But even at low voltage, Erdrich crafts a provocative read elevated by beautiful imagery, as when children near death fly off like skeletal ravens. Despite her elegant story and luminous prose, many of the characters feel sketchy compared to Erdrich's previous titans, and several redemptions seem too pat. Gracefully weaving many threads, Erdrich details the multigenerational history surrounding the drum. The drum is revived, as are those around it. Compelling and unforgettable, Louise Erdrich's Painted Drum explores the often-fraught relationship between mothers and daughters, the strength of family, and the intricate rhythms of grief with all the grace, wit, and startling beauty that characterizes this acclaimed author's finest work. Under its spell, she secrets it away and eventually repatriates it to that reservation on the northern plains-the home of her grandmother. Native American antiquities specialist Faye Travers, bereaved of her sister and father, ambivalently in love with a sculptor who has lost his wife and loses his daughter, stumbles onto a ceremonial drum when she handles the estate of John Jewett Tatro, whose grandfather was an agent at the Ojibwe reservation. Erdrich essays the grief that comes when the sins of parents become mortal for their children. , etc.), it departs from the concentrated vigor of her best work in its breadth of storytelling. The depiction of the lives of the children is heart-rending, and their connection to the Little Girl Drum adds another layer of mystery to the drum’s life. Though Erdrich's latest lyrical novel returns to Ojibwe territory ( Four Souls
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