novel, Love Medicine , to depict the escalating conflict between two Chippewa families, a conflict begun when hapless Eli Kashpawwho has passionately pursued the fiery, elemental Fleur Pillageris made to betray her with young Sophie Morrissey through the magic of the vengeful Pauline. That simple summary belies the richness and complexity of the tale, told in turn to Fleur's estranged daughter by her "grandfather," the wily Nanapush, and by Pauline, a woman of mixed blood and mixed beliefs soon to become the obsessive Sister Leopolda. As the community is eroded from withoutby white man's venalityand from within, even Fleur must realize that "power goes under and gutters out." Not so for Erdrich, whose prose is as sharp, glittering, and to the point as cut glass. Highly recommended. Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Fleur Pillager [is] one of the most haunting presences in contemporary American literatureTracks may be the story of our time." -- -- Los Angeles Times

The time is the early twentieth century. Epidemics, harsh winters, and the greed of white men are rapidly destroying the land and its Native American people. Tracks is the story of the Chippewa Indians and in particular one woman, Fleur, told through two voices of two opposing Native American viewpoints. Nanapush, respected male elder, relays to Fleur's rebellious daughter the history of her people and the power of her mother. But to awkward and rejected Pauline, who latches on to Catholic doctrine and twists her life into one of mortification and revenge, Fleur is an evil woman who couples with the water spirit in the lake. Aware of each other but always speaking to others, Nanapush and Pauline's alternating voices rise and clash like the two ways of life they represent. Whose representation is correct? Where does knowledge of the earth and its mysteries end and magic begin? And what is the fate of the Native American people in the midst of these different ways of knowing? This is a lyrical and passionate novel about belief, and about love for nature and individuals. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister

Customer Reviews

TRACKS is a page-turner. Hard to put down!
After reading several different Native American authors, I finally had the privilege of reading Louise Erdrich. TRACKS captured my imagination as I listened to Nanapush and Pauline tell their stories. Erdrich brilliantly has the two narrators cast doubt upon each other's tales- a tactic which makes the book all the more enthralling to read. Pauline's zealous quest for sainthood, filled with sacrifices that border on ridiculousness, contrasts with Fleur's relationship to nature, embodied in the forest and the lake creature, Misshepeshu. Erdrich's characters endear themselves to the readers with their first-person revelations, their bawdy senses of humor, and their uncanny strength. The sexual banter between Margaret and Nanapush brings the characters to thriving, realistic life. TRACKS presents these characters against the backdrop of a dwindling forest, which government agents consume piece by piece, selling to American logging companies. As Fleur and Nanapush's homeland disappears, their struggle to control their own future becomes present and touching. Each of the characters reaches out in a different way to attempt to determine their future in some way. TRACKS deserves several reads, and Louise Erdrichs deserves high praise for an incredible and entertaining work.

A fascinating Look at a Culture in Crisis
"Tracks" of Fleur and through her the end of a way of life for a Native American tribe in the early 20th century. Her story and the tribes story is told through the eyes of two people, Nanapush an elder who is sympathetic to Fleur and the Native American lifestyle and through Pauline a woman twisted with a sort of love/hate obsession with Fleur and a repulsion of her own heritage.

Nanapush tells the story to his `granddaughter' Lilly, Fleur's child. He does this to explain her incomprehensible mother who seems to have abandoned her for no reason as well as a way to explain the politics of the tribe. He wants to save Lily from what he sees as an unsuitable marriage and reunite her with her mother and fully with her Native American heritage.

Pauline, narrates to who knows what or who or for what purpose. Her madness is captivating and is a manifestation of the sickness, literally and figuratively, that the alien (white) culture brings to the Native American people.

At the same time this is a story about women. Fleur, is an incomprehensible woman who breaks the rules of what it is to be an Indian woman and is feared and respected as a consequence of her actions. Her beauty and fierceness make her a force of nature. Pauline is a woman who is treated without worth as a woman. It is this, and her soul sickening envy, I believe, that drives her madness. Margaret, Lily's grandmother represents the traditional strong Native American woman I believe, and while her methods for survival are of the Mac tuck variety she ends up surviving and living the best of all three of the woman.

The book covers 12 years and is a lyrical look at a culture's struggle to survive.

Third Novel Keeps the Charm
In keeping with the development of Erdrich's rich, fictional Native American saga, "Tracks" takes her characters one step closer to reality. Contrary to initial impression, the novel does not limit itself by cultural lines. Erdrich's work provides an insightful and engrossing tale, which highlights the struggles of a frayed culture. However, spoilers abound and surprises go unappreciated for those who haven't read her previous works first. Erdrich makes brilliant use of alternating narrators. One speaker is a highly spiritual grandfather named Nanapush, and the other a crazed and confused Indian woman called Pauline, retelling the life of protagonist Fleur. Both offer differing slants when shedding light on Fleur's troubles, including passage through a suicidal youth and falling in love with shy Indian boy Eli. Rich imagery, and the short-and-sweet figurative way of Native American storytelling may be a bit much for some. However, the manner of speech fits the novel beautifully for those so inclined to a book of this type. Interesting, not mind-blowing, it is an honest and sufficient work in the representation and preservation of a culture.