Wolves and the silent violence of dreams

I would like tell you about a character-driven drama and two crime novels. Of the latter, the best ones also have strong and memorable characters and quite a bit of drama. The boundaries blur. But sometimes it's fun to read a novel without a taut plot, one that takes its course and lets characters and their motivations slowly unfold; where the tension is created by the dynamics between characters, their aspirations and motivations. In such a book, one can lose oneself while horrifying events unfold on the political world stage. One can believe for a moment that human beings are basically good and our worn-out, run-down planet is still beautiful.

Louise Erdrich is one of my favourite authors. I read everything she writes. She is a Native American writer and her novels are characterised by Native American characters, a strong awareness of the environment and planet, and sweet, lyrical, and poetic language. Listen to this:

The river is changeable, a slow and sleepy trickle in summer, rampaging like a violent toddler in spring, when it sweeps across the land reflecting the sky like its mother – a vast prehistoric lake. Over millennia, the waters have given the Red River Valley earth its blackness, its life. The river is shallow, it is deep, I grew up there, it is everything.

The Mighty Red is set in the Red River Valley in North Dakota. The earth was once fertile, but now a large co-op relentlessly farms sugar beets, which deplete the soil – on top of that, the farmers wage  chemical warfare against all pests and weeds. There are no worms and moths left, and the birds stay away. Gary Geist is the son of one such a chemical farmer. He's blessed with luck – from an early age, he gets miraculously rescued from life-threatening situations, in inexplicable ways

Until the night when his guardian angel is asleep and he and his school friends, drunk and high, go speeding down a hill on snowmobiles and two of them die. He is unharmed. His mother sinks into a depression and he sees his late friend everywhere, almost going off his rocker. Then he starts noticing Kismet, a weird Goth girl. She is Native American and not conventionally pretty, but possessed of a tranquil wisdom. When he starts dating her, the voices in his head are silenced and his dead friend stays away.

And then disaster unfolds

They have just finished school, but Gary launches a fierce campaign to persuade Kismet to marry him. She actually likes another boy, the bookstore owner's son who, like her, is highly intelligent. But she is flattered by the attentions of the handsome, wealthy, spoilt Gary and feels that he needs her. Against her better judgment and her mother's admonitions, she marries him.

The disaster that now unfolds is something you have to experience for yourself. Kismet is more or less held captive on the Geists' farm. How is she going to untangle herself? Along the way, Kismet and the reader also learn what really happened on the night of the accident that changed Gary's life. And her disgust grows in the Geists' farming methods that are destroying the planet. By contrast, her mother, Crystal, is a wise, earthy woman who grows weeds to eat and does no harm to anyone or anything.

It's a novel that gets you thinking about man's greed and selfishness, about freedom, captivity and dreams. Ultimately, as the blurb on the back cover says, it's about “love in all of its absurdity and splendour". I recommend it particularly highly.

The Mighty Red by Louise Eldrich was published by HarperCollins and costs R289 at Loot.

Louise Penny is a New York Times bestseller and her novels – crime fiction – are noteworthy, because the characters have clout and the dynamics between them are fascinating. The Grey Wolf is set in Quebec. The main characters are police chief Armand Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, a librarian and archivist. The relationship between them is complex, harmonious and strong as a river. Their peaceful existence in the small town of Three Pines is disturbed by a phone call. It's a figure from Gamache's past, the assistant to a corrupt minister who had caused him grave harm when he refused to be involved in corruption. His coat is stolen from his apartment, and returned with two notes in the pockets. Someone is killed.

It's a complicated plot on an international scale and he and his family are not safe. There is involvement from the mafia as well. Sometimes such a big, complex canvas is overwhelming to me and I prefer a cosier scenario, but Penny is a master plot weaver and the characters keep you reading.

The Grey Wolf was published by Hodder & Stoughton and costs R299 at Loot.

Martina Cole is also an author who churns out bestsellers. This crime novel was co-written with Jacqui Rose. Once again, the depiction of character is paramount in this suspenseful novel. Steph Barker is a woman of substance. She is an ex-prostitute who has taken back control of her life and now runs a haven for abused women in Kent, England. Many of them are prostitutes and addicted to drugs. They are ruthlessly exploited by their pimps, and often abused. There are all sorts of eccentric characters loosely attached to the rehab centre, such as the reclusive widower Joseph Potter who often helps out by carting the women around or helping to move their stuff. Gradually, the reader discovers that Potter is not such a harmless benefactor – his two teenage children are terrified creatures who are locked up in their rooms.

Then someone starts killing prostitutes. The police, who are on the pimps' payroll, look the other way. It's only prostitutes. Steph suspects the unscrupulous pimps, who have gotten away with murder before. It's one of those books that leaves you with the realisation that men – not all of them, mind you – are bastards who will act without restraint if they can get away with it. And it fills you with a realisation of the strength and resilience of women. I couldn't put it down.

Guilty by Martina Cole was published by the Headline Publishing Group and costs R299 at Loot.

What are we listening to?

Howling with a gigantic white wolf:

♦ VWB ♦

BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION: Go to the bottom of this page to share your opinion. We look forward to hearing from you.