Doig, Ivan. The Whistling Season. New York: Harvest Books. 2007. Print
Description:
Happy reading.
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Young, Carrie. The Wedding Dress
First Sentences:
When I visit the back corners of my life again after so long a time, littlest things jump out first.The oilcloth, tiny blue windmills on white squares worn to colorless smears at out four places at the kitchen table. Our father's pungent coffee, so strong it was almost ambulatory, which he gulped down from suppertime to bedtime and then slept serenely as a sphinx.
Description:
When I started this book blog several years ago, Ivan Doig's The Whistling Season was one of the first books I wanted to share. Just re-read it and felt it time to promote its wonderfulness. With each reading, it proves itself superior to most books. It is simply a delightful, serene, personable book full of delightful characters and unique situations.
Set in Marias Coulee, a small town on the Montana prairie in 1910, Whistling Season centers on Oliver Milliron, a widower with three young boys. Oliver realizes that before things get much more chaotic, they need a housekeeper to bring some order to their house and lives. The widow Rose Llewellyn from Minneapolis seems to fill the bill when he notices her Position Wanted ad: "A-1 Housekeeper. Can't cook, but doesn't bite." Rose is hired sight unseen and journeys out to Montana, bringing her brother Morris. He is also seeking a job and is willing to do anything, although the dandy-dressed Morris seems to have no experience with prairie living or skills.
Rose soon gets Oliver's house in order and, true to her advertisement, refuses to cook even an egg for the family. Meanwhile, brother Morris, despite having no experience in the classroom, is drafted to fill in as teacher in the one-room school for an ungainly mob of local children. But he does know a lot of interesting information as well as Latin, and sets about giving private lessons to thirteen-year-old Paul, Oliver's son, who narrates the book.
The story, characters, writing, and setting are absolutely absorbing on every page. From the backwards-saddle horse race to visits to the Big Ditch irrigation project, spitbath shakes to seal a promise to the rambunctious students facing Morris, and even Paul's sleepwalking, Whistling Season is plot, writing, setting, and characters at their very best.
I feel without reservation that everyone will enjoy this book. Writing this, I want to start reading it again. And what is be a better testimony to a book's ability to captivate you than the desire to read it immediately after completing the story? Highest recommendation.
Set in Marias Coulee, a small town on the Montana prairie in 1910, Whistling Season centers on Oliver Milliron, a widower with three young boys. Oliver realizes that before things get much more chaotic, they need a housekeeper to bring some order to their house and lives. The widow Rose Llewellyn from Minneapolis seems to fill the bill when he notices her Position Wanted ad: "A-1 Housekeeper. Can't cook, but doesn't bite." Rose is hired sight unseen and journeys out to Montana, bringing her brother Morris. He is also seeking a job and is willing to do anything, although the dandy-dressed Morris seems to have no experience with prairie living or skills.
Rose soon gets Oliver's house in order and, true to her advertisement, refuses to cook even an egg for the family. Meanwhile, brother Morris, despite having no experience in the classroom, is drafted to fill in as teacher in the one-room school for an ungainly mob of local children. But he does know a lot of interesting information as well as Latin, and sets about giving private lessons to thirteen-year-old Paul, Oliver's son, who narrates the book.
I say the house positively breathed in a way different from before, for among all the other exhalations of wonder that our housekeeper provided, Rose was woman who whistled at her work. About like a ghost would. That is, the sound was just above silence. A least little tingle of air, the lightest music that could pass through lips, yet with a lingering quality that was inescapable.But who really is Rose? She is silent about her background beyond saying she is a widow whose husband died recently. She is young, fashionably dressed, and constantly whistling. And Morris? He, too, is a mystery. But really, no one in this tiny town (or us readers) really cares about their history once they become integrated into the prairie life. Especially when their little school is to be evaluated by a school superintendent armed with standard tests?
The story, characters, writing, and setting are absolutely absorbing on every page. From the backwards-saddle horse race to visits to the Big Ditch irrigation project, spitbath shakes to seal a promise to the rambunctious students facing Morris, and even Paul's sleepwalking, Whistling Season is plot, writing, setting, and characters at their very best.
I feel without reservation that everyone will enjoy this book. Writing this, I want to start reading it again. And what is be a better testimony to a book's ability to captivate you than the desire to read it immediately after completing the story? Highest recommendation.
Happy reading.
Fred
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Young, Carrie. The Wedding Dress
More wonderful recollections about the people and life in the small farming community on the North Dakota plains. (previously reviewed here)
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