The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich review – a multifaceted rural tale

A love triangle in a farming community provides the central theme in this garrulous small-town satire

By Michael Donkor

In the middle of US author Louise Erdrich’s latest novel, set in the farming communities of Tabor, North Dakota, star-crossed teens Hugo Dumach and the fantastically named Kismet Poe are forced to part. The hilariously quixotic Hugo takes comfort in a quilt, a keepsake his beloved has left him:

“It [was] sewed out of her T-shirts [and] held a history of her […] The first T-shirts she wore were stamped with unicorns, dolphins, white-maned ponies, and ballet dancers. Next came the Powerpuff Girls and Sailor Moon. Harry Potter. Her favourite cereals. The Lucky Charms leprechaun. Tony the Tiger. The Lord of the Rings. Rihanna. Pink. Katy Perry. Destiny’s Child. Beyoncé. There was an NDSU bison. A Golden Gopher, a Husky. Her college picks.”

The bustling and brightly coloured heterogeneity here is mirrored in The Mighty Red at large. Following a variety of perspectives, it is part romcom, part overblown family saga, part cli-fi warning, part absurdist heist, part small-town satire, all tumbling out amid the turmoil of the 2008 financial crash.

The dominant romantic plot is constructed round a love triangle involving Kismet, Gary and Hugo. Hailing from a “rattled, scratching, always-in-debt” family, Kismet is a gothy and gifted teenager, destined for greatness beyond the town’s limits, at least as far as her sugar beet hauler mother, Crystal, is concerned. Crystal’s aspirations are dashed when Kismet succumbs to the allures of troubled jock-with-a-heart Gary Geist. He’s the son of the wealthiest landowning family around; indeed, the Geists own the farm on which Crystal works. Gary haphazardly proposes to Kismet in a silly set piece involving an errant champagne cork. Against her better judgment, mesmerised by his inscrutable vulnerability, Kismet accepts. Read the full review at The Guardian.