The Sentence

Literary slice of life fiction with magical realism elements, it follows a young Native American woman named Tookie, a bookseller and ex-convict, who is haunted by the ghost of Flora, her most annoying customer.
The book takes place in the beginning of the Covid pandemic and also includes other events for 2020 like the murder of George Floyd.  The more realistic themes of racism, literature, relationships, police brutality, pandemic, cultural appropriation, indigenous identity was intertwined with the magical realism of the ghost haunting. I loved how it was a love letter to books and bookstores, the power of reading as a tool of liberation, respect (of self and others) and knowledge.  It was really interesting to learn about Native American cultures and Tookie navigated trough her identity, she also was such an endearing and sympathetic character to me.  I really liked the side characters who were all compelling. I also loved to see some queer rep too.  The writing felt a hit too chaotic, flip flopping emotions and stream of consciousness for me. The plot was not straightforward with the ghost story aspect getting out of focus afterwards and resolved a bit too quickly. Reading other reviews, it might be that it was a deliberate choice by the author who changed the story to reflect what was happening in real life while she was writing.  The end has a list of books including some mentioned and read by the characters, which I thought was an incredible idea and I'll peruse it later on.  Overall a very good novel with some great themes and a great main character, I'll surely check out Louise Erdrich's other books.