About this title: What happens when a trained killer discovers that his true vocation is love? Having survived the killing fields of World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns home to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend who was killed in action.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Perennial
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780060935337ISBN:0060935332
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. 400 p. Audience: General/trade. Good reading copy, minimal smudging on foredge, minimal corner and edge wear read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780066209777ISBN:0066209773
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. A former library book with the usual identifiers in a protective glossy dust jacket covering. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Missing Dust Jacket. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"In the simplest terms, The Master Butcher's Singing Club is the story of Delphine, a woman who once performed in acrobatic shows with her platonic life-partner; a woman who settles in Argus, North Dakota not long after WWI. It's also the story of Fidelus, a German sniper in the war, and his family - Eva, Franz, Markus, Erich, and Emil - who make Argus their home because it was as far along the American railroad system as a suitcase of sausage could transport them, and as hospitable as any town could hope be to a master butcher. The lives of each glance against once another, entwine, separate, entwine again, and between each moment comes the story of a world slipping between the twentieth century's great wars.
I've long wondered how men who survived the horrors of WWI could step back into normal life again, and Erdrich imagines one answer for Fidelus - a coping, a stillness, an anger, and something of a recovery. His sons must cope with WWII, and the mingled horrors its brings. In each instance I loved the perfected personalities of these men - perfected not in the sense of lacking faults, but rather in the business of living on the page, of having thoughts and emotions and actions that felt real and true, different from the women without being predicated on the female characters being lacking or lesser in some way. And the women - such women; honest, individual and wholly unique, fully realized as characters rather than ciphers; as women who might do housework without the housework becoming who they are; who might think about, conceive, deliver and raise children, but not without Erdrich telling us about their minds.
As I read I often thought, I could not have written this - the plot, the people, the place are all so richly imagined and cleverly constructed that I cannot stretch my mind to imagine how a person begins to write such a book. I suspect my admiration for the story will only deepen the more I think about what I read, and that I'll come back to this book for another reading time and time again."
"This is the first book I've read by Louise Erdrich even though I have heard her interviewed on MPR many times. Her use of language and her characters pulled me in right away. I imagine that the post-WWI German immigrant experience in the upper mid-west region depicted in this book may be somewhat representative of my own family's (and husband's family's) experience.
There are a few themes that I wished she had developed more -- Fidelis internal struggle with WWII and also being a WWI german veteran and American immigrant -- but I think that how it was handled is in line with Fidelis' character. I think the power of the book does lie in what hadn't been said because the characters are private people.
This book left me wanting more. I look forward to reading more books by Louise Erdrich and will try to go hear her speak the next time she is interviewed."
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