Book Review
Apr. 24th, 2026 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
by Louise Erdrich
This beautiful novel focuses on Father Damien, a priest serving on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota during the twentieth century. His great secret is that he is a woman who has lived as a man for most of his life. When another priest comes to the reservation to investigate the sanctity of Sister Leopolda, a deceased nun of the reservation convent, Damien must decide whether to reveal the truth about Leopolda as he reflects on his life.
The Last Report... is a wonderful book that reveals a lot about Native American life in the early 20th century, and also explores what goodness and saintliness really are, and what makes a life truly holy. Damien's quiet, loving, empathetic service to the Ojibwe community is contrasted with Leopolda's forbidding and harsh devotion to the Church. The book is filled with so many wonderful characters, especially the elder Nanapush, Mary Kashpaw, and Damien himself. Erdrich gives us a good look at how religion can function in a community, and how that community can shape that religion. There's a lot in this book, and it's all worth discovering.
by Louise Erdrich
This beautiful novel focuses on Father Damien, a priest serving on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota during the twentieth century. His great secret is that he is a woman who has lived as a man for most of his life. When another priest comes to the reservation to investigate the sanctity of Sister Leopolda, a deceased nun of the reservation convent, Damien must decide whether to reveal the truth about Leopolda as he reflects on his life.
The Last Report... is a wonderful book that reveals a lot about Native American life in the early 20th century, and also explores what goodness and saintliness really are, and what makes a life truly holy. Damien's quiet, loving, empathetic service to the Ojibwe community is contrasted with Leopolda's forbidding and harsh devotion to the Church. The book is filled with so many wonderful characters, especially the elder Nanapush, Mary Kashpaw, and Damien himself. Erdrich gives us a good look at how religion can function in a community, and how that community can shape that religion. There's a lot in this book, and it's all worth discovering.
