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Erdrich gives such a wonderful sense of character and place. Within the first 20 pages I really knew and understood at least 5 of the main characters and their motivations.

This is a novel about a 13-year-old boy growing up in an Indian reservation in North Dakota. There is a lot of detail about his tribal culture. Their religious gathering, their folklore, their traditional dress, their food. Also a lot of detail about the footprints the Western culture left on their reservation. The Catholic church activities, the messiness surrounding how some lands belong to the tribe and some land belong to state government, the government construction that never gets done. And then the details surrounding social injustice, namely, when the boy protagonists's mother was raped by a white man, on a location she was unable to identify, the rapist could not be prosecuted because different laws apply to tribal land versus non-tribal land, tribal members versus non-tribal (a.k.a. white) members. Because they didn't know on what type of land the crime took place, they didn't know which law to use to prosecute the rapist, so the rapist ran free.

So this is a story about the boy and his family facing huge injustice living in an Indian reservation, and the measures taken by the boy (and his father, but the book focused on the boy) to deal with the injustice. When the plot focused on investigation and revenge, the book could read like a thriller novel. But the majority of the book is slow-paced, because the author wove into many details and reservation life, as well as plight of several of the boy's family and friends who live on the reservation.

Louise Erdrich's books always start slowly for me. I find it hard to get into them, put them down and start something else. But then if I persevere a point comes where I can't stop reading until the book is finished. The Round House is a coming of age story narrated in the voice of a 13 year old boy whose mother was brutally assaulted. The setting is an indian reservation in North Dakota. The boy, Joe is the son of a judge in the tribal court. There is a mystery involved in The Round House, who assaulted Joe'During the course of the book we learn that the tribal courts on reservations are very limited when a non-native commits a crime on reservation land. This story took place in 1988, some of the limits to tribal jurisdictions have been corrected since then. We also learned that native american women are much more vulnerable to rape and assault and most such crimes do not result in an arrest or conviction. Many of the victims of rape on reservations are assaulted by non-native men. Joe struggles with identity, faith and responsibility and begins to grow into an adult man.

I often don't agree with the juries of various book awards, but this time the National Book Award people chose the right book. The Round House is just the right mix of suspense, psychological dilemmas, love and betrayal, social commentary, tribal and personal mythology and humor. I couldn't put it down, it was so rich in all aspects of life.

It is this abundance of all the different layers of life that I admire in Louise Erdrich's writing. I felt the story deeply. Joe was very realistically drawn with all the beliefs and baggage he already had before his mother was attacked and raped.

In some reviews I saw complaints about the digressions into mythology and the mention of ghosts. The book is set on an Indian reservation, how else can an author the culture and a people's concerns across?! In my eyes it was necessary to explain how the minds of Joe and the people around him worked. Erdrich showed the whole complexity of life.

I also hope that this novel will help to get the various governments to agree on a way to prosecute crimes by non Indians on tribal land, and to eliminate holes in the law.

First, a rant: Dear "literary" author: No one is impressed with your decision to eschew the use of quotation marks for dialogue. In fact, it is rather pretentious. JUST USE THE FRIGGIN' QUOTATION MARKS like everyone else!

Okay, rant over. As you may have guessed, The Round House, a coming of age tale set on a reservation with a young Native American boy of 13 as the narrator, does not use quotation marks. Why not? I have no idea. As far as I can tell, Cormac McCarthy stopped doing it and now lots of quote-unquote literary authors are jumping on the bandwagon. It doesn't really seem to serve any stylistic purpose other than to ostentatiously announce that This Is a Literary Work.

Okay, rant really over now. The Round House was okay. The National Book award is a stretch, I felt. The book plodded along at times, and got bogged down in asides dealing with Native folklore and lectures about Native vs. United States and state laws and such. I had no trouble putting it aside. Yet it was modestly interesting and modestly poignant and modestly humorous at times. It brought up some fairly thought provoking moral issues, including the whole dynamic of using the white man's justice system to solve a crime against an Indian vs. a Native American sort of idea of obtaining justice. It had a vivid sense of place & was pretty well written aside from the lack of quotation marks for dialogue.

Book club book. Interesting and good to read. Indian reservation and laws, etc. Not too exciting but learned a little and good story.

A 13-year old's mother is brutally raped while trying to protect a young mother and her baby. Meanwhile, her husband is the chief Ojibwe judge in the region and is of little help due to the horrific way in which whites and native Americans co-exist. I found the book to be too meandering and disjointed, with awkward and unexplained relationships. Erdrich's writing style of not using quotation marks for dialogue made it difficult to distinguish narration versus conversation.

On a read through of the description, I have to admit, this isn't one that I might have picked up. (It was a book club read.)
I was surprised to find myself quickly drawn into the story.
Joe is a Native American teenager living on reservation, and one day discovers his mother missing, in the fact that she wasn't there to prepare dinner as she normally is. He and his father go looking for her, and discover that she has been brutally attacked, raped, and stabbed. The mystery of who did it is complicated by the where - and the conflicting authorities (Local police vs reservation police). His mother retreats into herself and Joe takes it upon himself to try to solve the mystery.

It was a gripping read.

3.5 stars rounded to 4

This author should be commended for tackling very meaningful issues of covetousness, depravity, retribution, consequences, and what-ifs; for doing so in a context too many turn a blind eye to (culpability); and for doing so with a balance of seriousness and humor. If one has reached the point in life of questioning the dark stain in the human soul, rather than simply being entertained by such, the storyline can be an engaging and thought provoking experience.

I especially liked how well the author depicted the adolescent characters and how fleshed out the story was, but . . .

To me, I found segments of the story little more than filler, and the realism of the story tainted by a few contrived instances, each of which pulled me out of the story. For the most part though, the story was well written.

An interesting mix of Ojibwe traditions, history, crimes committed against them on multiple levels, and all of this through the lens of the memories of a tribal lawyer when he was 13 -- quite interesting although I had some issues with the ending. (I have the feeling I am supposed to have issues with the ending)

I had read one Erdrich short story and always meant to try out more of her fiction. This one's a winner. The voice is perfect, the story compelling, the glimpses it gives of life on the reservation (and the mythologies of generations before) rewarding. The book makes a strong (but not preachy, overbearing) case for reform of reservation law enforcement and jurisdiction, a topic I knew nothing about before picking up this book and feel suddenly a little bit invested in -- a testament to how well Erdrich has woven together a good story and a plea for social conscience.

So I will say going into this that it took me like 2 months to finish this book because I got behind on other reading, so on top of it being a kind of magical realism-style that I already find confusing (but not a turn off!) I was confused. This is a book I would have loved to read in a class, as I just don't feel smart enough to approach everything that's going on in it--the conversations around blood quantum are like on a level I can't even approach, and the NAGPRA conversation. There's SO MUCH packed into this little book, and I really feel like I barely scratched the surface in my reading, but I'd need a reading buddy to get more out of it.

4.5 stars. This is a beautiful book about an ugly event. Erdrich is such a fine writer that the reader feels every emotion right along with the character(s) in this book. She has woven a story about tragedy, friendship, reservation life, justice, non-justice, and ultimately family into a novel that simply transports one to a different time and place. She is truly a master of prose unlike any other author writing today.

Coming-of-age story as marked by welcome-to-the-real-world-it-sucks experiences of 13 yr old boy and wise and noble parents (lawyer/judge), racial tensions, interracial rape, law vs justice, childhood vs adulthood.

Comparisons with [b:To Kill a Mockingbird|2657|To Kill a Mockingbird|Harper Lee|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1361975680s/2657.jpg|3275794] are inevitable. Also brings to mind the miserable hardscrabble worlds of [a:David Adams Richards|87458|David Adams Richards|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66-e07624dc012f2cce49c7d9aa6500c6c0.jpg] books of the Miramichi in New Brunswick.

Coming of age story, in which the thirteen year old boy's life is forever changed when his Native American mother is raped. The intricacies of federal Native American law and its bindings are believably interwoven into the facts of this fast paced story. Also has fun backstory about the old gang and myths through the grandfather, true to Louise Erdrich writings.

An interesting read with real insights into the lives of native Americans in modern USA but the basic mystery story lacks enough suspense and there are far too many similar scenes of teenage boys meeting up, drinking and chatting.

Love Louise Erdrich and she did it again. Handling complex issue while exploring sensibilities of Native Americans living on the Reservation in the confusing world of the newest century, wile remembering devastation of the past two.

Read this one for my neighborhood book group, and it was easy to see why this won the National Book Award for Fiction for 2013. Round House has been compared to Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird and there are many similarities.

The characters are well developed our only complaint was a few loose ends but then it could be up to the reader as to the path taken. It was a true coming of age story and vigilante justice that is not left unanswered. The book also brought to light a very serious problem with violence against women on reservation land with a very high percentage perpetuated by non native men. Things have improved since the 1980's with reporting and clinics and centers on reservation land to help those in need. Tribal laws need to be updated to allow for sentencing to match sentencing in the regular court system. Currently it is just a slap on the wrist. The Amnesty International Report mentioned in the back of the book is well worth reading and very eye opening.

Louise Erdrich's The Round House should be on everyones reading list.

The Round House by Louise Erdrich is set on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota in 1988. Joe Coutts is a 13 year-old boy whose mother Geraldine is brutally beaten and raped in the reservation's Round House, a place of worship for the Ojibwe. His father, Bazil is a tribal judge. The crime and physical and emotional ramifications of the attack are devastating enough, but finding the guilty party and bringing him to justice is a different matter. Because Geraldine is unclear on exactly what part of the land surrounding the Round House the crime occurred, Bazil ensures that the tribal police, state sheriff and FBI are all called in to interview Geraldine and, hopefully, collect evidence. The overwhelming problem is that there is tribal, state, and federal land all intersecting at this location and where the crime occurred determines the jurisdiction involved. Adding to this quagmire, the attack could have stemmed from a court case Bazil heard or be related to Geraldine's job managing tribal enrollment. As Joe watches his mother sink further into depression and his father struggle with trying to determine who could be a suspect, he decides, along with his friends, to take the law into his own hands and look for clues as to who committed the crime.

In The Round House, Erdrich combines a coming of age story with a crime novel full of suspense. At the beginning we meet Joe before the attack and follow along as his childhood abruptly ends and he is mercilessly forced into adulthood as he and his father deal with the knowledge that the attacking was planning to kill Geraldine and doubt that the attacker will face justice because of the murky question of jurisdiction, the "Maze of Injustice," that still exists. Joe struggles with both is helplessness and anger over this impossible situation.

Joe and his friends are typical young teen boys, so there are occasions of sneaking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, and they also watch and relate to TV shows of the era. Eldrich includes a wide variety of relatives and people in her cast of characters and gives each of them an individual voice and personality. Her characters have a universal presence but also reflect specific people. It is this very ability to present a universal story but imbibe it with specific characters and circumstances that enables The Round House to create such an emotional, visceral impact on the reader.

Although I may not live on a reservation or be faced with some of the harsh realities the Coutts face, I can empathize with them because of the universality of the themes. In the Afterword, Erdrich tells us that "1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime (and that figure is certainly higher as Native women often do not report rape); 86 percent of rapes and sexual assaults upon Native women are perpetrated by non-Native men; few are prosecuted." This statistic is unacceptable (as all assaults upon women are unacceptable and inexcusable).

Erdrich, an accomplished and gifted writer, first introduced the North Dakota Ojibwe community in her The Plague of Doves published in 2008, and there will be a third part of this planned trilogy released in the future. The Round House is the winner of the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction. The Round House is not an easy book to read emotionally. It also contains some adult discussions and several stories of ghosts and cultural stories/myths.
Very Highly Recommended

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins and TLC for review purposes.

I felt like the plot line was diluted by the many tangential characters and dream sequences. It moved too slowly for me.

This was excellent. Literally, my only complaint was that the ending was a little abrubt. But, I really love and identified with the characters who were well developed and multi-faceted. I appreciated that the author didn't try to trick you with a sudden plot twist, but kept the story enticing by revealing details as the characters found them out. The prose was a little flat at times, but she did an excellent job of creating a sense of place and time and culture. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Great book! Pulled me right in and never let me go! A deep tale about Native American life on a reservation in 1988, revolving around a rape case. The writing is rich, vibrant, and full of life! And I really enjoyed all of the Star Trek TNG references! Definitely worth the read!

All in all it was a good story, but I agree with another reviewer who thought other strands woven into the story interferred with the flow and created a distraction so much so that I skimmed pages in order to get on with the story.

All in all it was a good story, but I agree with another reviewer who thought other strands woven into the story interferred with the flow and created a distraction so much so that I skimmed pages in order to get on with the story.

I liked the story a lot. It was a coming of age tale as well as a look at crime and justice and a great description of life on a reservation. My interest waned, however, during the lengthy re-telling of Native American myths.