English Creek

 Doig, Ivan. English Creek. New York: Antheneum 1984. Print

First Sentences:

That month of June swam into the Two Medicine country. In my life until then I had never seen the sidehills come so green, the coulees stay so spongy with runoff. A right amount of wet evidently could sweeten the universe.


Description:

Sometimes I need a book just to curl up with and sink into like a soft, downy comforter, sitting in a comfy chair near a good light in front of the fireplace. At these times, I need a book that describes real people living in interesting locations, doing ordinary activities. But the writing and the people must be so genuinely honest and clear, like a cool zephyr breeze on a muggy summer day. With these conditions, I cannot help but sit back and relish everything about such a reading experience. It is unique, calming, and highly enjoyable, no matter how all too brief the warmth and clarity of the people, setting, and writing exist with me.

Such a book is my highly recommended novel by Ivan Doig, English Creek. It tells of life in an isolated Montana community in 1939, an area surrounded by forests, a river, and sheep ranches run by neighbors whose families have been in the area for generations. Narrated by 14-year-old Jick McCaskill, he decribes what he lives through one paticular summer: moving sheep to the high fields, a Fourth of July rodeo and dance, ice cream making, youthful friends and loves, and a frightening forest fire (his father is the local ranger). Jick shares his philosophical thoughts behind moving an outhouse which required breaking virgin sod for the first time and prying up unending amounts of rock from the stony field. He felt his outhouse-moving experience justified the county's reputation as "a toupee of grass on a cranium of rock." 

 

Has there ever been a better description of a small town July 4th celebration and its affect on those who join in the festivities as Jick's summation below:

If a sense of life, of the blood racing beneath your skin, is not with you at a Fourth of July creek picnic, then it is never going to be.

While this plot description may sound rather tepid, I prefer to call it "quiet," "immersive" and "deeply satisfying." It's not a book to breeze through. It is a pleasure to languish in Two Medicine county for as long as possible to watch Jick face challenges, understand his family better, and learn of the history of that small community. And the people he lives among each has a story to tell in their manner and actions, and in their spare, well-considered words. Here are a sampling of his neighbors:

• Ed Heaney, who "served in France during the war...[but] didn't want to squander one further minute of his life talking about it."
• Earl Zane, who was "built as if he'd been put together out of railroad ties"...with a face "as clear as the label on a maple sugar jar [that] proclaimed SAP."
  
• Velma, with her tiny pearl button earrings "as if her ears could be unbottoned to further secrets even there."
  
• Toussaint Rennie, who was "one of those chuckling men you meet rarely, able to stave off time by perpetually staying in such high humor that the years didn't want to interrupt him." 
• Perry Fox, who was "slow as the wrath of Christ, but steady."
  
• Jink's mother, of whom his father said, "I think that being married to you is worth all the risk." 
  

I simply loved this book, its attention to quiet detail and its clarity of writing. Conversations seem easy to listen to, people appear subtly complex, and the environment always presents a force that beckons to be explored and appreciated. I think everyone should indulge in this encompassing look into a world we rarely glimpse, much less easily comprehend today.

Best of all, this is the first in a trilogy of the McCaskill family life in Two Medicine, Montana: Dancing at the Rascal Fair and Ride With Me, Mariah Montana. Can't wait to indulge myself in these next two absorbing books.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Doig, Ivan. The Whistling Season.   

A Chicago woman in 1909 answers an advertisement for a housekeeper for a widower and his three young sons living in an isolated Montana town. She writes that she "Can't cook, but doesn't bite," and gets the job sight unseen (by both of them). She brings her brother with her on the train and he reluctantly becomes a unique schoolteacher. Simply wonderful, a great read not to be missed.  (previously reviewed here)

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted

Hillman, Robert. The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted. New York: Putnam 2018. Print

First Sentences:

She didn't stay long as far as marriages go, just a year and ten months. Her note was brief, too:

       I'm leaving. Don't know what to say.    

                Love, Trudy. 

Description:

Here's an extremely well-written novel centering around a bookstore but has very little to do with books or the store itself. I just picked up Robert Hillman's The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted thinking I would be reading about the goings-on in a small shop with quirky characters, descriptions of books, and the evolution of like among readers.

But I was wrong ... and it turned out so much better for me.

Here we meet Tom Hope, recently-abandoned husband who farms in rural Australia, and Hannah, newly-arrived from Hungary who hires Tom to set up bookshelves in her new shop, the first bookshop ever in this sleepy town. No problem that Tom hasn't read a book in years. He and Hannah strike up a friendship as he works to make her bookshop habitable.

So many books. It was like looking at the blocks of the pyramids sitting on the sand on a daunting day one of construction.

But there is something about Hannah that is mysterious. Although she won't talk about her past, we eventually learn she is a Holocaust survivor who lost her family. Both she and Tom have broken hearts that slowly are somewhat eased through their friendship. But then Tom's wife returns, pregnant by another man. She throws everyone's life into uncertainty when after the birth of the baby she leaves again to join a religious cult, leaving Tom to raise the newborn baby Peter.

Will Trudy return ever? Will Tom and Hannah be able to console and mend together? And what about the boy Peter, torn between his mother and father?

Maybe this sounds like just another weepy romance novel, but au contraire. It is a lovely story, truly a high-quality read in all the important ways: writing, plot, character, and setting, with a very satisfying ending. Suffice to say the book is full of heartache, strength, thoughtfulness, unexpected passion, joy, and in the end even some satisfaction for characters and readers alike. 

I've been recommending this book to many people recently, so hope others will pick it up for a try. You won't be disappointed, and probably will find yourself fully engrossed in the lives of these gentle, sympathetic characters trying to deal with real sadness and get on with their lives in rural Australia.

Happy reading. 

Fred

Other book recommendations
About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Haruf, Kent. Plainsong.   

Two elderly bachelor farmers living on the outskirts of a small town in Colorado take in a pregnant teenager, completely changing their lives and routines forever. Wonderfully written. Highest recommendation.

Locally Laid

Amundsen, Lucie B. Locally Laid: How We Built a Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm - From Scratch. New York: Avery. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

At dusk, hens seek their coop. So reliable is this, there's even a saying, an adage: Chickens come home to roost.

It's hardwired. But our first shipment of nine hundred mature birds, just purchased from a commercial operation, stands on the field staring. They tilt and turn their heads to better align us with their side-placed eyes, as though awaiting instructions.

These hens are out of sync with sunset because until today, they have NEVER SEEN THE SUN. While I've worried about many things going wrong with our unlikely egg startup, CHICKENS not knowing HOW TO BE CHICKENS was not one of them.

Description:

Looking for a feel-good, laughs-on-every-page story of two happy-go-lucky young marrieds trying to start a business that far exceeds their expectations and abilities? Chock full of silly "Green Acres" situations that everyone laughs and also learns from?

Well, Lucie B. Amundsen's Locally Laid: How We Built a Plucky, Industry-Changing Egg Farm - From Scratch, is not the book for you. What it is is a rocky, inspirational, and creative true life story of one man's dream and twisting pathways to create a new method of raising healthier chickens for better eggs...all without having any previous knowledge of chickens or agriculture.

Sure, the story has its moments of funny situations, of unexpected happenings, and of make-shift solutions. But make no mistake, when Jason Amundsen convinces his wife, Lucie, that they should start a chicken ranch to sell eggs, she is definitely not a fan and only reluctantly offers support. Having already made several moves to follow Jason's dreams, Lucie and their two children are finally comfortably settled in Duluth, Minnesota in their converted rectory house (church parishioners can use their bathroom on Sundays).

After he is laid off from his job (with benefits), at Jason's urging they rent a farm in tiny Wrenshall, MN and commute from Duluth to tackle their mountain of daily chores from dawn to long past dark. Jason's brilliant idea is to raise free-range chickens that eat natural feed and bugs outdoors, penned in by rotating fences that open new sections of pasture regularly, a technique never used before. Of course, this process proves much more difficult and costly than raising hens in controlled spaces indoors with fixed heat, light, and roosting areas. But while Jason is doggedly persistent, Lucie remains highly skeptical and worried about finances and family. 

I am not a risk taker by nature, and there's a case to be made that I'm just a plain weenie. In the section of my heart reserved for stout entrepreneurism sits a shirking pinto bean or maybe an eraser head.

Their adventure begins when 2,000 mature hens are delivered which have never seen sunlight before, have no idea about how to eat from the ground, and have no interest in returning to a roost each evening. They have to be herded into their shelter each evening, individually hand-lifted onto their roosting perches, then driven out each morning to their allocated areas for feeding and frolicking. Every day. For two weeks until the hens get the idea themselves. And herding hens, like the boxer Rocky found out, is a tricky task. While it seems funny to read about, this problem multiplied by 2,000 could signal the real end to their dream on day one.

When anyone starts a new venture there's always a certain amount of claiming a title and growing into it, but with one's own farm, the learning is less curved and more a vertical endeavor. One day you're a guy standing in a field, the next you're the caretaker of hundreds of needy critters.

Soon we read of sanitation rules, bird peckings, prolapse egg deliveries, questionable breeders, marketing strategies, and their new brand name, "Locally Laid" which proves both inspirational and controversial in the community. Then there is the process of finding buyers for the thousands of eggs produced daily, each of which had to be carefully gathered, washed, inspected, weighed, sorted and boxed by hand (i.e., by Jason and family)

It's enough to make an efficiency consultant drink bourbon straight out of my work boot.

But survive they do, even when things seem hopeless and Lucie is ready to throw in the towel. Jason improvises clever techniques to conquer each obstacle to bring the eggs to market, a journey full of his (and her) commitment, perseverance, and general make-it-work philosophy.

It's a surprisingly moving, humorous, and well-written story of two people struggling to make a dream possible. Who could not root for them? Certainly not me, although I, like Lucie, thought they should have given up many times over. They are made of sterner stuff than I. 

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

MacDonald, Betty. The Egg and I

True mis-adventures of a young couple taking on a run-down farm in the 1930s to raise chickens and a family. Lighter in tone than Locally Laid, this story still shows the incredible difficulty of making an egg farm work while trying to raise a family and preserve a marriage. Delightful.