When Life Gives you an Apocalypse…
By Whitney White
Hello dear Readers! Today we will unpack some aspects of Louis Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God.
Louis Erdrich’s way of attacking apocalyptic themed novels is unique. It has been mentioned that this is not her usual genre, and I think that makes it better! She did not focus on what was happening, in fact as a reader I felt very in the dark about what the actual progression of this apocalypse was! Instead, she takes you on a personal journey with Cedar. You only know as much as Cedar does which happens to be very little. This method allowed her to touch on multiple ways different people experience apocalypse both presently and historically, while also leaving the details of this apocalypse to the reader's imagination. I took this as Erdrich saying, “The details do not matter the experiences of these groups is what we should be concerned with”. I almost interpreted this as a call to action. If something like this happened who are the people who need the most protection? The treatment of women in this book was horrific and I think Erdrich wanted to highlight how women’s bodies are objectified so much in society that in this novel people were willing to give them up for the “greater good”. I invite my readers to share comments on this writing style! What were some of the explanations that you came up with to fill in some of the holes in this storyline?
One of the subjects I want to probe is the connection Erdrich highlights on religion throughout this novel. From early on we learn that Cedar is religious if not only to spite her mother's agnostic views. Throughout the novel, I think Cedar leans into her religion more and more strongly to preserve her sanity in these uncertain times. The apocalypse in this novel is centered around women and their fetuses makes life especially bleak for Cedar as a pregnant woman. I watched a couple of people review this book on YouTube and one reviewer did not appreciate Cedar’s defeated attitude towards the end.
Link to bookramble’s review of this book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGOSTeBIOks
In this review, the reader feels that Cedar's nativity throughout the book is frustrating. She felt that Cedar should not have put so much faith in people and should have fought harder to escape toward the end.
I would argue though that in the long run her condition and her religion saved her from breaking and losing all hope. Her baby gave her someone to fight for. She was very optimistic, in my opinion to her benefit, about the baby's future. This served her in two ways. One she was motivated to try to save herself in part one because she had a deep desire to give birth to a healthy baby. Two, she was going to put up a fight against anyone who tried to get in the way of her having this baby after capture. I think that if she were more like her mother, more analytical and realistic she would have either tried to force an abortion or kill herself altogether. Instead, she was able to fight through some horrific events. I thought it was very telling that even after learning of the betrayal from her husband she still concocted a plan with her roommate to break out of the hospital. She even killed a nurse trying to escape to save herself and her baby. We saw her faith be tested again when the “pilgrim” woman turned her in on thanksgiving. She mentions after giving birth that she wanted to end it all especially after realizing she would never leave that hospital. She would be forced to be reduced to a womb. Even after that, she seems to gain this calm sense of peace toward the end as if she accepts her fate. I believe that this was only through her Catholic faith and the desire to one day meet her baby. She also employs another mental health tactic which is journalism. To some readers, this may seem like her giving up, but I put myself in her position. If this is her fate for the rest of her life as far as she knows it would be better to be in peace rather than constant distress. I think Erdrich was trying to emphasize the importance of faith as it pertains to marginalized people.
I was also really intrigued by Louis Erdrich’s depiction of how native people experience the apocalypse and how Cedar interacted with her family initially. I share the same opinion in the YouTube review by Midnight Librarian.
Link to YouTube review by The Midnight Librarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSawUKOxmTY
I was very frustrated by Cedar's response to her native family. Her immediate judgment of them was offensive to me. I was surprised that as a native woman herself Erdrich’s first introduction to the reservation was in the critical gaze of Cedar. I would speculate that this was to take the mysticism out of Native American culture. I am guilty of romanticizing other cultures. I think this has a lot to do with my bias as a black woman with no knowledge of my lineage before arriving in the U.S. I expected Erdrich to show the reservation in a positive light, but she was more realistic and honest. She took away that romanticism for people like me who might think of all this rich culture when I think of native people. She showed the good bad and the ugly. Nonetheless, I agree with the YouTube review mentioned above that Cedar’s initial reaction to them was off-putting and condescending.
All in all, this book does a very good job of allowing the reader's imagination to run rampant. I left wanting more, but I appreciated having an opportunity to fill in the gaps myself.
