The Painted Drum

Hi, this is us in downtown Burnsville, NC., taken on September 2, 2007. We made a spontaneous trip to visit our friends Kristine, Todd, Elizabeth, and Tucker. Spontaneous trips rule. More on that later.

I just finished a book called The Painted Drum, by Louise Erdrich. I have not ever read a book by her before, but I do believe that I'm going to start working my way through her collection of fiction and poetry. The Painted Drum is the wonderfully worded, painting like writing that I love. The story involves a mother and daughter, both older, and tells he story of their lives~ the nature, the rhythm of life, of nature and the occurances of their lives. And what happens when they find this very old important drum in a private collection.

It's rich with metaphor and also with wonderful descriptions of the natural world and Native Indian culture. The drum is very powerful in the indian culture and so is story telling. This book speaks to that, tells the story of now, but brings us backward and forward in time, and from the plains to New Hampshire and back. I loved reading this book, loved the words, loved the way the author brings you along, brings things full circle. It was rich.