The Master Butchers Singing Club (P.S.)

wonderfully rich tail of the American dream. A woman's role in agricultural immigrant America. I like the mid west background contrast to the German cultural thinking and how flexibility is the key. It's one of those memorable reads

This is the story of two very different families and how they collide. Firstly, the Waldvogels - from Germany. Fidelis Waldvogel was a former sniper for the Germans in WWI, and returns home to marry his dead best friend’s pregnant fiancee, Eva. He then moves to the United States and becomes a master butcher. His wife soon joins him, along with their four sons: Franz, Markus, Emil and Erich.

Delphine is the daughter of a drunk and a mysterious missing woman named Minnie. We meet her as she is out on the road, travelling with a professional “balancer” named Cyprian - a gay Ojibwe Indian who loves Delphine as a sister and wants her permanently in his life. Delphine’s father, Roy, is the Argus town drunk and Delphine returns to take care of him - only to find something horrifying down in the family basement. She also takes a job at the Waldvogel Butcher shop, and has her life forever altered upon meeting Eva, Fidelis, and Markus.

These families dance around each other, bringing others in and out of their orbits, influencing each other’s thoughts and beliefs with their own actions and reactions to events as they come along - whether death, near-death experiences - murders, jobs, and uncomfortable family secrets. The stories of these families are forever intertwined, as the two youngest Waldvogel boys are sent back to Germany with their embittered aunt and then WWII breaks out. We watch Franz fall in love, and we watch as Delphine must make decisions harder than she likes in order to capture her own happiness and meaning in her life.

This is a book that speaks intelligently and beautifully about our struggles with death and what comes before it - the living towards death: death in its suddenness, and in its ability to drag itself slowly towards you. It looks at how this affects those who love you, and even you yourself and what the inevitability of death does to one who is alive.

Excellent. Touched all my emotions and stomped on a few. Elyse, (since you asked) I recommend this to you.

Incredible novel! Epic in its sweep, with fascinating characters, strong plot and delicious prose. My mom felt so strongly about the book that she bought it for me -- and she's a librarian who doesn't buy a lot of fiction! I can't wait to read more books by Louise Erdrich.

This is a great book. I found the characters completely believable. Don't let the title scare you off - it's fabulous!

The Master Butchers Singing Club was a great book. It basically had everything...gill stuff, history stuff, a little suspense. I enjoyed it.

Louise Erdrich draws from the German side of her heritage to create wonderful, deep characters living in small town midwest USA before and during WWII. One of my all time favorite reads.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! This is an amazing piece of literature. Louise Erdrich has a beautiful, artistic style to writing that I fell in love with after reading just one of her books.

The big question at book club about this book was why the title? We all loved the book, but the Master Butchers Singing Club really did not have a lot to do with the outcome of the book. The story is about Fidelis Waldvogel who comes to America in the aftermath of World War I with a suitcase full of his father’s sausage and the knives of his profession. He gets as far as Argus, North Dakota, where he finally sets up shop and the book follows his life from there to the 1950’s. The Singing Club is a group of men in Argus, who Fidelis gets together, to sing.

LouisErdrich is a master storyteller with a wry sense of humor. This book is not as full of funny stories as “Last Report of Miracles From Little No Horse”, but her writing style keeps the reader going. Although, the book starts out with Fidelis, the story is really about Delphine Watzka, a resident of Argus and a survivor of life. We first meet her and her current lover in a hotel, in which the man is practicing his circus act. He is doing a handstand, naked, in front of a second story window. Erdrich’s writing makes this scene hilariously funny and, with sparse writing, leaves a vivid picture. (You have to at least read those few pages).

I’ve become a great fan of Louis Erdrich and look forward to reading more her titles. If you want a taste of her writing, try “The Master Butchers Singing Club”.

Enthralling story of german immigrant family in small North Dakota town. A circular tale that connects native americans , a german butcher and his family, a polish alcoholic and his "daughter," with WWI, the Great Depression and WWII.