The Sentence
Louise Erdrich · 2021
A Native American bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted by the ghost of its most difficult customer, set against the real events of 2020: George Floyd's murder outside the window, pandemic lockdowns, the uprising. Erdrich makes the immediate historical into literature with characteristic grace.
The case against
A ghost story set in a thinly disguised version of Erdrich's own bookstore (Erdrich herself wanders through it) makes a warm setup, then 2020 crashes in: the pandemic, Floyd's murder, the protests, logged almost in real time. The current-events half reads more like a diary than a novel, and the reading lists tacked on at the back are a tell about how much of the book is recommendation.
Best of Last 10 Years · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
