The Mighty Red
By Louise Erdrich
Honestly, I didn't really get into the book for a while, but then I found it impossible to put down. There were two mysteries - one in the recent past that was haunting a kid and his broader community prompting whispers and concern. And one in the present that led to a community seeking to ostracize a member of its own before truly knowing what happened. (The fact that one was a promising white football star and the other was a Native American woman may be part of the reason for the differing treatment...)
But more compelling than the mysteries were the characters. I only cared about the plot because I cared about them. Would Kizmet and Crystal be able to escape their fate or continue to be the people who can never catch a break? I was rooting for them so hard!
Beyond the main characters it was also interesting to learn about the boy who lied about his age to earn money working in the oil fields. It's a really big payout, but the housing options are terrible. I then looked up the housing shortages and it's real - people earning big bucks are nonetheless sleeping on the street. Not only is Hugo sleeping in a box, but he's also taking on really dangerous work. I was reading this book while also reading The Great Divide, and the similarities of people traveling to Panama to take on dangerous work to build the canal and Hugo taking his big trek to work far away from home in the oil fields definitely had similarities even though the events are 100 years apart. Crystal was hauling beets (for sugar) - another back-breaking job. But not just physically demanding on muscle and bone, but also breathing air inundated with chemicals sprayed on the fields. Anything to eke out a living.
There's a sad recognition that they are complicit in participating in industries that they know are harming themselves and their communities and the land. But do they really have a choice? How do we create a sustainable world that brings the birds back to the fields and also provides a living wage? The book answers those questions, too.
Tags:
Gift farming Marriage coming of age complicated family dynamics sustainability oil food system birds384 pages
Published Nov 3, 2025 by Harper Perennial
Fiction - Literary
Fiction - Native American
Fiction - Coming of Age
Fiction - Cultural Heritage
Fiction - Romance - Contemporary
Fiction - Nature & the Environment
Fiction - Indigenous - Family Life