The setting for The Round House is on an Ojibwe Reservation in North Dakota.    The main character and the point of view in telling the story is through the eyes of 13 year old Joe Coutts.    His mother is brutally raped and narrowly escapes being murdered.   After being hospitalized she is released to her family, but has been traumatized and the family struggles to cope with everyday life.   Joe would like to help his father and mother through the crisis and works to try to solve the mystery of finding the perpetrator.   As such this is a mystery that he helps to unravel.

In the process of working through his efforts a number of themes are presented for consideration – the role of family, love, community, racism, sex, aggression, and most of all, justice.   Woven through the narrative are the people of Joe’s life – family, friends, and community members.   Traditional elements are interspersed with the modern reality of the Reserve life.   This was the richest part of the novel.

The book won a number of prestigious awards, including the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012.  This was a novel I looked forward to reading, but I found that it did not engage me very much.   The mystery part was not very interesting and instead the issue of justice was the key element.    The author’s choice in resolving the (justice) dilemma just didn’t work for me and if fact, I found the ending unsatisfying on several levels.

I would recommend this book to others, especially for the rich tapestry of characters on the Reserve, but the storytelling itself (particularly the plot, characterization, and mood) did not meet my personal expectations.  4.1 out of 5.0 stars4.1