Book: The Night Watchman
Author: Louise Erdrich
Review by: Jorge Fernandez, consultant, Pendleton Group, and former vice president of global commerce at the Metro Atlanta Chamber and U.S. Air Force pilot
This book provides great insight and empathy into the plight of native peoples in the United States, which we as a society often fail to bring forward even in this new era of discourse on social equity.
“The Night Watchman” is an obsessive and memorable historical novel that blends the true story of the author’s grandfather, Thomas Wazhashk, with that of a fictional cast of characters. Thomas is a night watchman at a factory located in the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. He is a member of the Chippewa Nation.
The story centers on the 1953 “emancipation bill” that Utah Rep. Arthur Vivian Watkins sponsored on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Thomas’s dignity does not allow him to call the bill by its name. Instead, he terms it the “termination bill.” Far from being about freedom, he knows it is aimed at assimilation focused on depriving native peoples of their land and identity through a process of “civilization.”
The author creates a fictional plot around the bill’s prospects and leaves readers with indelible impressions of characters’ passions, ambitions, beliefs, fears and cultures; you can’t help but come away feeling like you know them personally. Louise Erdrich is the won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for the book, which is also a New York Times Bestseller.
I recommend it to those willing to have their mind opened to little-known facts that have shaped our American story in ways that are rarely portrayed.
Editor’s notes: Global Atlanta will receive a 10 percent commission on any purchase of this book through the links on this page. Bookshop.org also contributes 10 percent of the purchase price of each book to independent booksellers around the United States.
Each year, Global Atlanta asks influential readers and community leaders to review the most impactful book they read during the course of the year. This endeavor has continued annually since 2010.
See last year’s full list of books on BookShop here, and all 2020 reader reviews here.
All books were chosen and reviews written independently, with only mild editing from our staff.
Read previous reviews by Jorge Fernandez below:
Books 2020: Conrad’s Magical Realist View of Latin America
Books 2019: Understanding Latin America Through the Magic of Historical Fiction
Books 2018: Cultivating America’s Soul Through Struggle
Books 2017: Complex Family Histories After Fleeing Nazi Germany for the Americas
Books 2016: Three Warnings Against Absolute Power
Books 2015: Understanding China’s World War II Experience
Books 2013: Murder, Intrigue and Architecture at the Chicago World’s Fair