SHADOW TAG. A Novel
New York: Harper Collins, 2010. First edition. Hardcover. When my children were little, their territorial backseat battles once culminated in the memorable complaint from my daughter that her older brother's shadow was touching her. It's a grievance that Irene America, the artist's wife and model at the heart of Louise Erdrich's bleak new novel about a marital dance of death, might well understand. Erdrich borrows a useful metaphor from Ojibwe culture about shadows, mirrors and trapped souls to help describe her characters' suffocating relationship: Irene, no longer in love with her husband, Gil, feels that Gil "had placed his foot on [her] shadow when he painted her. And though she tried to pull away, it was impossible to tug that skein of darkness from under his heel." 255 pages. A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Item #15124
ISBN: 9780061536090
Price: $50.00