future home of the living god by louise erdrich

The subject matter isn’t surprising for Erdrich, who has said that she couldn’t have been a writer “without birth control.” She has now published 16 novels, plus poetry, children’s books, short stories and a memoir. Whereas, and that’s still not your choice, you’re still rolling the dice.”

You’ve basically thrown the dice, landed on some formation of genetic circumstance and that’s the child you’re having. I don’t know why this hasn’t been explored more deeply, but every time you make a choice to have a child, you give up all of these other options that are potential children in your life. Period.Įrdrich agrees that this novel is about “the other side of choice. It’s about seizing control of young women. When she has an ultrasound, the technician says, “We’ve got one.”Īnti-choice is about controlling women’s bodies period. When Cedar discovers she’s pregnant, she knows that she has to be careful. Something dire has happened in the world, and it’s affecting all kinds of things, from the food supply to migration patterns to the very nature of human life. This dystopian novel set in the near-future revolves around Cedar Hawk Songmaker, a young woman who is half-Ojibwe by birth but who has been raised by an Anglo couple named Glen and Sera Songmaker. “I start off on tangents.” But she’s articulate, warm and candid as she speaks about her latest book, “Future Home of the Living God” (Harper, $28.99), a complete departure from her previous work. “This is the problem with phone interviews,” she says, a few minutes into an answer. “It might be affecting the lines.”Įrdrich, the acclaimed novelist whose 2016 “LaRose” won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, likes to maintain clear communication - which is why she prefers to conduct interviews via email. “We’ve got a snowstorm outside,” she says by telephone, because the connection is poor.

It’s already snowing in Minnesota, where Louise Erdrich lives, by mid-October.

Future home of the living god by louise erdrich