The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
"The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" by Louise Erdrich is a novel that intricately weaves the life of Father Damien, a priest serving the Ojibwe community on the Little No Horse reservation, with themes of identity, faith, and survival. The story begins with a prologue featuring a letter to the pope from Father Damien, setting the tone for his reflections on his past experiences around 1910-1912. The narrative introduces Sister Cecelia, a nun who transforms her life after a series of tragic events, including her husband's death, leading her to assume Father Damien’s identity after a flood claims his life. Throughout the novel, Erdrich utilizes landscape as a significant element, emphasizing its connection to the characters’ lives and experiences.
The structure of the book is divided into four parts, blending the present-day struggles of Father Damien with flashbacks that uncover his relationships with various community members, including Sister Leopolda and Lulu Pillager. As Father Jude investigates reported miracles linked to Sister Leopolda, the story delves into the histories of the Ojibwe people and the complexities of their interactions with religious figures. Underlying the narrative is a rich exploration of love, betrayal, and the search for individuality in the face of societal expectations. Ultimately, the novel highlights the profound connections between Father Damien and his parishioners, inviting readers to reflect on the enduring impact of love and faith within a community.
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 2001
Type of work: Novel
The Work
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse plunges readers into the lifetime saga of Father Damien and his work among the Ojibwes on the Little No Horse reservation. A prologue, containing a 1996 a letter to the pope from Father Damien, begins the book’s four-part narration by returning to 1910-1912. As in all Erdrich’s work, landscape plays a major role. “Eighty-some years previous, through a town that was to flourish and past a farm that would disappear, the river slid—all that happened began with that flow of water.” Novitiate Sister Cecelia, the former Agnes De Witt, is introduced as a young nun whose piano playing contains such emotion it disturbs her community and prompts her leaving. The arrangements she makes to live on a nearby farm catapult her into an adventure that will engulf her life. An accidental brush with petty criminals causes her common-law husband’s death and sets the stage for the rest of the novel. Themes of passionate devotion, religious life, individual will, and survival in the face of overwhelming odds are set in motion in part 1, “The Transfiguration of Agnes.” After a disastrous flood washes her out of her home, Agnes takes the role of Father Damien Modeste, a drowned priest whose body she finds. She walks onto Ojibwe land, and the novel’s main conceit is in place.
Throughout part 2, “The Deadly Conversions,” and part 3, “Memory and Suspicion,” Erdrich continues the technique of interspersing chapters about the aged priest’s daily routine and life in his parish with chapters about the past. In these sections Father Jude, an emissary from the Vatican, interacts with Father Damien and the parishioners that he has come to know and accept over the years. As Father Jude Miller investigates Sister Leopolda’s life and the miracles reported at Little No Horse, the novel incorporates earlier episodes between Father Damien, Nanapush, and Fleur Pillager as well as revealing the history of the Payut clan and the tale of the Kapshaw wives, the drama of Mary Kapshaw in the convent kitchen and Lulu Pillager’s struggle with her mother, Fleur. Lulu’s hatred for Fleur takes root in these sections when she is sent to Indian Boarding School. To further complicate life, another priest arrives to help Father Damien, and this means sharing a living space—a huge difficulty for “Father” Damien. The two of them discover each other with a passion that cannot be contained.
Part 4, “The Passions,” gives both report and prophecy concerning Lulu Pillager, returned as a woman to the reservation. It contains Sister Leopolda’s final confession of a murder and her threat to unmask “Father” Damien to the authorities when they quarrel. Father Jude Miller begins his account of Leopolda’s passion and finds himself spending equal time thinking about Father Damien’s life as he writes. Father Damien, unwilling to be indefensible in death, plans his disappearance, and Mary Kapshaw helps him carry it out. Finally, it is the love that Father Damien shared with his Ojibwe flock that they and readers remember.
Sources for Further Study
The Atlantic Monthly 287 (April, 2001): 104.
Booklist 97 (February 15, 2001): 1085.
The Christian Science Monitor, April 12, 2001, p. 18.
The Economist 360 (May 5-11, 2001): 78.
Library Journal 126 (May 1, 2001): 125.
The New York Times, April 6, 2001, p. E43.
The New York Times Book Review 106 (April 8, 2001): 12.
Publishers Weekly 248 (January 29, 2001): 63.
The Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2001, p. W9.