Title: Python's Kiss: Stories by Louise Erdrich
1st snippet, first line from the story: "Python's Kiss" --
He was the second, perhaps the third, Nero owned by my grandparents.
2nd snippet, from the story: "The Stone" --
A stone is, in its own way, a living being, not a biological being but one with a history far beyond our capacity to understand or even imagine.
Summary:
In Ojibwe mythology, Mishipeshu, a reptile with the head of a cat, stands sentinel at the gates of the underworld, where the mortal becomes eternal. Louise Erdrich’s remarkable story collection navigates this terrain where life and death are inextricably entwined. Python’s Kiss probes the essence of our humanity in moments both intimate and grand, inviting us to consider the nature of existence; the wonder, bravery, shame, loneliness, yearning, and terror that drive and define us. (Publisher)
My thoughts: Two things I really like: 1. books written by Louise Erdrich and 2. really well-written short stories. Python's Kiss combines these two things perfectly.
Louise Erdrich is an Indigenous-American author (Turtle Mountain Chippawa of North Dakota, recognized federally as the Ojibwe people) and she writes novels, poetry, children's books, and short stories featuring Native American characters. Python's Kiss is a collection of stories written and printed in various publications over the past two decades. It features a range of characters—a tribal newsletter editor whose son tells her a story that nothing in her experience can encompass, immigrant farmers whose tenuous hold on the earth, and sanity, is challenged, and ordinary people, bird lovers, artists, grade-school teachers, and romantics. In the first story, "Python's Kiss", a girl recounts the time she had to stay with her grandparents and her integrations with their dog, Nero. In the last story, "The Stone", a girl decides to spend her life with a stone. In another, a man is confronted with a folk-singing thief. And in the only Sci-Fi story of the collection, a woman enters a corporately owned afterlife to seek revenge on her father.
My husband and I listened to the audiobook, narrated by one of Erdrich's daughters, Pallas Erdrich. We both delighted in the stories, adjusting fairly easily as each story started in a new setting and with a new cast of characters. Generally at some point in each story we noticed the shadow of death seemed nearby without realizing this is part of Ojibwe mythology. Don doesn't read as many short story collections as I do and he was ready to pick apart certain stories to criticize when I told him I thought this was the best short story collection I'd ever read. Each was so exquisitely written and able to launch us into the new story almost immediately. He agreed with my assessment and set his criticisms aside. We both rated the book with 5 stars.
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Welcome to a combined Book Beginnings on Friday and Friday56 with a new name Friday Book Snippets. I am co-hosting this weekly blogging event with Olivia at Bemused & Bookish. You can link up at either of our sites but be sure to still visit and comment on other participant's blogs to increase our community.
Directions: Share two snippets (a sentence or short paragraph) from a) the book's opening and b) page 56 (or another page) from the book you are currently reading. No spoilers, please.
Click on the "OH-NO" message and it will take you to the linkup this week. I'll find you there.
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