10 Terrific Reads of 2010

Shadow Tag

By Louise Erdrich
272 pages; Harper

No one knows what really goes on in a marriage, so complex and contradictory are human needs and desires. Usually, the misunderstandings are unintentional (and mutual), the inflictions of pain accidental. That's why Shadow Tag, by Louise Erdrich, is astonishing in its depiction of Irene America, a woman who deliberately sets out to manipulate her jealous, controlling artist-husband, not by simply betraying him but by writing and "hiding" a fictional diary that only suggests infidelity... Read more