We are beginning the next round of reading in our online literary group, the Mother of All Book Clubs! This club is open to anyone with a connection to Mary Washington — alumni, parents, donors, faculty, and staff. Join us!
Our next selection is The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich. This book won the Pulitzer Prize this year, is a New York Times bestseller, and is on countless booklists.
From The New York Times:
“Early in this banquet of a novel that invites us back into Louise Erdrich’s ongoing Chippewa chronicles, a character on the reservation boasts, ‘Law can’t take my Indian out of me.’ Unfortunately, the United States government is hoping to do just that through the Termination Bill, an Orwellian plan that promises to ’emancipate’ Indigenous people from their lands and their tribal affiliations…
The novel’s title character, Thomas Wazhashk, is a night watchman for a factory where women of the Turtle Mountain clan work by day, using gemstones as drill bits for Defense Department ordnance and for Bulova watches. Among these working women is Thomas’s niece, Patrice, known against her will as Pixie. Thomas watches over the dark, possibly haunted factory to protect these gems from thieves. The novel follows the fates and struggles and adventures of these two people and the ever-expanding circles of their relations.”
Pick up a copy of the book and start reading–we will begin posting discussion questions on Monday, November 22. You might consider supporting an independent bookstore, or you could try your local library system.
We look forward to reading with you!
All the best,
The Alumni Relations Team
