Night Train

By Lise Erdrich

The most exciting addition to American Indian fiction since Sherman Alexie hit the scene.

What does it mean to be a "fully-processed" Indian in America today? In Night Train, Lise Erdrich offers a sharp-humored and powerful primer. Set in the small towns and reservations of northwestern Minnesota and western North Dakota, her literary snapshots capture lives playing out against backdrops of emergency rooms, supermarket aisles, backwoods parties, family breakfast tables, booze-soaked taverns, and sterile but emotionally fraught offices. As the pressures of daily life collide with the insidiousness of history, these stories reveal the personal struggles and small triumphs of people facing the absurdities of bureaucracy, cycles of poverty and addiction, and out-sized notions of Indian legends and culture.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566892023
• ISBN13: 9781566892025
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Coffee House Press
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

An Edgy and Wonderful Collection of Short Stories

In this debut book by a new author, Lise Erdrich challenges borders: the cultural chasm between the white dominant culture and the indigenous Ojibwe population; the (wise)crack between history and myth; the river between North Dakota and Minnesota; the thin line between love and hate in abusive relationships; the hazy territory between addiction and mental health. Whether her characters are cooking dirty rice or attending frat parties, they question and challenge the reader's assumptions. Sometimes raw and colloquial, Erdrich's language and carefully selected details create vivid pictures: while grocery shopping with her new love, the narrator in "XXXL" observes "We happened to be at the giant-size stuff in Aisle One, that didn't faze him. In went gallon cans of corn niblets, kidney and pinto and Great Northern beans, stewed tomatoes, small potatoes, solid pack pumpkin and spiced apple rings." These short short stories, arranged in alphabetical order by title, capture the irony of lives in the edge with humor, insight, and feisty spice.

Hysterical

I laughed until I thought the neighbors would be concerned! Hysterical stories; she nails it with her wry wit and dry humor.