Point of View

Erdrich adopts different points of view for each section of her novel ("Revival Road," "North of Hoopdance," "The Little Girl Drum," and, again, "Revival Road"). In both "Revival Road" sections, the novel is narrated in the first person by Faye Travers. "North of Hoopdance" is narrated largely by Bernard, an Ojibwe man, but he is functioning not so much as a first-person narrator as in the capacity of a historian, or even a griot. "The Little Girl Drum," meanwhile, uses a more standard third-person limited approach, trading off chapters which follow the viewpoints of each of Ira and Shawnee before concluding with a long chapter that works as more of an ensemble piece.

Faye's narration is designed to allow Erdrich to explore the process of grieving. Though Faye is a careful and attentive observer of the events unfolding around her—the deaths of Davan and...