Maurizio Bondesan Bondesan من عند Chak Nagpal, باكستان من عند Chak Nagpal, باكستان

I liked this much better than Love Medicine - so think of this as a 3.5 star review! The Beet Queen is located in something like the same physical space as Love Medicine, but instead of standing on the rez looking out, we're standing in the nearby town, occasionally looking in. There are a handful of overlapping characters, but what makes this book so fresh and alive is that the perspective of the book is so very different from the last. We get a sense of the hostility between town and reservation, between white and Indian - not in large acts of hate, but in small snubs and quite conversations. What it means to be Indian in a world that pays Indians so little heed is marvelously explored. I think what I loved most about this book is that it makes the case that broken families and addictions and errant children are universal experiences, not the prerogative of any single race. Again, the point's made quietly, over several hundred pages, but the end is inescapable. It's beautifully done. I wish that some of the loose ends had been tied - one in particular; a character who returns to the border town but whose actions there don't really get written. But still, it was a pleasure to spend time inside this book, even if some of the characters are so wrung out with meanness I would like to cheerfully punch them in the head.