Book Review: The Last Report on the Miracles of Little No Horse

Happy weekend everyone and I'm finally done with this book! This book was givin to me about 8 years ago and I finally had the chance to read it all the way through, determined to finish it. It's written by Louise Erdrich and I was very unfamiliar with her work. It was so well written that I had to actually think through the book being a genuine literary piece.

It takes place on a fictional Ojibwe Indian reservation called Little No Horse. It's about a woman who lives as a priest Father Damian posted at the reservation. At the end of her life after serving there for over half a century (as the priest imposter), she is interviewed by a younger priest in regards to a nun who is being considered for sainthood. She's in a dilema of either revealing her identity and confessing or keeping it a secret.

The book has many twists and turns going back and forth from the past to the present. It's an interesting read although very slow. Some parts were hard to follow and I always had to return to the front of the book to the family tree in order to follow the characters and their relations to whom. It explores the conflicts between Catholicism and the Indian religion. The differences between good and evil. The nun who was being investigated was the polar opposite of the Father Damien character. She was more abusive to people and her actions could not qualify her for sainthood. After being a nun she then becomes a woman called Agnes who lives with a companion, then taken hostage in a bank robbery and shortly thereafter is transformed into Father Damien after a great flood. When she's both nun and Agnes she's passionate about the piano and Chopin. That's where my previous post comes in. There were some humorous parts too with Agnes giving the town children chicken eggs in the nude, the Indian couple Mary and Nanapush having the Moose pull their boat in order to kill him. It was a good read although I recommend taking your time to read it due to lots of background and description of the lead and the people on the reservation. I can't say I loved the book but the story was interesting with all the different stories and characters woven together.