Ed's Reviews > The Night Watchman

Usually I save my star-rating reveal to the end (I know, I know... it's not like that's not the *first* thing you see when you look a Goodreads review), but this one is a bit different. As has been the thread in a lot of my reviews this year (it's 2020 - again take your pick of reasons!), this ended up being yet another book that I didn't have the focus or attention span that it required or deserved from me. So an unofficial 3.5 stars overall... really more 3-star ("liked it") reading experience for me but the material and the legend of Erdrich will give it a Goodreads round-up to 4 stars.

Basically, I felt there was two much going on here. I would have preferred Thomas or Pixie's (excuse me, Patrice's) family to almost have their own novel ... and then, there were a vast cast of characters that I had trouble keeping track of. Again, I willing to put the blame on me -- as those feelings were only exacerbated reading Erdrich's afterward where we learned that much of the book was inspired by her grandfather and his fight against the termination of rights for Native Americans in the 1950 as well as other tragic plotlines (i.e. Vera) that again were a wake-up call for the stories that don't make it into our history books and classes (definitely one of the better lessons that 2020 is providing us). This book is definitely worth your time, although it proved too meandering for my loving (but still, to my liking).