She is a master of the small detail that anchors a scene.”Īll members of the community and campus are welcome to attend. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Erdrich moves effortlessly between the Anglo and Indian worlds, telling her story in a style both lyric and precise. Traveling between past and present, human relationships are explored as the lives of those who come in contact with the drum are touched and changed forever. Alternating voices are used to narrate as the main character, Faye Travers, seeks to return the drum to the reservation where it belongs. The “Painted Drum” consists of three stories, all set in different time periods, with the common thread being a special ceremonial Ojibwe drum. – In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, The Everywoman Book Club, sponsored by the UA Women’s Resource Center, will meet to discuss “The Painted Drum” by Louise Erdrich on Thursday, Nov. Erdich poetically captures the intricate, transformative rhythms of human grief that these losses create within her characters with grace, wit, captivating prose and surprising beauty.TUSCALOOSA, Ala. Through Faye, we experience her anguished relationship with a local sculptor who also mourns the loss of a daughter, and witness the life Faye has made alone with her mother, in the shadow of her sister's death. We hear the voice of Bernard Shaawano, an Ojibwe, who tells of how his grandfather created the drum after years of mourning his younger daughter's death and how it changes the paths of those who cross it.

Following the discovery, we trace the drum's passage both backwards and forwards in time, from the reservation on the northern plains to New Hampshire and back. However, she is shocked when she finds within the collection a rare drum - an impressive, ornate yet delicate creation made out of a hollowed cedar and stretched moose skin - particularly because without even touching the instrument she hears its deep resonant sound.

It is well known that the family descends from Indian ancestors, one of whom used to work on the North Dakota Ojibwe reservation that is home to her mother's family. When Faye Travers is sent to appraise a family estate in a small New Hampshire town and comes across a forgotten set of valuable Native American artefacts, she is not surprised by the discovery. From one of the most gifted bestselling American novelists comes this elegantly crafted novel that explores the strange power that lost children exert on the memories of those they leave behind.

The painted drum