“A soul could be captured through a shadow. It was in the Ojibwe language. Waabaamoojicchaagwaan — the word for mirror can also refer to shadow and to the soul: your soul is visible and can be seen. Gil had placed his foot on Irene’s shadow when he painted her. And though she tried to pull away, it was impossible to tug that skein of darkness from under his heel.”
The title of Louise Erdrich’s Shadow Tag comes from a game in the Native American traditions in which participants win by stepping on the shadows of other players. The shadow is seen as standing in for one’s soul.
Even though I think it is dark and somewhat depressing, what kept me reading this author’s new novel is the spare prose that pulls you in. Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, so she decides to manipulate him by keeping the real “blue” diary in a safe place while leaving the fictional “red” one where he will find it. The story alternates between the two diaries along with some third-person narration, making it a haunting read.
Gil is an artist who achieves substantial success painting portraits of Irene, some of them deeply disturbing. Irene resumes her doctoral thesis on a 19th-century Native American painter whose subjects have died soon after being painted. The two have been married for approximately 15 years, and realize that something is missing from their relationship. They have three children: Florian, Riel, and Stoney, who look forward to the few times that their parents are getting along. Irene is dealing with her alcoholism, while Gil realizes that his fear of losing Irene may force him to create the defining work of his career. The complex relationships in this dysfunctional family can possibly serve as a warning to some, and those looking for an uplifting read will not find it here. The ending, as well as the whole story, is quite bleak, but the writing will keep you reading until the very end.