In Yellow Birds, Murphy and Bartle are young soldiers off on their first tour of the war in Iraq. Murphy’s mother asks the 20 year old Bartle to promise to bring her son home. Bartle casually agrees but starts to ponder his responsibility to the younger soldier thrust into his care by his Sergeant. The novel has flaws- a thin plot with a shaky conclusion and clichéd, watered-down stereotyped war characters. Powers makes up for these flaws with descriptions of Iraqi villages in the desert light, the depth of the soul sucking heat and the struggle of these two soldiers to survive with poetic passages that make your heart ache for young men in war. This is Kevin Powers first novel and he tells his story with passion.
In contrast, Round House by Louise Erdrich is her 14th novel and it is a technically well written, socially significant story of a young boy’s struggle with the rape of his mother. Set on a reservation in North Dakota, Erdrich weaves together the complexity of tribal law and white law and rape. The Ojibwa stories are wonderfully told. The conflicts of white and tribal law I thought could have been better explained. The characters still seemed remote and the final actions of the 13 year old did not ring true to me.
Because it grabbed my mind and heart. YELLOW BIRDS
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