Rating: 
Summary: A Fine Title
Review: The Master Butchers Singing Club is a fine title to the wonderful story Louise Erdrich has put down for us. Immigrant American lives and Native American lives intertwine and I am so grateful that Ms. Erdrich continues to tell the story of her people, of Americas people. This country has continually suffered and still does from a strange amensia about history that involves war. The Master Butchers Singing Club tells us to remember what happens.
This story is about many things, family and community, war and its long range affect on people's lives. The intriguing characters serve us a good lesson on morality. I don't want to give any of the complexities of this story away, I'll end by saying when I finished the book I found myself wanting to step out of the house and walk away into the wind.
Rating: 
Summary: style matters
Review: The Master Butchers Singing Club is not much about master butchers or really about their singing, but rather uses this title as a taking off point to tell a story about transplanted people living in the northern midwest of America.
Fidelis, a German, emigrating to America between the two world wars works so hard to keep his family afloat, that he does not have the time or energy to reflect or even interact upon his wife and sons. They do their jobs with him, but his inner life is all but invisible.
Delphine, on the other hand, who befriends Fidelis' wife, Eva...cares for her as she is dying...and later marries Fidelis herself, has a strong inner life. She worries about Fidelis' boys as each of them experiences life's trials, she agonizes about her own father, Roy, the town drunk, drifts in and finally out of a loveless relationship with Cyprian, a circus performer who has taught her balance ( a metaphor for her being able to deal with her future problems), and works her way through additional relationships with her best friend, Clarisse and with Mazarine, who is in love with one of Fidelis' sons.
This inner life/outer life differential between the two main characters is explored in poetic detail by Loiuse Erdrich in this very fine novel.
Bring your patience when your read this book...it is sometime languid and wordy...but it is well worth the effort.
It is beautifully written and it explores an important part of
of our country which is rarely presented.
Rating: 
Summary: Patchwork
Review: This book was a bit of disappointment. I expected more substance --- if you will forgive the pun --- I expected more meat. It was like a patchwork quilt with bright areas of excellent word-crafting and insight,while the rest was just old worn material. It wasn't unpleasant reading. I was just left with the thought, "Was this the whole story?"
Rating: 
Summary: Too Many, Too Much
Review: This book would have been much improved by some careful editing. I agree with an earlier reviewer who termed it "a mess" -- there were far too many plotlines and characters. Do we truly need to know so much about the undertaker-assistant friend? the sheriff? A clear focus on the Waldvogel family, or Delphine, showing how aspects of their lives developed, would have made this a much more interesting book.
Much worse for an author of Erdrich's experience and caliber is the fact that we are told so many things about each character's life, rather than having them naturally develop from the story. "Show, not tell" is a basic principle of fiction writing, and I can't count the number of times we didn't have this here. When I think of the clarity of some of her earlier works, such as "Tracks" and "Beet Queen," I am saddened and disappointed.
Also, much of the writing was seriously overwrought. A woman is described as "seething, like a waft of town sewer gas down the street." This is just one of many cringe-inducing phrases. I hate to say it, but if the person who wrote this book wasn't already a well-established and famous author, I find it hard to believe a publisher would have accepted it -- at least without some serious rewriting.
Erdrich has done some fine work. I went back to "Tracks" and found myself moved and truly impressed by both the spare, beautiful quality of her writing as well as the story. Perhaps she should return to her stylistic roots.
Rating:
Summary: Erdrich is on the top of her game
Review: This novel is a departure for Louise Erdrich in that The Master Butchers Singing Club focuses on the German side of her heritage and only deals with Native American characters on the periphery. Erdrich has been my favorite author ever since I read Love Medicine while in college. Her newest novel does not disappoint at all.The novel follows two people, Fidelis and Delphine. We first meet Fidelis shortly after World War I. He is a German and is going home to meet the fiancé of his best friend in the war. He marries Eva and they move to America and end up living in Argus, North Dakota. He works first in Pete Kozka's butcher shop (we meet Pete in her earlier novel The Beet Queen ), and later opens his own shop. Delphine is a native of Argus and is living with an Indian named Cyprian Lazarre (a family well know in Erdrich's work for dishonesty), who happens to be a homosexual. The paths of Fidelis and Delphine cross and their lives become intertwined in several different ways. Erdrich's gifts as a storyteller only seem to be getting stronger as she continues to write novels. This is an excellent novel. She is a master storyteller. While few novels will match up to The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse , this is a first rate novel and is essential reading for anyone who enjoys reading Erdrich or excellent novels.
Rating:
Summary: Vivid, enthralling story
Review: This story is told vivdly and easily has you enthralled. There's many twists and turns along the way, and you'll enjoy each!
The book really is just a story of a group of people trying to make it in ND in the early 1900's- after WWI. Each character is memorable, unique and comes to life before your eyes. The ending won't leave you disappointed.
Overall I did enjoy the story. It was SO involved though, I almost feel like I can't pick one thing the story was about- or one person. The weirdest thing is that the title is a bit misleading, not until the last 50 pages does the author mention much about the "singing club". Nor is Fidelis really the "main character"- I felt there really was none. This is the first I've read by this author, this book does not compell me to read more, but I'm glad I read it.
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