Love Medicine

Karen Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, (born June 7, 1954) is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance

The eldest of seven children, Karen Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, the daughter of Ralph Erdrich, a German-American, and his wife, Rita (Gourneau) Erdrich, who was of Métis ancestry.

In 1984, Erdrich published the novel Love Medicine. Made up of disjointed, yet interconnected, short narratives, each told from the perspective of a different character, and moving backwards and forward in time through every decade between the 1930s and the present day, Love Medicine told the stories of several families living on a North Dakota Ojibwereservation.

The innovative techniques used in Love Medicine, which owed a great deal to the works of William Faulkner, yet having little precedent in Native-authored fiction, allowed Erdrich to build up a picture of a community in a reservation setting. Love Medicine received praise from authors and critics, such as N. Scott Momaday and Gerald Vizenor, and was awarded the 1984National Book Critics Circle Award. It has never been out of print.

The narratives follow a loose chronology aside from the first chapter (set in 1981). The conversational tone of the novel is representative of the storytelling tradition in Native American culture. It draws from Ojibwa myths, story-telling technique, and culture. It also incorporates the Euro-Indian experience, especially through the younger generations, some of whom have been forced by government policy to accept, if not possess, Euro-American culture.

Love Medicine begins with June Morrisey freezing to death on her way home to the reservation. Although she dies at the beginning, the figure of June holds the novel together. Similarly, a love triangle among Lulu, Marie, and Nector is a link among the narratives, even though it is not a persistent theme in the novel. There is also a homecoming (or homing) theme in the novel. The use of multiple themes adds to the storytelling effect of the work. Other themes include: tricksters (in the Native American tradition), abandonment, connection to land, searching for identity and self-knowledge, and survival.

The point of view Varies with the speakers. Sometimes they speak in the first person; at other times, they speak in third person. While there are actually fourteen stories in Love Medicine, seven members of five families-the Kashpaws, Lazarres, Lamartines, Nanapushes, and Morrisseys-tell their views of many of the same incidents. For example, both Nector and Marie tell about their encounter on the hill below the convent. Many critics view this technique as a strength, because the reader gets to hear both sides of a story. Other critics think that the use of so many voices makes the novel too confusing; readers must reread to find relationships among the characters and the stories they tell.

The point of view varies with the speakers. Sometimes they speak in the first person; at other times, they speak in third person. While there are actually fourteen stories in Love Medicine, seven members of five families—the Kashpaws, Lazarres, Lamartines, Nanapushes, and Morrisseys—tell their views of many of the same incidents. For example, both Nector and Marie tell about their encounter on the hill below the convent. Many critics view this technique as a strength because the reader gets to hear both sides of a story.

Chapter 1 opens in 1981 with June Morrissey in Williston, North Dakota, an oil boom town, after she has left Gordie Kashpaw and her son yet again. She dies trying to walk home in a snow storm. Part two of chapter one is in the first person voice of Albertine Johnson, June's niece, who receives a letter from her mother informing her that her Aunt June is dead and buried. Her mother did not invite her to the funeral, and as a result, Albertine refuses to speak to her. Two months after receiving the letter, Albertine goes home to the reservation. Albertine tells stories about June

In Chapters 2, 3, and 4 we become acquainted with Marie, Nector, and Lulu (the love triangle the novel is centered on) as young adults in and around the year 1934. We learn that Marie once wanted to be a nun and never really liked the Lazarre side of her family. Nector was always in love with Lulu but married Marie for reasons unbeknownst to him. We learn that Lulu always assumed she and Nector would be married, but when she found out about Marie, she went to Moses Pillager (Lulu’s cousin and well-known medicine man) but left him, taking her first child (Gerry Nanapush) back home when Moses refused to move out from the wilderness.

Chapters 9 and 10 focus on the brothers Henry Lamartine Jr. and Lyman Lamartine in 1973 and 1974. Chapter 9 recounts Albertine Johnson running away from home as a 15-year-old. She meets Henry Lamartine Jr., and loses her virginity to him. Chapter 10 is about Henry Jr. and Lyman and the car they bought together. Lyman recounts the many road trips before Henry Jr. went off to war, before he returned a very changed man. Their first road trip afterward turns out to be tragic: Henry Jr. jumps into the river, toward his death, and try as he might, Lyman could neither find nor save him.

Chapters 11 through 18 occur between the years 1980 and 1985, when Nector enters his “second childhood” and Marie and Lulu become friends in the retirement community.

Seventeenth-century French explorers found the Chippewa Indians, or Ojibwa, in Canada. They lived there in small villages around the Upper Great Lakes near Sault Sainte Marie. At the time, they lacked tribal organization, and the village people governed themselves. They worked as fur traders, used birchbark canoes, and were skilled woodcraftsmen. As they prospered, however, their population grew, and they acquired more territory. In addition, they began focusing more on developing tribal customs and rituals. They established one organization in particular. the Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society. In Love Medicine, Lipsha Morrissey, known for his inherited "touch," practices the ways of the old medicine. Love Medicine is named for the love-potion ritual Lipsha tries to recreate for his grandparents.

Characters

Marie Lazarre Kashpaw (wife to Nector Kashpaw) She has five children by Nector (Gordie, Zelda, Aurelia, Eugene and Patsy), and adopts her niece, June, and June’s son, Lipsha.

Nector Kashpaw (son of Rushes Bear and Kashpaw, husband to Marie Lazarre Kashpaw). Chairman of the community by default. He has always been in love with Lulu and years into his marriage to Marie he has a five-year affair with Lulu Nanapush Lamartine and begets Lyman Lamartine. Nector never recognizes Lyman as his son.

Lulu Nanapush Lamartine (mother to Henry Lamartine, Jr., Lyman Lamartine, Bonita Lamartine, Gerry Nanapush, and four other unnamed sons all with different fathers) Lulu first marries her cousin, Moses Pillager. She leaves him and marries Morrissey. After this marriage, she eventually marries Henry Lamartine who dies in a car accident involving a train, heavily implied to be suicide. She also has affairs with Beverly Lamartine, Nector Kashpaw, and an unnamed Mexican man.

June Morrissey (daughter of Marie's sister: half-Lazarre, half-Morrissey from the Pillager line, wife of Gordie Kashpaw, mother of King Kashpaw and Lipsha Morrissey) June is first adopted by Marie Kashpaw, but later is raised by Eli Kashpaw (the bachelor of the family). June runs away from Gordie and King, returns several times only to leave again. June dies in the first chapter (1981).

Eli Kashpaw (adopted father of June, son of Rushes Bear and Kashpaw, brother of Nector). While Nector went away to English school Eli was hidden by his mother and was raised in traditional Indian manner. He is the bachelor of the tribe, and raised June once she ran away to live with him.

Gerry Nanapush (son of Lulu and Moses Pillager) Gerry is a legend on the reservation. He is imprisoned and continues to escape from prison for decades. He had an affair with June Morrissey and begets Lipsha Morrissey.

Albertine Johnson (daughter of Zelda Kashpaw, granddaughter of Marie Kashpaw) Albertine is one of the Kashpaws that got off the reservation. She attends an unnamed university studying Western medicine.

King Kashpaw (son of June Morrissey and Gordie Kaspaw, married to Lynette, father of King Howard Kashpaw Jr.) King receives the insurance money from June’s death and buys a new car with it.

Lyman Lamartine (son of Lulu and Nector) Lyman is very lucky when it comes to money and business. By the end of the novel he begins a business that effectively saves the Indian community on the reservation.

Henry Lamartine Jr. (son of Lulu and Beverly Lamartine) Henry goes to war and comes back very changed. He throws himself into a raging river and kills himself. It is unclear if he intentionally committed suicide.

Lipsha Morrissey (son of June Morrissey and Gerry Nanapush) Lipsha is adopted by Marie, just as Marie adopted his mother, June. Lipsha is unaware of his true parentage for many years, although everyone on the reservation is aware of the truth. His parentage is revealed by Lulu, his true grandmother. Lipsha continues his life and never forgets what he has experienced.

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