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Rating:  -
This is one of the best coming of age stories I've read in years. Ivan Doig evokes a wonderfully strong image of the family as it deals with everyday life and all of the changes that occur.
Rating: -
I won't go into the details of plot or character much, as others have done so admirably.
I think I liked this novel in much the same way I like the movie "A Christmas Story" - it's nostalgic without being saccharine, without being maudlin, and without being mean-slash-smart-alecky. Its characters don't have anachronistic vocabularies or habits (a common fault in period fiction, I find) and their lives are ordinary in a believable, interesting way.
I loved the Paul character the most, though Morrie was good too (anyone else keep picturing Dr Bombay from "Bewitched"?). I loved the setting -- more fiction should be written about the folks on the prairie. My family hails from prairie country and the little I have experienced while visiting grandparents always thrills me with its unique romance.
Interesting note (well, interesting to me, anyway): During the spelling bee sequence, Morrie is trying to stump Paul, who is normally not permitted to participate in classroom bees due to his dominance. One of the words that Morrie wisely chooses to test Paul is "pharaoh" -- a tough word almost always misspelled -- but the author has made the ironic error of spelling it "pharoah" in the book. If the word were truly spelled that way, p-h-a-r-o-a-h, then it *wouldn't* be a good spelling bee word, as that's the way everyone misspells it. Anyway.
Highly recommended to lovers of quiet, medium-weight American fiction.
Rating:  -
"Whistling Season" by Ivan Doig is a deeply affecting coming-of-age novel set in the dry Montana prairie of 1910. The story is told through the memories of Paul Milliron looking back to one important year in his childhood, when he was 13. The book begins in 1950 when Paul, now Montana State Superintendent of Public Instruction, travels to his hometown of Marias Coulee with the unpleasant task of closing its one and only one-room schoolhouse. He gazes up at the night sky watching Sputnik blink across the stars and knows that a new era has arrived. He is heartbroken because this new era will wipe out all that has come before. There will be no going back.
Doig knows this territory well--it is his own ancestral roots. He has researched it thoroughly and published other successful fiction and nonfiction books set in this period and place. While reading this book, I felt transported back in time--the landscape, the people, the very dust that covered everything--came alive on the page. So do the characters--the singular, bizarre, and clarion-clear characters of the Old West--Doig is, indeed, a master at creating wonderfully authentic people that you really care about.
The story is poignant. Young Paul and his two younger brothers are experiencing the first year of grief following the death of their mother. Oliver Milliron, their father, is understandably overwhelmed with the task of being father, mother, and homesteader. Through the distant Minneapolis newspaper, he sees an ad by a housekeeper. In this manner, the ever-whistling, beautiful Rose Llewellyn comes into their life. She arrives unexpectedly with her brother, Morris Morgan, an eccentric, walking encyclopedia. Events unfold that push Morris toward becoming the town's schoolmaster. Although he has never done anything like that before, teaching seems a task that he was born to. His students flourish under his idiosyncratic and outrageous style. But Rose and Morris hold a secret that Paul eventually uncovers. How he handles that situation delineates young Paul's crossover from child to adult.
The novel is in every way, a loving lament about the passing of uniquely American way of life--the rough, yet magical and free life of Western Montana dry-land farming homesteaders.
Rating: -
Have you ever read a book which makes you long for a time when things were simpler? The whistling season is one such book. When I read this novel I truly got the feeling that I was living at the beginning of the 20th century.
That said, this storytelling method the author used (first person with flashbacks) is perhaps my least favorite method to read. The omniscient view irked this reader as I really felt the brief glimpses of the present were uninteresting and unnecessary to the story flow. If the author truly felt the need to include such musings, why not write an epilogue?
Also, I thought the story suffered from a bit of heavy handedness in the form of Morrie and Rose characters. From the moment Rose arrived with her dubious brother Morrie in tow I was suspicious. These two characters soon dominated the story much to my chagrin. If the author truly felt the need to write about Morrie and Rose, why not make them the protagonist? In truth, Rose wasn't really that interesting but Morrie was clearly the star of the show. I alternated between loving the character and being annoyed he was taking so much of the spotlight.
Overall, this was a fine solid read, but I didn`t care for the ending which seemed rushed and forced. 4 stars.
Rating: -
What's not to like in this story? There are quirky, lovable characters, written with depth. There are sentences that are simply artful. And, there is a lasting contemplation evoked long after the last page is turned as you think about the evolution of the public school system from a one-room schoolhouse, to segregated schools, to integrated schools, to inner-city kids bussed to the suburbs, to the exodus to private schools for those "fortunate" enough to have that option. For me, it was ultimately the reminder of the impact ANY teacher with a passion for learning can have on all students, from the most reluctant to the most eager. All in all, a great book.
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