Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

I loved 'Plague of Doves', and I believe it is my favorite book by this author. This book is both wonderful and completely different. Where that book was complex and multi-generational in scope, this one is pared down and focused. This family, this dysfunction, and the ripples that generates.
As noted in the Christian Science Monitor review of this book, the premise of the story allows you to see the magnitude and nature of the problem immediately. Irene discovers that her husband is reading her diary. Instead of confronting him with it, yelling at him, considering couples therapy, or some other direct dealing with the invasion of privacy, she doesn't tell him she knows he is reading it, and instead start keeping a secret diary in a bank deposit box while writing adulterous scenes in the old one to torture him. That's not good.
Erdrich strips away anything tangential in this book. It is a tightly written close-up of the final months of a destructive marriage, written with great reserves of power and wisdom. Erdrich has always been a master of metaphor; here she uses the native American belief of shadows as souls to powerful effect.
The novel is told by excerpts from the two diaries – the real and fake – with details filled in by an omniscient narrator, whose identity isn’t revealed until the last chapter.
For his part, Gil, the husband, craves Irene’s love and cannot live without trying to repossess it. As the book progresses, Irene struggles against inertia and alcoholism to free herself from her marriage, while controlling Gil fights to breathe life back into it– no matter whom he hurts in the process. Huddled at ground zero between the two trenches are their three children. Despite the shouting and bruises, they both somehow believe they’ve protected the children from any permanent damage. Erdrich’s characterizations in “Shadow Tag” are marvels of both economy and compassion. She doesn’t turn possessive Gil or passive aggressive Irene into bad guys, instead laying out what makes them fully human without flinching from the damage they do.
“Shadow Tag” resonates with power. The book is tragic without being bleak, and is a wonderful read.