The Christmas countdown is on—are we feelin’ the heat? Or are the presents wrapped under the tree while warm citrus spices mull deliciously on the stove? Regardless, we always have time to talk books. I haven’t read Louis Erdich’s Pulitzer Prize The Night Watchman, but I decided to give her latest a try. Lots of talk about The Sentence lately. A small independent bookstore, a ghost, and a main character haunted by her own strange past set the stage in this November release.
The story takes place in Minneapolis during an unprecedented year of worldwide pandemic and tumultuous racial and political unrest. Tookie, bookstore employee and former inmate who survived years of prison by consuming literature as if it were essential to sustain life, is haunted by the ghost of the store’s most annoying customer. Flora dies in 2019 on All Souls’ Day and refuses to leave the bookstore that she visited daily. Tookie must solve the mystery of the haunting to free her from the spirit that greets her each day.
If I’m passin’ out stars…I’d hand over 4 for this one. Are there other books I’ve read this year that I’ve enjoyed more? Yes. Four Winds and The Last Thing He Told Me harnessed more admiration in this girl’s mind. USA Today offered The Sentence a solid four stars with this praise, “Dazzling…A hard-won love letter to readers and to booksellers, as well as a compelling story about how we cope with pain, fear, injustice and illness. One good way is to press a beloved book into another’s hand. Read The Sentence and then do just that.”