As long as you live (novel)

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As long as you live (novel)
Original title The Plague of Doves
author Louise Erdrich
translator Chris Shepherd
place Frankfurt am Main
language German
publishing company Insel Verlag
genre novel
Published on February 23, 2009
Hardback edition 396 pages
ISBN 978-3458174264

As long as you live ( English original title: The Plague of Doves ) is a novel by the American writer Louise Erdrich , which was published in Germany in 2009. He is the winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards 2009 and finalist of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2009. It is difficult to assign a genre , but one could speak of a mixture of social , romance , adventure , episodic and detective novel .

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The story takes place in Pluto, North Dakota , a town near the Chippewa Reserve. Regardless of whether they are Indians or immigrants, they are all linked by a common story: The novel begins with a murder - as it turns out, a white settler family was found dead in their hut on the edge of an Indian reservation in 1911 - a murder was committed and its brutal retaliation However, it is no less dramatic: a mob, led by Eugene Wildstrand and Emil Buckendorf, hangs the four innocent Indians Holy Track, Cuthbert Peace, Seraph Milk (Mooshum) and Asignak, of which only Mooshum miraculously survives. Generations later, this event hangs over the small town, because those involved on both sides meet again and again in one way or another.

Almost a hundred years later: Different perspectives create a complete picture. Evelina is the first and also the main narrator of the novel. She is the granddaughter of the Indian Mooshum, who married the daughter of one of the murderers, Junesse. Evelina lives in this small town, not far from the provincial capital Fargo . She begins by telling that her great-uncle Shamengwa, one of the first Catholic priests of Indian descent, fought hard against a pigeon plague in 1876 together with the local Norwegian settlers . His younger brother Mooshum would turn 100 to tell his story. When Evelina at home enthusiastically raves about her new teacher, the nun Mary Anita (Buckendorf), whom she secretly adores, even though she is ugly and is denigrated as 'Sister Godzilla', Mooshum wakes up old memories. Evelina's grandfather tells her the drastic story of the murder, as sister Mary Anita is also the descendant of a lynch fellow. His granddaughter listens attentively to all reports from her grandfather, the great storyteller and keeper of legends. According to Mooshum, he and the three other Indians were about to sell baskets when they got to the hut where all the residents except one small baby had been murdered. They wanted to save the baby and call the police, but they knew that as Indians (with a white family) they would be charged with the crime. And it came.

Another narrator is Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, an Indian who tells a long history of an expedition by a group of locals, including his grandfather Joseph, Henri and Lafayette Peace, that took place at the turn of the last century. The judge also relates the more recent story of John Wildstrand, who is married to the bank clerk Neve Harp but has an affair with the Indian woman Maggie Peace, sister of Billy Peace, descendant of Cuthbert Peace and wife he loves. When Maggie becomes pregnant and needs money, John arranges for Billy to kidnap his wife Neve and demand a ransom. The plan was for Neve to be released and the money to be turned over to Maggie. However, in the end everything turns out a little differently. Judge Coutts later also learns of other stories, including one about Mooshum's brother Shamengwa, whose famous violin is stolen by Corwin Peace, the illegitimate offspring of John Wildstrand and Maggie Peace.

But the most amazing narrator of them all, if not the most important, is Marn Wolde: She witnessed the transformation of Billy Peace, Corwin's uncle, up close. After the kidnapping, he joined the army, went to Korea, and came back a strange man; some kind of sect preacher who practiced his own religion. He got involved with the very young Marn Wolde, who wanted to get away from her family and ran away with the charismatic Billy. Marn gave him two children (Judah and Lilith), followed him and helped him expand his cult. Billy develops from thin, handsome mixed blood to an unprecedented preacher who gathers a huge following.

The final chapter of the novel is told by Judge Coutt's secret lover, Doctor Cordelia Lochren. You and Neve Harp are the only ones still living in Pluto because the old have died and the young have moved away. Cordelia is now the city historian in place of Neve and it is Cordelia who provides the answer to the initial question: Warren Wolde, Marn's uncle, murdered the Lochren family and she herself is the little baby, the only survivor of the murder.

Diagram of the relationships between the main characters in As long as you live

main characters

Evelina Harp: witty, young girl, granddaughter of Mooshum, first narrator. She has both European-American and American Indian ancestors and falls in love with her cousin Corwin Peace. Later feels drawn to her teacher, Sister Mary Anita, who is a descendant of one of the lynchers. Close relationship with Mooshum.

Mooshum: Born as Seraph Milk, entertains his grandchildren with his stories, brother of Shamengwa, incorrigible alcoholic. He is Evelina's beloved grandfather and responsible for the oral transmission of the (family) story. Has no moral inhibitions and also flirts with Evelina's aunt Neve Harp. Victim and witness of the lynching of Holy Track, Cuthbert Peace and Asignak.

Judge Antone Bazil Coutts: Second narrator, had an affair with Cordelia Lochren, but lives with Geraldine Milk. Quits his job in the cemetery to become the judge of the Ojibwe tribe . Understand Pluto's history and both European-American and Native American view of events.

Marn Wolde: Third narrator, witnessed the change from Billy Peace to the leader of a religious sect, sees it with irony . Is connected to Billy, accompanies him into the desert and has two children, Judah and Lilith. Her uncle Warren Wolde is the murderer of the Lochren family.

Doctor Cordelia Lochren: Fourth narrator, only one chapter. Represents the outside perspective as a non-Indian character, also refuses to treat Indians. Hardly connected to other characters and therefore less biased. In the end, however, it becomes apparent that as a survivor of the Lochren family murder she has a deep connection with all events.

shape

Louise Erdrich's novel combines four narrative perspectives . All four characters, Evelina, Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, Marn Wolde and Doctor Cordelia Lochren act as first-person narrators and describe the events that span a period of around three generations and affect two communities (the European-American and the Indian) their respective perspective, so that in the end a comprehensive family tree of the local residents emerges. A whole century is spanned by the many flashbacks that take place especially in the 1960s and 1970s. Only all the stories together, which are nested like short stories in a big story, create a coherent overall picture, as each narrator tells from different points in time and adds another piece of the mosaic to the story. The most important narrator and the center remains Evelina and the murder runs like a red thread through the stories.

Themes and motifs

Indian humor

The discussion of humor in Indian history from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day can be closely related to the humor in Louise Erdrich's novel. The combination of tragedy and comedy , as in As long as you live , is not uncommon here. The humor is shown, for example, through anecdotes, such as the story about the pigeon plague, and at the same time serves as a protective shield and weapon against outsiders, which is particularly proven by the scenes between Mooshum, Shamengwa and Priest Cassidy.

Spirituality and religion

Even religion and spirituality take a central place in the consideration of long as you live one. Both the conflict situations between Mooshum and Shamengwa, whose Indian spirituality often collides with the Catholic faith of Father Cassidy, and Billy Peace and his preaching life within his sect, make this all too clear.

Family and community

Family ties are strengthened particularly through the oral transmission of morally and historically valuable stories from the past (especially) through Shamengwa and Mooshum. Evelina and her brother Joseph always listen carefully to the stories of their great-uncle and grandfather, which immediately creates a communal experience. Both accidents, the murder of the Lochrens and the unjustified vengeance on the Indians, strengthen the feeling of togetherness again and again within the European-American as well as the Indian community, since the injustices were never officially cleared up and punished and therefore always a desire for Retribution remains that binds each church in Pluto together.

Others

Further motifs that do not stand out clearly, but still cannot be dismissed, would be nationalism - whenever the language comes to Louis Riel - feminism - when female characters like Marn Wolde or Clemence Milk do not share the views of the male characters like Billy Peace or bow to the priest - and Ecocriticism , d. H. when a special, spiritual relationship between nature and man is recognized, which corresponds absolutely to the Indian understanding, but in turn can lead to conflicts with other religions - as with Father Cassidy's Catholicism .

reception

Louise Erdrich's novel As long as you live was almost universally received positively. This is how Tobias Döring from FAZ, Erdrich writes

“Design a complete choral work, whose astonishing wealth of registers includes wit and poetry , lacony and pathos in equal measure. And she works so ingeniously that at the end we want to read the book again immediately, because many of the hidden connections could not be felt the first time. "

- Tobias Döring : Feature section FAZ

His Berlin colleague Nada Weigelt also rated the novel as excellent literature, adding:

"Laughing and crying, love and suffering, reality and fable - all of these are very close together in her world."

- Nada Weigelt : The Berlin literary criticism

literature

Text output

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The 79th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards: Winners. Louise Erdrich. Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards website. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  2. ^ John Gamber: So, a Priest Walks into a Reservation Tragicomedy: Humor in The Plague of Doves. In: Deborah L. Madsen (Ed.): Louise Erdrich: Tracks, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, The Plague of Doves. Continuum, London / New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-4411-4206-1 . Pp. 136-151.
  3. ↑ Louise Erdrich: As long as you live. The angry citizens of Pluto. In: FAZ. May 16, 2009; Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ Louise Erdrich: As long as you live. A wonderful Indian story. In: The Berlin literary criticism. March 5, 2009; Retrieved July 28, 2014.