Sins, forgiveness (or not) and redemption all figure large in Louise Erdrich’s seventeenth, and latest novel, The Sentence. Depending on the severity of one’s sins, this sentence is usually of the parking-ticket-fine level, typically saying a number of Hail Marys and Our Fathers.) and, after a few traditional, if not necessarily magical words, your sins are erased, at least in the eyes of an even more invisible, all-powerful deity. Confess your sins to an invisible presence across a visually impenetrable screen, let the priest know you are truly sorry, promise to do the penance you are assigned (and actually do it. There is magic to be had in the Catholic sacrament of confession. Louise Erdrich – Image from MPR news – by Dawn Villella | AP Photo file But I promise to avoid the occasion of reading… this book again, well for a while, anyway. I am only sorry that I came to the end and could read no more. It has been three weeks since I began reading. I got a cold, sick feeling, and I knew there would be deaths down the road.īless me, Father, for I have read. Pockets of peace then smoking ruins, then tanks and full-out soldiers in battle gear. Down another street, a giant tank was rumbling forward. I passed a woman with a shopping cart full of children. I passed burnt-out stores with walls like broken teeth. I passed streams of people with signs, packs, water bottles. It was like the beginning of every show where the streets empty and something terrifying emerges from mist or fire.
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