In our last meeting of the 2016-2017 season, our Second Saturday Book Group will discuss Louise Erdrich’s novel LaRose on Saturday, April 8, 10-12+ in the Sanctuary. The plot of this novel wraps around the lives and families of two five-year-old boys, best friends who live near the boundaries of a Native American Ojibwa reservation in North Dakota.
This year, honoring the centennial of the Pulitzer Prizes, we added to the Pulitzer fiction winners we have read in recent years by reading Marjorie Rawlings's The Yearling - 1939; James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific - 1948; and Viet Nguyen's The Sympathizer - 2016; along with 1991 finalist, Tim O’Brien's The Things They Carried. The Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction are given for Distinguished fiction published in book form during the year by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.
At our meeting we'll reflect on this criteria and these Pulitzer winners we’ve read, and consider how LaRose -- published to high reviews in May 2016 -- compares with these. It already has been awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction and is a finalist for the 2017 PEN Faulkner Award. All of the 2017 Pulitzer winners and the finalists will be announced on Monday, April 10— just two days after we meet. Let’s see how we’d rate LaRose next week. Author Louise Erdrich is a notable Native American author, whose Plague of Doves was a Pulitzer finalist in 2009. You’re welcome to join us!
Selections for the 2017-2018 season will be announced in late summer. Contact Dorie Maxwell for further information at doriemaxwell@mac.com or call 561-302-4204.
