Wednesday, July 9, 2025

THE MIGHTY RED by Louise Erdrich

Kismet Poe is graduating from high school and has two boyfriends.  One of them, Gary, is a popular athlete with a tendency toward recklessness, but he presents Kismet with an engagement ring, and she is too shocked to say no.  Her other boyfriend, Hugo, is planning to find a job in the oil fields so that he can earn enough money to win Kismet’s affection, whether she is married to Gary or not.  As for Kismet, she seems smart and industrious but allows Gary to coax her into a marriage she doesn’t really want.  Why she cannot extricate herself from this plan is somewhat of a mystery.  Her mother, Crystal, is devastated that Kismet is abandoning her college plans to marry Gary, while Gary’s mother is ecstatically planning a lavish wedding.  After Kismet reluctantly and hilariously says her wedding vows, she becomes something of a Cinderella figure, but Gary is no prince.  We, and Kismet, finally become privy to the details of an event that puts Gary in an even worse light, if that is even possible.  Since this book takes place in an agricultural community, Erdrich manages to weave in her concerns about the ecological impact of sugar beet farming, but she also sprinkles in more humor than I recall from her other novels.  In fact, this is my favorite book of hers since The Master Butchers Singing Club.  Crystal and Kismet are the delightful anchors here, and the storyline makes for an entertaining read.  Even Gary, with all his flaws, is more pathetic than despicable.

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