Book Review: The Sentence

The Sentence

by Louise Erdrich

Review by Bel

A funny, devastating and delightfully bookish novel bursting with themes and plotlines – just like life! Set in a haunted bookshop during the turbulent times of 2020, it paints a complex, zany picture of America through the deeply flawed but loveable character of Tookie. Erdrich plays with the idea of ‘a sentence’ in such interesting ways. Literally – through Tookie’s incarceration – and metaphorically – through the ways in which indigenous lives have been sentenced to a white post-colonial world. I didn’t think I was ready to read about Covid yet, but I was moved by its sensitive treatment here. Also, at the back there’s a ‘Totally Biased List of Tookie’s Favorite Books’! Delicious! And perhaps from Erdrich herself?