Love Medicine
First edition
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| Author | Louise Erdrich |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Native Americans in the United States |
| Genre | Novel or Short Story Cycle |
| Publisher |
Holt, Rinehart, and Winston HarperCollins (rev. ed.) |
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Publication date
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1984 1993 (rev. ed.) |
| Media type | Hardcover & Paperback |
| Pages | 275 pp. 367 pp. (rev. ed. paperback) |
| ISBN | (rev. ed. paperback) |
| OCLC | 10483004 |
Love Medicine is Louise Erdrich’s first novel, published in 1984. Erdrich revised and expanded the novel for an edition issued in 1993, and then revised it again for the 2009 edition. The book explores 60 years in the lives of a small group of Chippewa (also known as Ojibwa or Anishinaabe) living on an unnamed Ojibwe Reservation in North Dakota (possibly based on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation). Love Medicine won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award.
Except for the first chapter (set in 1981), the narratives follow a loose chronology. Each chapter is narrated by a different character. These narratives are conversational, as if the narrators were telling a story, often from the first-person perspective. There are, however, five chapters that are told from a limited third-person perspective. The conversational tone of the novel is representative of the storytelling tradition in Native American culture. It draws from Ojibwa myths, story-telling technique, and culture. It also incorporates the Euro-Indian experience, especially through the younger generations, some of whom have been forced by government policy to accept, if not possess, Euro-American culture.
Love Medicine begins with June Morrissey freezing to death on her way home to the reservation. Although she dies at the beginning, the figure of June holds the novel together. Similarly, a love triangle among Lulu, Marie, and Nector is a link among the narratives, even though it is not a persistent theme in the novel. There is also a homecoming (or homing) theme in the novel. The use of multiple themes adds to the storytelling effect of the work. Other themes include: tricksters (in the Native American tradition), abandonment, connection to land, searching for identity and self-knowledge, and survival.
Chapter 1 opens in 1981 with June Morrissey in Williston, North Dakota, an oil boom town, after she has left Gordie Kashpaw and her son yet again. She dies trying to walk home in a snow storm. Part two of chapter one is in the first person voice of Albertine Johnson, June's niece, who receives a letter from her mother informing her that her Aunt June is dead and buried. Her mother did not invite her to the funeral, and as a result, Albertine refuses to speak to her. Two months after receiving the letter, Albertine goes home to the reservation. Albertine tells stories about June: her mother dying, father running away, marrying her cousin, leaving Gordie and King Kashpaw, returning only to leave again. During Albertine’s visit to the main house (where all Kashpaws were welcome), the entire family gathers. This opening chapter sets the tone for the subsequent altering of perspectives and going back through history.
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