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Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Donnelly Library's Plague of Doves Discussion Highlights

Donnelly Library had its second meeting of the Pulitzer Prizes Reading Group on Thursday, September 22, 2016 when we got together to discuss Louise Erdrich’s novel Plague of Doves. As with our first meeting, the discussion of the book and the author was lively. Some of the highlights from the discussion include the below.
  • Erasure of modern Native American lives and stories in most of American literature and how Erdrich’s novels include tales of contemporary Native Americans. 
  • How the landscape of the Great Plains is a character in the stories that comprise this novel. Reading group participants from this region remarked that her stories capture the landscape and its influence on area residents’ lives. 
  • Reading group participants also noted that this novel is more a cycle of stories than a traditional novel. It was interesting to learn that sections of the novel had been published separately as standalone short stories. 
  • Erdrich’s elliptical storytelling style was also a point of discussion. The characters and their relationships with each other unfold slowly throughout the different stories of the novel much like how we learn about other people in life. 
  • Religion and spirituality are important to many of the characters in the novel. These are important to many people, but are not always included in American literature. 
What did you find most interesting about the second meeting’s discussion or about the novel? Please post in the comments below.



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