Book #5

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

Louise Erdrich

I don't really know where to begin when writing about this book. Appropriately, I am listening to Chopin as I write this post. The main character loves Chopin and plays his music as her tribute--as her gift and her passion--for God. She begins as an apprentice nun (Ceclia) but leaves the convent before taking her final vows. She falls in love with a German farmer where she resides and eventually lives in sin because she will not marry him. Berndt buys her (Agnes) a piano through which and because of their passion will play for days. She looses Berndt and herself as Agnes through a tragedy (I'm not giving it all away! Read it!) and becomes Father Damien Modeste. Hiding her identity as a woman, she presents herself to the reservation Little No Horse during a famine, and proceeds to live her life as a priest and works to convert the people to the Church. She/He tells her story through because of the appearance of another priest who is there to investigate the life and possible miracles worked by a nun, Sister Leopolda, because she is being considered for Sainthood. This nun's story and the story of Father Damien/Agnes are wound together tightly despite the disgust they feel for one another. The characters are very real. The mistakes, the ideas, the emotions are real. The love the priest shares with the people he/she serves is wrought with pain and humuliation and humility and devotion. I am pondering still words, "'The buffalo were taking leave of the earth and they all loved,' said the old chiefs and hunters after years had passed and they could tell what split their hearts. 'The buffalo went crazy with grief to see the end of things. Like us, they saw the end of things and like many of us, many today, they did not care to live.'" (158).

Erdrich, Louise.  The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse.  Perennial.  New York, NY. 2001.