Shadow Tag
by Louise Erdrich
Signed by the Author
Here is the most telling fact: you wish to possess me.
Here is another fact: I loved you and let you think you could.
When Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading
her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a
safe-deposit box. There she records the truth about her life and her
marriage, while turning her Red Diary—hidden where Gil will find
it—into a manipulative farce. Alternating between these two records,
complemented by unflinching third-person narration, Shadow Tag is an eerily gripping read.
When the novel opens, Irene is resuming work on her doctoral thesis
about George Catlin, the nineteenth-century painter whose Native
American subjects often regarded his portraits with suspicious wonder.
Gil, who gained notoriety as an artist through his emotionally
revealing portraits of his wife—work that is adoring, sensual, and
humiliating, even shocking—realizes that his fear of losing Irene may
force him to create the defining work of his career.
Meanwhile, Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three
children: fourteen-year-old genius Florian, who escapes his family's
unraveling with joints and a stolen bottle of wine; Riel, their only
daughter, an eleven-year-old feverishly planning to preserve her
family, no matter what disaster strikes; and sweet kindergartener
Stoney, who was born, his parents come to realize, at the beginning of
the end.
“A masterpiece…a captivating work of fiction…exquisite…tightly
focused…arresting…This profoundly tragic novel captures that lament in
some of Erdrich’s most beautiful and urgent writing.” (Ron Charles,
Washington Post )
“Read this if: You’re looking for a well-written, well-told tale that is thought- and discussion- provoking.” (Baltimore Sun )
“A
brilliant cautionary tale…Reading it is like watching a wildfire whose
flames are so mesmerizingly beautiful that it’s almost easy to ignore
the deadly mess left behind.” (Library Journal )
“A portrait of
an ‘iconic’ marriage on its way to dissolution…Erdrich’s unbridled
urgency yields startlingly original phrasing as well as flashes of
blinding lucidity.” (New York Times Book Review )
“Into this
deeply personal novel about marriage, family and individual identity,
Erdrich weaves broader questions about cause and effect in history...A
small masterpiece of compelling, painfully moving fiction.” (Kirkus
Reviews (starred review) )
“SHADOW TAG is compelling…a searing, personal examination of one family that’s falling apart.” (Miami Herald )
“A page-turner…a most compelling novel” (Dallas Morning News )
“Erdrich
offers a portrait that’s convincing…Shadow Tag is wonderfully,
painfully readable and revealing.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune )
“An
exquisite, character-driven tale…its piercing insights into sex,
family, and power are breathtaking…A masterfully concentrated and
gripping novel of image and conquest, autonomy and love, inheritance and
loss.” (Donna Seaman, Booklist )
“Muscular and fearless…It is
[Erdrich’s] superb telling of this story that makes it real, her stellar
writing that brings powerful truth to invented worlds.” (BookPage )
“Gripping…a
hushed and haunting tale that chillingly and convincingly reflects the
upper-middle-class American experience, not only the Native American
one.” (USA Today )
“SHADOW TAG is hard to put down...It builds to
a spectacular ending with a twist I didn’t see coming...Erdrich has
taken a tragedy and turned it into art.” (Philadelphia Inquirer )
“A
fast-paced novel of exceptional artistic, intellectual, and
psychological merit…Nowhere have love’s complications been better
illustrated than in the raw honesty of Shadow Tag.” (Boston Sunday Globe
)
Clear, urgent, deep as a swift river…accomplishes the literary
miracle of making a reader ravenous to finish it, while stinging with
regret at how soon it must end.” (San Francisco Chronicle )
“ A fierce novel…raw…alive…vividly present…it marks a breakthrough for the author.” (Columbus Dispatch )
“A
domestic drama that builds an almost thriller-like momentum…A novel as
dark and tragic as it is difficult to put down” (San Diego Union-Tribune
)
As her home increasingly becomes a place of violence
and secrets, and she drifts into alcoholism, Irene moves to end her
marriage. But her attachment to Gil is filled with shadowy need and
delicious ironies. In brilliantly controlled prose, Shadow Tag
fearlessly explores the complex nature of love, the fluid boundaries of
identity, and one family's struggle for survival and redemption.
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