The Master Butcher's Singing Club

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This book was recommended by my book club. I've found that it is difficult to write about this very well-written, poignant and captivating story without the plot seeming to be a bit "soap opera"ish, but trust me, it is anything but! Be that as it may, I would encourage any serious reader to immerse yourself in the story, for it is well worth the time to read. I would have liked to give it a 4.5 rating, as I can't say that it is the best book I've read in the last year, but it comes close. I couldn't give it a 4, because that wouldn't rate it high enough.The Master Butchers Singing Club is very little about singing and very much about the privations of the years between WWI and WWII in the upper Midwestern United States. It begins with the story of a German soldier who survives WWI and returns home to marry his fallen best friend's pregnant girlfriend, Eva, to fulfill his promise to his dying friend to take care of her. They fall in love and have three more boys while he studies with his father to learn the family's trade. When Fidelis first encounters a slice of American bread sent in a "care package" to a friend, he is amazed that this slice is "shaped with a precision that could only be the work of fanatics." He becomes enamored of a society so inventive that they would create machines to produce such commonplace items as a loaf of bread. Fidelis eventually boards the RMS Mauritania and migrates to the United States with a suitcase full of his father's "miraculous smoked sausages" to sell in order to pay his way across the United States to Seattle, where the bread was produced. However, he sells his last sausage in Argus, North Dakota, and settles there, working for the best butcher in town to establish his own reputation as a master butcher. Once he has settled, Fidelis sends for Eva and the boys.In Chapter 2, we meet Delphine, a young woman who hasn't yet come to terms with her own youth of emotional deprivation with a drunken father and sans a mother whose face she's never seen. Argus was a town small enough that everyone knows everyone else's business, All she ever wanted was to escape to where her father wasn't a constant embarrassment and disappointment to her. So she runs off with a circus performer, Cypriani.Eventually, Delphine returns home with Cypriani and finds employment at Fidelis' butcher shop. She and Eva become close friends, and Delphine becomes an integral part of the family.The characters in this book are very well developed, and each plays an important part in the family's life. There is a bit of everything in the book - from mystery to history to romance - and throughout it all, Ms. Erdrich's writing genius keeps the reader captivated. The only criticism I would have for the book is that a translation of the few German passages would be appreciated.

It was very well written, but no the Upper I needed for this time of covid

I read this novel in two days. It would have been one day, but I had a houseguest in the form of a little dog who had to be walked. This story of time in the Dakotas during the period between World War One and World War Two and after was compelling. How could you not love a writer who describes a house plant as ferociously colorful? Erdrich's style is thick with description, but doesn't bore. It sets the stage.The Master Butcher arrives in the US for opportunity and heads west. His skill as a Master Butcher from Europe is his path to success. His other gift is singing, so he enlists the time of other men in the community to join him and drink a lot of beer. Everything he does and has become is colored by his past as an austro-German in the war. The author does a masterful job setting the stage and describing a time in our history and illustrates how our pasts inform our lives.

Great story and climax but the denouement was a bit of a let down (one reader called it "disarrayed", I would agree). Still, it is a lovely, thought-provoking book and well worth 4 stars. It had a touch of mystery and the unexpected. I think what I found most interesting of all was that the seemingly humorous inclusion of the carnival style "balancing" act in the begining of the novel is really, in my mind, an underlying theme for the whole book. For every act of evil, there is an act of good; for each death, new life or new life paths. Another writer would have taken the same novel and made a tearjerker. But in Erdrich's hands, this otherwise somber tale is imbued with a sense of hope that improves the story. This book reminded me a bit of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams but with a writing style that is more lyrical and sophisticated, 'showing' more than 'telling'.

Many have written to praise this book, and I too give it five stars. I am adding my two cents worth here because I want to encourage you committed readers to try books on CD. I "read" this book by Erdrich and also her "A Plague of Doves" on CD. If you have not read a book this way, you are in for a treat. The best of the aural books [which are NOT abridged in any way] are read by professional actors. "A Plague of Doves" is one of these. Every character is alive and has a voice. It is a wonderful experience. In the case of TMBSC Erdrich reads the book herself. Her voice is too soft and her reading not as nuanced as a trained actor. Still, is is a good way to take in the story. Some authors do fine with their own work: Stephen King does an excellent job reading his own stories. You do not need a long commute or car trip to do this. What we hear stays as firmly fixed in our brains as what we read with our eyes. We can come back to it whether it is on our bedside table or in the CD player of our car. The local libraries have books on CD. Try this!

Not my first Erdrich work. Well written, engaging read. Ending in which most is revealed - but not all. Some of the threads remain unfinished. Anticlimactic in that what might have been special turns out to be rather prosaic and disappointing.

Love, loved this unending story woven of life both before and after war. When an author with this much detail in their writing leaves me in suspense, though, I find myself mildly disappointed! What am I missing with these two lingering questions ... why were red beads sealing the cellar shut and how did step and a half find the red beaded dress on the porch after it was buried??? Help! Still, a memorable and poignant read!

Unconventional ideas and characters in a conventional form! That's how I found the novel. Very classic to start with and beautifully written, the story of Fidelis' s homecoming after the war showed us right away that Louise Erdrich can indeed write. Then when Fidelis leaves for America I imagined I would read a conventional story of financial success in the New World only to be thrown by the start of the story of Delphine, the human table, and Cyprian, the balancing artist who can arrange a number of chairs and balance on them once they've been 'installed' on Delphine's strong abdominal muscles. This is certainly not what I imagined I would read. This novel is full of surprises and if some of them can be disconcerting to start with I must admit I enjoyed reading about life in Argus, Dakota. As boring as the town seems to be at least the characters living in it have been given depth and time to develop.

I love her work usually but this is clunky and needs a good editing, there were times when I had to re read to establish what was going on. There was no point to much of the book most of the characters were cardboard cut outs and the stuff that pot boilers are made of.............sometimes the sublime prose was there but much of this book seemed clunky.I didn't care when people died however tragically. There has been for me a shift in her work and in that I am profoundly disappointed.

One of my top 5 favourite novels. I love her writing style which is mature but not dull or old.. Her characters are rounded and human and often surprising. The culture and passage of time are presented very well, and it's a page turner. I hifghly recommend it.

Well worth reading if a bit odd. She's an interesting writer. I liked her 'The Painted Drum' even better.

Story is OK, not great. Characters are well drawn, but it is a bit slow and doesn't keep you reading and it meanders a bit