Shadow Tag
A Novel
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Shadow Tag
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Narrated by:
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Coleen Marlo
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By:
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Louise Erdrich
About this listen
When Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a safe deposit box. There she records the truth about her life and her marriage, while turning her Red Diary - hidden where Gil will find it - into a manipulative farce.
Alternating between these two records, complemented by unflinching third-person narration, Shadow Tag is an eerily gripping listen. When the novel opens, Irene is resuming work on her doctoral thesis about George Catlin, the 19th-century painter whose Native American subjects often regarded his portraits with suspicious wonder. Gil, who gained notoriety as an artist through his emotionally revealing portraits of his wife - work that is adoring, sensual, and humiliating, even shocking - realizes that his fear of losing Irene may force him to create the defining work of his career.
Meanwhile, Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three children: 14-year-old genius Florian, who escapes his family’s unraveling with joints and a stolen bottle of wine; Riel, their only daughter, an 11-year-old feverishly planning to preserve her family, no matter what disaster strikes; and sweet kindergartener Stoney, who was born, his parents come to realize, at the beginning of the end. As her home increasingly becomes a place of violence and secrets, and she drifts into alcoholism, Irene moves to end her marriage. But her attachment to Gil is filled with shadowy need and delicious ironies.
In brilliantly controlled prose, Shadow Tag fearlessly explores the complex nature of love, the fluid boundaries of identity, and one family¹s struggle for survival and redemption.
©2010 Louise Erdrich (P)2010 HarperCollins PublishersEditorial reviews
A story of two people who were once passionate lovers now trapped in a dead marriage, Shadow Tag is comprised of short moments told through three narrative perspectives. This intricate patchwork of Louise Erdrich’s striking novel is beautifully stitched together by the affecting voice of Coleen Marlo. Marlo’s performance captures the anger, frustration, and obsession marked by marital strife, enveloping each moment with such intensity that can only be realized through her intuitive narration.
After discovering that her husband Gil has betrayed her privacy by reading her diary, Irene sets into motion a plan to manipulate him with her words, to concoct a series of entries that depict her imagined affairs and doubts. She knows that their marriage is beyond repair, that she wants desperately to leave him. He knows that he can’t live without her, and that he won’t let her take their three children away from him. Trapped in a romantic obsession and ties that bind, the two are at an impasse.
The relationship has roots buried very deep into the foundation, as Irene is Gil’s greatest inspiration for his art. A painter of substantial success, Gil has made Irene the subject of his portraits since the beginning of their love affair. Many layers of responsibility, from romantic memories to family obligations, cloak Irene to the point where freedom seems vastly unreachable.
Shadow Tag is a psychological study of the unraveling marriage of two strong, fiery individuals trapped in a misery of their own making. Marlo commands the two protagonists with ardent characterization, capturing every lie, every confession, and every heartbreak with deliberate emotion. Shadow Tag is a powerful portrait of quiet desperation, of the unraveling marriage of an artist and his muse. Suzanne Day