The bingo palace, by Louise Erdrich

A sequel of sorts to Erdrich’s well-known first novel , Love Medicine, this short novel continues the stories of several of the characters in the earlier book.  It focuses on Lipsha Morrissey, a young man who seems to be drifting through life, who is summoned back to the reservation by his grandmother.  Falling under the spell of beautiful dancer, Shawnee Ray, who has a child by the rez’s entrepreneurial Lyman Lamartine, owner of the local bar and gambling den, Lipsha struggles to fit in and to win her love.  At times funny, at times tragic, this book is well-written but not really one of her best.  274 pp.