SOURCE: Sarris, Greg. “Reading Louise Erdrich: Love Medicine as Home Medicine.” In Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts, pp. 115-45. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.

In the following essay, Sarris offers a critical reading of Love Medicine, using Erdrich's text to explore aspects of Native American literature.

“Your grandmother didn't want to be Indian,” my Auntie Violet remarked as she put down the photograph of my grandmother I had given her. She leaned forward in her chair, as if for a closer inspection, one last look at the picture, then sat back with resolve. “Nope,” she said, “that lady wanted to be white. She didn't want to be Indian. I'm sorry to tell.”

I shuffled through the assorted black and white photographs I kept in a plastic K-Mart shopping bag. They were pictures I had taken from my grandmother's family album. I handed...