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Read 5 Pulitzer Titles in 5 Months!

To commemorate the centennial of the Pulitzer Prizes, six libraries from across New Mexico are partnering with the New Mexico Humanities C...

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

"The Plague of Doves" Book Discussion @ Branigan Library

A Plague of Doves, takes place in the small town of Pulto, North Dakota.  The novel begins with an unknown man standing in a room filled with the scent of blood.  He plays the violin solo on a gramophone while he repairs his jammed gun. The screaming baby in the crib is soothed by the music.  This gruesome murder in 1911, of one of Pluto's white families was unsolved.  Innocent were hung and distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation.

Spirituality is a powerful theme in the book. Doves always seem to represent peace.  The doves can also wreak havoc and destroy crops.  The Catholics frighten away the locust-like invasion of white doves in the field with Hail Mary's where Mooshum and Junesse met and later eventually marry.  The doves are a symbol that stand for something other than themselves and convey meaning.  They are ubiquitous.

Everyone's life is bound up with everyone else's.  The Native American and the White cultures interact and weave together into mystery, humor, sorrow and history that lives on in stories.  There are different traditions and backgrounds and yet we are much more alike than we realize.

Many years later, a violin takes its revenge on the infant's family's murderer.


 

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