Tookie’s favorite corn soup

This traditional indigenous soup was lovingly made for Tookie, the heroine of an exceptional book by Louise Erdrich – The Sentence.

Erdrich’s book is spiritual, filled with native lore, black culture, and ghost stories, the last of which I was lead to question. Was Tookie’s ghost to be taken literally or might the spooky visitor have been a symptom of clinical depression.

The story-teller carefully unwraps how difficult Tookie’s life had been. Her bizarre experiences could be considered graphic descriptions of what it’s like to have a mental breakdown. Pollux was Tookie’s anchor. Her love for him grounded her in reality. Pollux makes this soup for Tookie when she is in her darkest corners. It is rich and satisfying. I hope you like it as much as Tookie did.