A Spoonful of Water Helps the Medicine Go Down.
Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich is a story about the lives of several families in the Chippewa tribe. Erdrich captures the struggles and triumphs of the characters in beautifully narrated prose. The majority of the book is written from the first person point of view, although there are a few chapters where the narrator is in the 3rd person. Using this interesting style, Erdrich is able to show all sides of a specific event from many different viewpoints. Another plus that this style brings is the way the reader can see the internal struggles of a character and is privy to information that is never spoken. The author also shows the struggle of the characters to become more than "just an Indian" and at the same time, keep their connection to nature and their native heritage. One of the main themes of this book is water. Throughout the book, water is seen as a tool for rejuvenation, a barrier between worlds, and a bringer of death. .
At many points in the book characters us water as a way to clear their heads. This can be seen when June and Gordie on their honeymoon up to a small secluded lake. This is one of the only times in the book where the characters seemed genuinely happy because "There was nothing to disturb their peace"(p.270). This was a rare occurrence in the book that there would be nothing to disturb the scene. Living next to the lake, Gordie and June enjoy their honeymoon. .
The most mysterious character in the entire book is a man named Moses Pillager. He lives outside the normal world, on an island deep in the woods. He is surrounded by water. This water acts as a barrier between the world of the Chippewa and the world of nature. When Lulu goes to visit him this is the wild scene she sees: "Cats were lounging, sprinting, hunting, dozing on every warm log, on each heated outcrop. There were cats in the trees, in the moving waves of iron colored grass" (p.
