Perma Red

by Debra Magpie Earling

Book Overview

On the reservation, danger looms everywhere, rising out of fear and anger, deprivation and poverty. Fiery-haired Louise White Elk dreams of both belonging and escape, and of discovering love and freedom on her own terms. But she is a beautiful temptation for three men-each more dangerous than the next-who will do anything to possess her...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425190544
• ISBN13: 9780425190548
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Blue Hen Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

This is her first novel? Amazing!

I read through a few of the reviews and was a bit surprised with the comment that Louise's relationship with Harvey was contrived among other things. I was completely absorbed in this novel and felt that it was an artfully told story, I would give it a 6 if possible. I grew up in that area, going to high school in Missoula. My parents live on the Flathead Reservation and my sister went to high school in St. Ignatius. When other high schoolers were taking French and Spanish, she was learning Salish. I am a very white skinned, blue eyed, freckled decendant of Northern Europeans. My father is a true, genuine cowboy and cattle rancher. This book pulled me in not only because of the amazing way Earling captured the sights and smells of my home, but because of the undercurrent of feeling between the peoples living on the reservation, whites, Indians and those who didn't belong to either group because they belonged to both. At first when I put the book down I felt unsatisfied. I wanted to know what happened to Hemaucus Three Dresses. I think Earling's point in leaving that a loose end was that she was just an Indian and therefore disposable and that probably no one would ever invest the time and energy into finding out what happened to her. If it was a white man who killed her, well, she was just a dirty Indian. If it was an Indian, well, just chalk it up to internal Indian justice. I wanted Louise to make better choices. I believe her choices were rooted in hunger, survival and a self-loathing fostered by the nuns of Mission. It is completely plausible that she ends up spending so much time with Harvey the white land developer because in him there is a little hope of change. There is no love on either side of this "romance" and I think that is why a reviewer felt it contrived. He was using her for his pleasure. She was using him for an occasional hot meal, a chance to briefly feel special and the tiniest sliver of a possibility that he might take her away from the reservation. Mostly she was resigned to the fact that nothing would improve for her. The two Indian men in the story, Charlie Kicking Woman and Baptiste Yellow Knife are struggling with the same demons in profoundly different ways. In the end they come to the same resolution I think. Charlie is a policeman, second class citizen among the other officers, someone trying to behave like a white man and be better than the other Indians. It is a lonely, hated place to be. Baptiste chooses to return to the old Indian ways, starting with refusing to speak English at school, resulting in being locked in a store-room by the nuns and mysteriously escaping. He drinks because he is told he can't. He becomes mean and scary, even to other Indians. Louise is a bit of a surprise and unpredictable. She seems resigned to a hard life but when it counts she's a fighter, and she fights HARD. As far as the metaphores, I was constantly amazed at her ability to take incongruous words and put them together to create

Armchair and Time Travel with Marvelous Companions

Okay, I don't get the Publishers Weekly review -- or, for that matter, the customer who got irritated with the metaphors. I didn't find the relationships contrived at all -- and I didn't find the metaphors overwhelming. Yes, this is literary fiction, but for all that the story caught me up, the settings made me once again long to see Montana (a lifelong wish) and the characters seemed real and understandable. I loved the look into a different culture and time. The last scene in the novel (and no, I won't spoil it for you) still sings in my brain twenty-four hours after I closed the back cover.

The Poetics of Landscape

There are lines in this novel that stopped me in my tracks. The harshness, beauty, violence and forgiveness of the land brilliantly parallel Earling's characters and story. Haunting and magnificent.

Unforgettable!

This book is moving, the author takes you places,as you travel, you can smell the odors, see the colors,feel the emotions and it will never leave you. Muchlike Geisha, this book shall be on the list of the top five best books that I have ever read! Be prepared to leave thedishes in the sink, the beds unmade and the meals uncooked,for once you begin this journey you will not want to put this book down. Almost as good as "One Thousand White Women"!Treat yourself and your soul to this tremendous unforgettabletale.