The Beet Queen is part of a tetralogy that includes Love Medicine, 1984, linked short stories; Tracks, 1988, novel; and The Bingo Palace, 1994, novel.

Love Medicine is a mirror image of The Beet Queen in several respects. Both are part of a developing tetralogy set in the immediate environment of the North Dakota-Minnesota border. While The Beet Queen ends with Dot's awareness of those who love her, Love Medicine ends with Lipsha's discovery of his identity. His observation, "Belonging was a matter of deciding to," could apply to either novel. Both books cluster first person narrators around a place or event and connect disparate stories thematically rather than causally.

The Beet Queen, possibly because it concentrates on white characters, is less mythic and symbolic than Love Medicine. Such mythic and symbolic resonances are more natural in the world of Erdrich's native American characters than in the world of...