Looking for your next read? Welcome to Bazaar Book Chat, an inside look at our editors’ Slack channel, where we candidly review the latest literary releases.
Rosa Sanchez (senior news editor)
Hi @here! Hi @here! Welcome to another month of Bazaar Book Chat! This October, we read The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich, a novel that points a magnifying glass to a small town in North Dakota where a community of sugar farmers go through life—some haunted, some frightful, some hopeful, and some in love.
Any first thoughts?
Joel Calfee (editorial and social media assistant)
Erdrich is such an arresting writer. I’ve heard great things about The Sentence and The Night Watchman, but this was my first time reading one of her works, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. The way she’s able to flesh out characters and weave different perspectives together is so beautiful, and she grabs you from the first page.
💖1
Michella Ore (fashion commerce editor)
This was also my first time reading Erdrich’s work, and I was immediately drawn in by the attention to detail. Everyday life in a small town in North Dakota suddenly takes on a surreal quality as we get to know the characters intimately—their routines, ticks, and relationship with spirituality.
❤️1
Rosa Sanchez
Agreed. Erdrich really makes us see that the little things are what make up life. It took me a little bit to get all the characters and story lines straight, but once I did, I couldn’t stop reading. I was so anxious to find out what the big accident that changed everything was, and I made so many predictions in my head about how Kismet’s love triangle would go. I also thought the writing was so beautiful; sometimes I would just reread a passage because I loved it so much. The ending really encapsulated everything that the book was to me—just a calm acceptance of how messy and painful but incredible and joyful life is.
❤️1
Joel Calfee
I saw echoes in this book of a few others we’ve read this year, like Mercury and Long Island Compromise, where it focuses a lot on how insular communities can shape people.
Rosa Sanchez
Yes!! was thinking that. I love when authors can zoom in like that and make us care so much.
Michella Ore
Ditto. I also enjoyed how love—what it means, how it’s received and how it’s used—differed across characters. For Kismet, love was like this elusive entity that she found herself tangled up in without fully understanding, for Gary it was a shield against painful memories, for Crystal it’s the driving force behind keeping her sugar beet hauling job so she can put Kismet through college and create a legacy of stability.
❤️1
Rosa Sanchez
Yessss! The love stories were so good and so different! I was obsessed with Hugo and his parents. He was so cheesy and the way he is described in the book makes him seem like, dorky and unattractive, but also warm and more intelligent than anyone else in the town, and so genuinely in love with Kismet. It really got me how he said at certain points that he wasn’t worried about Kismet being with Gary because Gary didn’t know love like he did, because he learned to love from watching his parents show their love to one another over and over in their marriage.
I feel like the way they raised him made him so confident in himself in that way, so much so that he left to work in dangerous conditions for years to become rich to support Kismet, and he just knew they were predestined to be together no matter what.
❤️1
Michella Ore
I enjoyed Eric and Kismet’s storyline! It was short—which felt appropriate given their relation to each other—but incredibly important. It allowed Eric the space to start releasing the trauma he took on through the accident and Kismet, a window into Gary—which also gave her the final push to walk away from that marriage which only fulfilled his family.
❤️2
Rosa Sanchez
Eric was the best. I was gonna say, for the first half of the book we hear about this accident that happened that changed lives. When we finally find out what it is, did it change your perspective on the town and certain characters?
It definitely made me feel more sympathy for Gary. I still think he was a hot, privileged jock, but he cared deeply about his friends, and you can see that in the way he is haunted by Jordan. But yeah, I also so loved Eric, who quietly saved everyone and kept his love for Kismet a secret and just went on being good. And while Kismet wasn’t involved in the accident, I think hearing about it changed her too, and helped her see that Gary didn’t need her the way she thought he did, and she could choose to leave.
❤️3
Ariana Marsh (senior features editor)
What I really loved is how the book addressed things like climate change and over-farming without the topics being the storyline or point of the book. Also, I loved how the way that different families farmed or saw/ used plants reflected something deeper about them.
❤️3
Rosa Sanchez
Yes!! the beet farming thread between all the stories was so interesting, and how everyone’s personalities, hopes, and frustrations kind of came out in the way they tended to their farms or saw their land, etc. Like Gary risking his life to get rich for Kismet, Crystal hurting all over from her work on the field but also from bearing the burden of what her husband had done, Winnie holding it over Diz’s head in every argument that his family took her family’s farm.
And all the pesticide talk and the talk about insects and animals dying because of us? Very of the moment, sadly.
❗️1
Ariana Marsh
Totally! And how Crystal saw the nutritional value of the weeds she was eating and their resilience while others looked down upon her for eating them and saw them as pests.
🥗3
Rosa Sanchez
that was such a funny touch about her.
Michella Ore
I also enjoyed Martin’s storyline! Such an odd guy, but also fantastic. I suppose in a way he embodied excess, vanity—traits the other characters seemed to forgo so that they could be service to others.
🔥2
Ariana Marsh
Cutie pie bandit.
🥹3
Rosa Sanchez
OMG, Martin was so ridiculous, I loved it. It was hilarious how he went from a boring teacher who liked expensive silk ties to a full criminal putting on acts to confuse the public and never get caught. And Crystal became so much more independent and sure of herself because of what he did. She said earlier on that she had always acted a certain way to protect men in her life, but from the time Martin ran away to the point he came back, she grew so much. Also, him dressing up as her killed me, especially because she was like, oh low-key that’s sweet that he paid so much attention to how I dress. The bar is low.
❗️2
Michella Ore
For most of the story, Martin refused to give up the fantasy, the magic of possibility—if he can just make his big break—which was funny but also much needed against the direness of the main plot. Of course, he ultimately ditches the silks and fancy coffee for “regular” clothing and a “regular” job when he accepts that stability, Crystal’s driving force, is no less important (and kinda really important when raising a family).
🔥3
Ariana Marsh
Almost of the men in the book were a little pathetic to me.
💀3
In terms of how much they needed from their women or women in general.
❗️1
Michella Ore
It’s true. Most of the men, save for Diz, Ichor, and Eric, seemed to be more focused on what they could get versus give.
Rosa Sanchez
100%
Ariana Marsh
Selfish! But also nothing new.
😮💨1
Rosa Sanchez
Though I though Gary’s obsession with Kismet was so human, the way he needed her to feel safe from his demons.
Ariana Marsh
The relationship between Diz and Winnie was so interesting.
Ariana Marsh
Yeah. How he had bought her family’s land and then, despite her advising him otherwise, farmed it to death.
❗️1
And her resentment for that. I would feel similarly.
❗️3
Rosa Sanchez
The resentment was so real, and it’s interesting to see what people are willing to do, or not do, for a partner or husband or wife. Like even with Crystal ultimately forgiving Martin despite his crimes, and him ultimately giving in and changing.
OMG, I also thought the book club of all the women in town was so funny and so small-town gossip circle energy. Like, they never even got to the book, just talked sh*t.
Ariana Marsh
OMG, I loved the book club moments!! Hilarious.
Michella Ore
Same!
Ariana Marsh
Great levity.
Michella Ore
Also interesting book choice, The Road.
❗️1
Ariana Marsh
YES.
Michella Ore
Very non-cliché women’s reading.
Ariana Marsh
A prescient choice.
Rosa Sanchez
Yeah, their final talk surprised me, in a good way. Like, these housewives are not dumb, okay?
Michella Ore
Nope.
Ariana Marsh
Same. Erdrich is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota, so I think her love for that land (and sadness about what it has become under capitalism etc.) runs deep.
❤️ 3
Knowing that totally puts lots of things in the book int sharp relief.
Rosa Sanchez
Oh wow. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You could definitely the love for the land in the writing.
Rosa Sanchez
Any thoughts on the accident?
Michella Ore
Learning the details of the accident, the quickness of it, the randomness of who lived and who didn’t, was very sad.
💔1
Ariana Marsh
It was shocking, and I think the almost robotic reactions of Eric were surprising to read through.
Michella Ore
Yeah.
Rosa Sanchez
Yeah, just like doing things in shock.
Michella Ore
It was impressive that he was able to function.
❗️1
Rosa Sanchez
The scene where Eric saves Charlie and gives Jordan the relief (?) he deserves really got me. And then to just go on living life without saying anything.
Ariana Marsh
Like how he immediately jumped into gear and helped those he could and acknowledged that terrible things had happened to his friends but he didn't have time to really feel or mourn them.
YES the Jordan scene.
Michella Ore
Meanwhile, Gary was stuck on a tree.
😮💨1 😂1
Rosa Sanchez
Being mean to a ghost.
Ariana Marsh
Interesting too that Kismet has her own near-death experience in the river.
❤️2
Michella Ore
Jordan eventually becoming one with the river was both haunting and beautiful.
❤️2
Rosa Sanchez
And then Gary like finding his peace in the same river.
❤️2
I think brought back the point of how everything is connected, but also how as humans, we’re so insignificant against nature.
❤️3
I would really recommend this book as a thoughtful, slow read to take to heart. I already want to read it again now that I know who everyone is and can understand the context better.
💖2
Ariana Marsh
Same!
Our Bazaar Book Chat pick for November is Didion and Babitz, by Lili Anolik. Pick up your copy of the book here, and read along with us.
