Many years ago, I lived in Hanover, NH as the same time as Louise Erdrich. We shared the same midwife, a fact I learned from her autobiographical book The Blue Jay’s Dance. I knew about her existence in the community because her early writing was already gaining attention and great acclaim. (She didn’t know about my existence because the only acclaim and attention I’d garnered at the time was for being the shortest Italian-American person in Hanover.)

I’ve just finished reading her most recent book, The Sentence. Prior to this, I’d read Love Medicine, Beet Queenand possibly a story in The New Yorker, but nothing else for decades, which was a mistake on my part, because she is a wonderful writer.

Reminiscent of a zany Elmore Leonard tale, the opening of the book took me by surprise. Three women are involved in the unconventional and illegal transport of a dead body whose name used to be Budgie. Only a woman named Tookie takes the blame. She’s sent off to prison for a good long time during which she is sustained by her love for books.

When Tookie is released, she begins work in a bookstore in Minneapolis, one very much like the one that Louise Erdrich currently owns. In fact, a minor character named Louise runs the fictional bookstore. Erdrich takes the opportunity to include a few funny self-references.

A second surprise for me was that both Tookie and the bookstore are haunted by a ghost named Flora who does not float around and occasionally whisper “Boo.” Instead, Flora is a dynamic force who haunts with such vigor that she causes Tookie to experience an incapacitating breakdown.

            This expansive tale is about identity, passion, betrayal, misunderstandings, spirituality, marriage, Indigenous culture, the treatment of Indigenous people and how a person who’s been beaten down by life can show remarkable resilience. Erdrich gives readers a riveting inside view of multiple levels of trauma experienced by the Minneapolis community during Covid and after the murder of George Floyd. Regarding Covid, I’d forgotten and/or blocked out what daily life felt like back at the height of the pandemic. Regarding the events surrounding George Floyd’s murder, Erdrich gives a gripping depiction of the varied responses among community members. She wraps up the book with a big wallop of narrative tension and a satisfying pay off.

            A wonderful benefit of this novel that Erdrich lists Tookie’s favorite books at the end of the novel. I’ve read enough the books on the list to know that “Tookie’s” taste and mine align, which makes me want to read my way through the rest of the suggestions.

            The book title shows up throughout the novel and has many meanings, including the most obvious, which is Tookie’s unfair prison sentence. However, several times, Erdrich mentions the concept of a sentence of great significance. I don’t want to reveal any plot points here, so I’ll just say that the last line of the book serves as an inspirational sign and wonder, perhaps a message for all of us: “The door is open. Go.”