I really enjoyed listening to The Mighty Red (2024) by Louise Erdrich. I think I’ve read nearly every novel she’s written. so my expectations were high, and I was not disappointed.
Centering on a teenage love triangle, with goth Kismet Poe marrying football player Gary Geist and fooling around with homeschooled genius Hugo, right after graduation, at the time of the financial crash of 2008-2009, in the Red River Valley that forms the border between North Dakota and Minnesota, Erdrich places the triangle squarely in the center of their community, surrounded by their families and friends. Gary is haunted by his mistakes that led to a terrible accident the last year and believes Kismet can heal him; Hugo is desperate to prove himself an adult so Kismet will choose him.
Meanwhile, Crystal, Kismet’s mother, works hauling sugar beets from the Geist’s farm night after night, trying to figure out what to say so that Kismet won’t make the terrible mistake of marrying Gary. And then Martin, Kismet’s father, disappears amid the stock market crash and it’s believed he’s absconded with the church renovation fund. And how did her house get a mortgage on it? She had paid it off.
Erdrich weaves in the challenges of modern farming and farmers’ relationship to the environment, with pesticide and herbicide use and their effects.
All of the characters have history with each other that informs their interactions, including farms sold to a neighbor because of financial necessity and ancestors who didn’t get along. Hugo’s Mom owns a bookstore and most of the women characters are part of a book group–the book group scene is one of my favorites!
I will consider it fat-positive, as Kismet and Crystal are described as “curvy” and “sturdy” and Hugo is portrayed as a big young man, all in a positive or neutral way.
Reading While Fat 