This book is about two things: desperation and love, with all the untidiness and unpredictability that come along with those two strong emotional forces. This is set during the Great Recession (2008), We witness a community trying to survive in all the right and extra-wrong ways. The characters are desperate and there are several side stories that are enjoyable and all come together at the end..

Loved this offbeat story and would recommend.

I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher to review.

T.

Louise Erdrich is an author that captivates you on page one. Although her latest book is not my favorite, her writing never ceases to amaze me. She is so skillful and weaves a story of so many emotions. I couldn't help but become engrossed in the plot and lives of these latest characters.

I have loved Ms Erdrich’s writing for so many years. My favorite was The Master Butcher’s Singing Club. But this book? It may be my new favorite.
Partly because I am a midwestern farmer and I can certainly relate to the issues of chemicals that have been used in the last 40+ years. Also I can relate to the issues of the financial crisis in the early 2000’s.

But the best part is the great characters, the great plot and especially how she told this story. A most wonderful book!

Courtesy of Harper Collins and Netgalley, I received the ARC of The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich. This coming of age novel, set in a small rural North Dakota community of sugar beet farmers, has several key themes, including the strength, growth, and resilience of the women, as well as their spirituality. Underlying most of the book is a secret, a past tragedy that occurred with the teen boys, and their response to dealing with this. The portrayal of the impact of using herbicides and pesticides in farming is spot on, and the revelation of reverting and returning the land to it's former natural state is enlightening. The economic downturn of 2008-2009 also plays a significant role in this story, as the characters respond to this situation. Truly a saga worth reading!

3.5*
Beautiful writing tells the tale of young teens in North Dakota. Kismet is a quirky beauty who’s smart, but with few options for her future past high school. She cares for Hugo, a nerdy brilliant son of a bookseller, but she’s moved by the imploring need of Gary, the rich, entitled former football player. He seems to live a charmed life, but is haunted by a tragedy in which he was involved.

Gary begs Kismet to marry him and she reluctantly agrees. Her mother works for Gary’s family trucking sugar beets. Life in the farming community is hard and Kismet seems driven by her need to please her new husband, though she knows her marriage is a mistake. In the meantime, Hugo has gone off to make his fortune working in the fracking mines.

What works best are the strong characters and the skillful prose. There’s depth to Kismet and her mother, Gary and his mother, and Hugo. They are all somewhat odd and sensitive in their own way. The book is set in 2008 during a depression when times are trying. Each character is struggling with the economics of their personal lives and makes decisions based upon their emotional needs.

Erdrich brings in serious issues such as the future of farming and the abuse of the soil, the reality of fracking and also climate change. There is a lot going on and the mystery of an accident that haunts many of the characters, adds to the suspense.

Despite the strength of characterization, the overall plot was not as cohesive and satisfying as some of Erdrich’s other books. Hugo’s story seemed the most difficult to decipher and the fracking segment is especially murky. Each of the threads could have been more fully developed and the social issues could have played a more prominent role. Still, the characters carry the novel and make this one worth reading.

Yet another amazing book from Louise Erdrich. I WILL READ ANYTHING she writes! What a unique gift she has to slip humor in with the tragedy of life!

Louise Erdrich can do no wrong for me. I think she is a brilliant and complicated writer and I love that her books always teach me something. I didn’t love this much as the last novel but I am still pressing it into the hands of so many customers!

I think your enjoyment of an Erdrich novel will depend on how closely you align to her environmental views, because the land and her stewardship ethics are a big part of each novel. The Mighty Red is no exception as Erdrich pulls pack the curtains on the environmental and financial pressures on agriculture and the communities so closely tied to the land.

The cover hints at what the story is about. The Red River flows north, or on this cover, to the top. The river on the cover branches, indicating that the characters caught in the river of life will be making choices, and then going where those choices take them. For example, the farmers who grow sugar beets the conventional way, take the main branch of the river and pull quickly down a path of more and more inputs while heading towards rapids. But Erdrich shows us another branch of that river, that of sustainable agriculture practiced by a neighboring farm, where the pace is slower and quieter. All the characters in the story face similar choices and its these individual conflicts that propels the narrative forward.

I really liked The Mighty Red. For literary fiction, the writing is very accessible. There are a lot of characters and the chapters are short, so I did find myself going back to remember which perspective I was reading from. The story itself deals with a lot of complex issues -- poverty in rural American during the 2008 recession, trauma, environmental concerns. Erdrich handled them well. I especially enjoyed thinking about the choices we make.

The Mighty Red is the first book I've read by Louise Erdrich and while it's well written, it unfortunately didn't resonate with me and was a struggle to finish.

Few chapters in, “this is an interesting book” came out of my mouth. I adore the chapter titles, the ease of chapter length, the telling of this story from the different points of view. I may be late to the review party on this one - but if this can give it an even greater boost, my job is done! Read this, seriously, go obtain this book in whatever fashion. You’ll appreciate the small town characters, the love triangle, the drama, the descriptive details of the houses and the town, the edge you sit on waiting to find out what all of this is pointing towards. Giving you more, little by little, but you realize you still aren’t sure where this is going. This is one of those books that will tempt you to keep reading past your bedtime or a bit over your lunch break time (not speaking from experience at all)! Very very very good!

Louise Erdrich never offers up anything less than perfectly sparkling prose, descriptive and real, jumping right off the page. The Mighty Red is no exception to that.

Small in scope, like many of Erdrich's novels, The Mighty Red is the story of Kismet and Gary, who marry despite both having a secret. Gary is plagued by a traumatic event that we only get vague allusions to until the very end of the story. Kismet loves Hugo, and he loves her back. Delving into the complexity of life and our place in it, The Mighty Red is a quiet story with big implications and left me thinking of it long after I finished the last page.

Louise Erdrich weaves a complicated beautiful tale about a few families in North Dakota and a doomed wedding. Love, loss, ghosts and the sacredness of the land permeate this story.

This book is family drama to the max. At 18, Kismet marries Gary, the town’s rich kid, even though she’s truly in love with Hugo, the bookish guy who loves her back. Gary is haunted by a tragic accident, the full story of which isn’t revealed until the very end. The book is well-written, with complex and intriguing characters. But for some reason, I found it hard to feel invested in any of them.

I have a lot of respect for Erdrich, and I know this book received great reviews—but it just didn’t resonate with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Gary and Kismet get married in a small North Dakota town. Gary is trying to hide from a tragedy and Kismet enjoys being needed. They are fresh out of high school. Gary’s family owns the local sugar beet farm whose farming practices are killing the soil. Kismet’s mother works there. Her dad has stolen church money. And then there is Hugo , who loves Kismet passionately….and she loves him.
I could not put this book down. Family drama to the max. Brilliant writing. Thanks Netgalley for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

Well written, but I just could not get into it. I persevered but it was more work than reading a book should be.

An honest and insightful look at the ups and downs of marriage and how all love stories, no matter how romantic and storybook they may seem at first, tend to flatten out under the weight of real life.

How I love her writing! her books are always good and give me something to ponder. Well written and plotted with well developed characters. Great read.

Louise Erdrich is an incredibly gifted writer. As usual, this book shows her talent to the world! The Red River is only one of the characters in this story, along a variety of quirky, fascinating people in North Dakota...There is "humor, disturbance, and hallucinatory mourning." Huh?? The people are complex, sometimes maddening, both flawed and decent, and overall the story is riveting. Riveting!!! Recommended for both Erdrich fans and those new to her masterful storytelling. Five stars.

I finished this book a couple of days ago and can’t stop thinking about it. These characters are flawed, gorgeous, and authentic—living their messy, complicated, everyday lives. I found myself both cheering them on and groaning at their choices. The Red River itself is a character within the book, meandering and moving in ebbs and flows, just like the people in the story. Erdrich’s language is poetic—she makes sugar beet farming sound beautiful, while simultaneously sharing its ugliness. This book is meant for savoring.