Joe, his parents and a lively cast of friends and relatives do learn more about the crime, and their investigation gives meaning to the complicated task of healing. As Joe and his father peruse old court cases and huddle over the family's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, we also come to see how tribal judicial autonomy is eroded by cases and policies, often a century old: Ex Parte Crow Dog, the Major Crimes Act, Oliphant v.

It is by way of this silence that this book becomes a novel of education for Joe and for Erdrich's readers. After taking Geraldine to the hospital, Joe asks about her attacker: 'Will we find him?' But the assurance of his father's reply ('We will') dissolves when Joe rejoins: 'And then what?' A question his father, the judge, can't answer. However, even in the early stages of Erdrich's novel, it is clear that it is the expectation of resolution itself that is thrown into question. Reviews of 'The Round House' have pointed out that this is Erdrich's first work of detective fiction, a genre that typically rewards the gathering of evidence and the diagnosis of motive with legal and narrative resolution. Citing Amnesty International, Erdrich writes: '1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime (and that figure is certainly higher as Native women often do not report rape) 86 percent of rapes and sexual assaults on Native women are perpetrated by non-Native men few are prosecuted.' The afterword lists organizations working 'to restore sovereign justice and ensure safety for Native women,' and hauntingly concludes: 'The events in this book are loosely based on so many different cases, reports, and stories that the outcome is pure fiction.' In a literal sense that may be true, but this is a new variety of fiction for Erdrich one that illustrates the reality that American interference in tribal law exposes Native women to sexual violence. As the book's afterword makes clear, it is a plot directly informed by the real impotence of American law to stop sexual violence against Native women. What follows is a detective story, as Joe and his father piece together the crime, struggle to support Geraldine and each other, and languish in the bizarre legal limbo that exists for 'major' crimes committed by non-Natives on tribal land. The novel is narrated by a 13-year old boy, Joe, who (with his father, a tribal court judge) discovers in the book's first pages that his mother (Geraldine, the tribe's enrollment officer) has been viciously raped. Although its setting is familiar (North Dakota, 1988), and although we recognize characters and families from earlier books, 'The Round House' marks a step away from the 'magical' worlds to which Erdrich's readers have grown accustomed. In 'The Round House,' this is true in a new and startling way.

The round house by louise erdrich