I haven't read a good Native American book since "Yellow Raft on Blue Water," so it was nice to pick this up. It follows a stretched out family as they try to put together their lives in the face of unrequited love, chance and poverty.

There are a lot of 'I wonder if....' to this book. There are a lot of storylines that just end, leaving the reader to put the pieces together. I kinda liked that about the book. For example: Does Lipsha ever return? Did he live? Does Shawnee Ray ever escape Lyman? Zelda? Does Lyman ever repent for stealing his brother's money? Is the Bingo Palace successful? Does the haunting of Fluer ruin the casino?

I thought it was well written, and I enjoyed the characters. Thanks to Ms. Erdrich for including a family tree, else I would have given up trying to unravel the connections.