The Beet Queen. A Novel P.S. :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Complex or as simple as you make it

2008-08-11
The beginning of this book takes off like a rocket. It's powerful and serves as one huge hook for the reader, who moves along with the characters as they develop into adults (and depending on the character, not very nice adults), sometimes skipping chunks of time. It's a character-driven story, but the psychological thread that run through the book give s simple narrative a lot of meat if you're paying attention. This was my first Erdrich book, and I'm about to start another, Plague of Doves. I hope it is just as good.

A book about nothing

2008-08-06
Of the series of dry, psychological books my aunt has lended me over the summer-The Beet Queen had to be my favorite so far of mine. I wish I could sum up these types of books better, where there are just people described through they're life-slightly off, outthere but more or less normal chacters. None really jump off the page or do anything out of this world. They're all dysfunctional. One thing I am sure...these kind of books are not my cup of tea. There was TOTALLY something missing with Karl...I had faith that this would be a good charcter...I was very wrong. Random events and people described in a book, whatever.

A disappointing read

2006-10-25
I chose this book for my book club because I had read Erdrich's other novel, The Master Butcher's Singing Club, which was flawed, but still great reading. I was so disappointed in this novel. It did not meet my expectations. I expected the wise and wonderful writing I encountered in The Master Butcher's Singing Club, but was given plot twists that were just plain silly. The author ruined her opporunity to say something profound with Sita's death by throwing in dead body humor a la "Weekend at Bernie's." Although for the most part I found her characters compelling, I felt like this book had very little to say. I am less inclined to try her other novels after reading this one.

Simply an amazing book

2006-01-20
This book is amazing and a truly beautiful work about the human spirit. The characters are numerous and complex, and the way the book skips around in terms of characters and time keeps you on your toes and keeps the story interesting -- you never know what to expect.

It was really the highlight of a recent vacation -- I couldn't put it down.

Determinedly bleak

2005-02-28
I started this novel after reading Erdrich's Love Medicine. While it is clearly not as lyrically written, it is more accessible, and I admired Erdrich's inventiveness as she creates a very unique set of characters. I never finished "Beet Queen", quitting not that far from the end. When Celestine's child turned out to be so impossible, it was the last straw. "Beet Queen" is just too determinedly bleak, to no higher purpose I could discern or discover in reading reviews here.

Off The Beaten Path

2005-02-04

On a spring morning in 1932, young Karl and Mary Adare arrive by boxcar in Argus, North Dakota. After being orphaned in a most peculiar way, they seek refuge in the butcher shop of their aunt Fritzie and her husband, Pete; ordinary Mary, who will cause a miracle, and seductive Karl, who lacks his sister's gift for survival, embark upon an exhilarating life-journey crowded with colorful, unforgettable characters and marked by the extraordinary magic of natural events.

The bestselling, award-winning author of The Painted Drum, Louise Erdrich dazzles in this vibrant and heartfelt tale of abandonment and sexual obsession, jealousy and unstinting love that explores with empathy, humor, and power the eternal mystery of the human condition.

Many Voices, Many Stories - One Powerful Novel

2004-12-19
Louise Erdrich once said that her novels fell "together like a quilt, a crazy quilt,", and The Beet Queen is no exception. The author has constructed a powerful novel out of many voices and individual stories. The novel begins in 1932, with young Mary and Karl Adare getting off a train in Argus, North Dakota by themselves. A moment of fear sends Karl running back to the train, and Mary in the other direction, towards her aunt's house. This division between them sends them on different paths. Mary grows up as the despised cousin of lovely Sita, the foster daughter of Pete and Fritzie who own a butcher shop. Karl is eventually sent back to Minnesota to grow up in a Catholic children's home. The people who know them - Sita, Celestine, the Chamber of Commerce president Wallace Pfef, and finally Dot, the Beet Queen of the title - add their voices to weave a story that goes beyond Karl and Mary to include the entire town of Argus. Spanning forty years, the novel encompasses changes not only within the characters but in the town and the times in general.

Erdrich's characterizations are complex and heartfelt, especially since the multiple points-of-view allow us to see the characters from both inside and out. When characters describe the same incident from different perspectives, we get a deep understanding of what is at stake for each.

The Beet Queen is one of Erdrich's finest novels. Fans of Erdrich's will recognize some of the characters that appeared in the earlier Love Medicine and in her later books, but you don't need to be familiar with the author's work to become engrossed in this one. Highly recommended.

Confusing, yet interesting

2004-06-01
So many things happen to the characters (which are about twelve or so of them), it's hard to keep track and think back of who relates to whom. The beginning is exciting because so many things happen, but then near the end, it gets boring because so many outragous things are happening and they do not become believeable or shocking anymore (like Sita dying in her garden and Russell dying on the float in the parade). It becomes so depressing at the end how everyone is sick, dying, dependent or crazy. I do not understand the deep symbolism in this book and sometimes I couldn't even tell if something was really happening or the writer was trying to trick me.

It's ok, nothing spectacular, interesting read.

A Brilliant Portrait Of Agression, Self-Destruction & Love! 2003-07-08
On a cold spring morning in 1932, fourteen-year old Karl Adare and his eleven-year-old sister, Mary, arrive by freight train in Argus, North Dakota. Abandoned by their mother, they have come to look for their mother's sister, Aunt Fritzie, who runs the House of Meats, a butcher shop, with her husband. The two Adares lose each other. Karl is frightened by a dog and runs back to the boxcar, and Mary runs the other way, toward town. And so begins the forty year saga of a family, and a community.

Through the years the family holds together through the tenacity of relationships, in a fierce and passionate drama, filled with Erdrich's dark humor. Changes sweep across their lives - birth, death, madness. Change also comes in the form of a growing sugar beet industry. Ms. Erdrich story chronicles Mary's life, as she puts down roots in Argus. She also keeps track of the tragic and sensitive dreamer, Karl, on his endless road journeys. He seem to compulsively flee emotional ties, and yet returns to Argus, again and again. At one point Karl says, "I give nothing, take nothing, mean nothing, hold nothing." He struggles with connection - with the past, and with his family and community. Mary's astounding dreams and fantasies also play an incredible and surreal role in the novel.

Themes of parenting and abandonment, jealousy, sexual obsession, and great love play out with passion in Ms. Erdrich's complex and believable characters, as does her portrayal of people's aggression and the self-destructive side of human nature. Her narrative is written with beauty, clarity and pure magic. This is not an easy book to read, nor is it always pleasant. It is, however, well worth the effort.

Like many of her characters, Ms. Erdrich has a foot in two worlds. She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, near the Bureau of Indian Affairs school where both her mother, of French-Ojibwe descent, and her father, of German descent, taught. She writes movingly about Native Americans "whose nobility resides in their ability to make their lives work."

Hands down, the worst book I ever read 2003-04-01
How many ways are there to hate this book? Let's get started.
First, the characters are so feeble and unsympathetic I found
myself not caring what happened to them. From hobosexual Karl
to mediocre Mary, and oh yes, Dot. Dot is a not-so-gentle
reminder that the characters in some novels should be spayed
or neutered before they get a chance to randomly breed. There
are 2 characters of interest (Russell and Fleur), but they
contribute about 3 pages to this monstrosity of a book.

I had to read this monumental waste for a literature class. I
normally like to read, but this book nearly beat the reading
bug right out of me. Even if I had not been required to read
it, I might have finished it anyway in the expectation that
something interesting would (finally) happen. Bad news, folks:
it never does. The same utter pointlessness continues right on
through the last page.

I don't want to keep you hanging by a thread here, so let me get
right to the point: This book is awful.