The Beet Queen

The Beet Queen – Louise Erdrich

At the height of the Great Depression, Adelaide cannot afford to take care of her children. After selling everything she owns and sacrificing everything of meaning, she gives up, hops a plane, and flies away. Thrust suddenly into leading a family, young Mary makes a plan to ride a train to their aunt’s house, who will surely solve all their problems. But before they can reach their aunt’s house, the three children are separated. Karl jumps right back into the boxcar and spends his life in motion, while Mary grows a stubbornness that roots her to Argus, North Dakota for the rest of her life, and the baby brother lives apart from the rest of them, only to enter their lives again at rare intervals. Desperate to find a home, Mary attaches herself to her aunt’s family by becoming necessary to their existence. She takes over her uncle’s butcher shop when they have to move south, constantly annoys her cousin Sita, and forces her way into a lifelong friendship with Celestine. Meanwhile, Karl floats around, appearing at random intervals to disrupt life. He has a child with Celestine, Dot, who pulls everyone else together by pushing them away equally. In a life of uncertainty, sometimes the only thing that can be counted on is change.

“The Beet Queen” follows a cast of characters over more than 40 years as they grow from children who struggle with finding a place in the world into adults who struggle with finding a place in the world. Haunted by their past relationships and abandonments, each character adopts a different coping mechanism, which defines how they approach new relationships. Whether through flight, immobility, passive acceptance, or general disregard, each character seeks to build substantial relationships and establish a sense of home. The characters represent different perspectives on what home means, how to build a home, and how other people in life relate to one’s sense of home. The setting alternately reinforces and juxtaposes the importance of home. A tiny little town in North Dakota brings to mind a small, close community that is often associated with “home,” but it ironically serves as the nexus of life for so many characters in motion. Erdrich expertly creates a world where people, places, stability, and motion all question what it means to belong.

Admittedly, I think “The Beet Queen” is a bit of a bland novel. A tiny town in North Dakota that struggles to catch up as the rest of the world modernizes? Who cares? But upon closer inspection of the characters, their actions, and what motivates their lives, the story really comes to life. I love how Erdrich plays with the sense of home, how people and relationships relate to our sense of home, and how movement impacts or, sometimes, defines life. No, this isn’t a ground-breaking, soul-shattering novel, but it is beautifully crafted to make you reconsider how we relate to the world. It is simple, even understated, and well worth the read.