Welcome to the University of Oregon and Robert D. Clark Honors College. My name is Sarah Hovet and I am your Common Reading Coordinator for the Honors College and a member of the University of Oregon Common Reading Committee. On behalf of the Honors College faculty, students, and staff, I would like to welcome you to the 2017 Common Reading blog!

The Round House* is the fourteenth novel by Louise Erdrich, a prolific and award-winning writer who played a significant role in the second wave of the Native American Renaissance and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel, which won the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction, follows Joe Coutts, a member of the Ojibwe tribe, as he unravels the tangle of legal complications and past events surrounding the sexual assault of his mother, Geraldine, in North Dakota in 1988.

There are challenging themes in this book. Geraldine’s rape is viewed through the lens of Joe, who is entering puberty and does not always grasp the full trauma of what has occurred. Please take care of yourselves while you read and discuss. You may find our Resources page helpful.

We hope that you will view this blog as an opportunity to engage with a text in the in-depth manner expected in your Honors College classes. We encourage you to be respectful, constructive, and self-aware when posting on this platform. And please feel free to email me at any point with questions or suggestions.

 

Sarah Hovet

Common Reading Coordinator

shovet@uoregon.edu

                                                                                                                                                          

*This book contains experiences of physical and sexual violence. Please take care of yourself while reading it.  If you want to talk to someone for support related to these topics, visit https://safe.uoregon.edu.