Erdrich encapsulates multiple levels of traumatic experience in the narrative: Geraldine's trauma of surviving rape and an attempted murder, the family's vicarious trauma in supporting her, the Reservation's trauma in not being able to persecute the known assailant due to jurisdictional issues/ power yanked out from under them by federal and state governments, and the trauma of living in a rape culture where Native women are repeatedly victimized by non-Native men, rapists from towns and communities near the Reservation, well aware of their likely political immunity from prosecution. Ultimately this is a story about trauma and healing and what that healing can possibly mean when more mainstream understandings of "justice" in the form of a criminal prosecution is all but unattainable. Because it is structured like a murder mystery, characters are introduced slowly and in turn, and social life on the Ojibwe Reservation in the 80s is resultantly made clear through an introduction of characters that slowly weaves a sense of community. But simultaneously, the narrative is structured around parallel myths and stories--the story of Linda Wishkob, who was discarded by her family and saved by an Ojibwe family, and of the story of how the Round House was made, built with instructions from Nanapush, who refused to murder his mother. Joe moves to protect his mother in a way parallel to that of Nanapush, and the Round House figures as a place that is supposed to be sacred but has been defiled, not just by acts of violence, but also due to US government interference in Native American matters. 
 Most of all, I appreciate the skillful first person narration removed from time--adult Joe narrating child Joe's feelings from a distance. We know from adult Joe narrator that Joe makes it through childhood, goes to college, and becomes a judge. The Round House asks questions about justice--what is "ideal" justice, when is vigilante justice legitimate, how do our institutions set up to administer justice work (if at all). 
 The end is so stark it is almost unbearable. Joe and his family find out that in the last months they have "become old", in that way that people rapidly age when traumatized. Theirs is a loss that they will experience and re-experience forever.