In Argus, North Dakota, a fraught wedding is taking place.
Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe. Gary thinks Kismet is the answer to all of his problems; Kismet can’t even imagine her future, let alone the kind of future Gary might offer. During a clumsy proposal, Kismet misses her chance to say ‘no’ and so the die is cast.
Hugo has been in love with Kismet for years. He has been her friend, confidante and occasionally her lover – and now she is marrying Gary, Hugo is determined to steal her back.
Meanwhile Kismet’s mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary’s family, and on her nightly truck drives along the highway from the farm to the factories, she tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future – both her daughter’s and her own.
Starkly beautiful like the landscape it inhabits, it is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets. And as with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendour.
A new novel by Louise Erdrich is a major literary event; gorgeous and heartrending, The Mighty Red is a triumph.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Imprint: Corsair/Constable & Robin
Publication date: 08/10/2024
The Mighty Red
by Louise Erdrich
Review by Renata
At the heart of this boisterous saga set in North Dakota’s Red River Valley is a love triangle formed by three characters barely over the line into adulthood. Golden-boy jock Gary, brainy Goth-girl Kismet, and goofy romantic Hugo constitute more proof – if any was needed – that Erdrich writes some of the best young adults in contemporary fiction. She perfectly captures the tumultuous, melodramatic intensity of the age, and never reduces these brave, funny, foolish, and wise characters to stereotypes.
The trio’s story – set at the beginning of the financial crisis – is interwoven with that and other crises facing their families, community, country and the wider world: industrial farming and its relationship to environmental collapse, inequalities of wealth and culture, and the human capacity to sleepwalk towards disaster. If these themes sound like heavy weather, they are always balanced by Erdrich’s playfulness as a writer. Her humour, and her belief in her characters’ capacity for selflessness, creative rebellion, and love tip the balance towards hope.
For fans of Ann Patchett, Barbara Kingsolver, and Jonathan Franzen.
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