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Book Summary and Reviews of The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

The Whistling Season

by Ivan Doig

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  • Jun 2006, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

"Can't cook but doesn't bite." So begins the newspaper ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition" that draws the hungry attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909. And so begins the unforgettable season that deposits the non-cooking, non-biting, ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris Morgan, in Marias Coulee along with a stampede of homesteaders drawn by the promise of the Big Ditch - a gargantuan irrigation project intended to make the Montana prairie bloom.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Doig's antique narrative voice, which sometimes jars, feels right at home here, coming from the mouth of the young Paul, who is eagerly learning Latin as he tries to make sense of his ever-enlarging world. An entrancing new chapter in the literature of the West." - Booklist.
"Starred Review. A book to pass on to your favorite readers: a story of lives of active choice, lived actively." - PW.
"This is an affectionate, heartwarming tale that also celebrates a vanished way of life and laments its passing." - Library Journal.
"The melodrama is a weak ending for a novel that had so far avoided it. Minor work, carried along by homespun charm." - Kirkus.

This information about The Whistling Season was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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BeckyH

A perfect picture of perfect hardship
The picture of hardships on a “dry” farm in 1909 Montana is clearly shown in this delightful story of motherless family trying to survive and the brother/sister couple who answer their ad for a housekeeper.

Homesteading, social life, family life, shenanigans, love, one room schools and the teachers who make them, and secrets, especially secrets, combine to make this a delightful, well-written tale that encompasses humor, fear, sacrifice and boyhood.

Diane B

The Whistling Season
This book really surprised me. Very delightful, smart, endearing and surprising. I highly recommend it.

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Author Information

Ivan Doig Author Biography

Ivan Doig was born in Montana and grew up along the Rocky Mountain Front, the dramatic landscape that inspired much of his writing. A former ranch hand, newspaperman, and magazine editor, Doig was the author of 13 novels, most recently The Bartender's Tale, Sweet Thunder and Last Bus to Wisdom (Aug 2015), and four works of nonfiction, including his classic first book, the memoir This House of Sky. He was a National Book Award finalist and received the Wallace Stegner Award and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western Literature Association, among numerous other honors.

His major theme is family life in the past, mixing personal memory and regional history. The first three Montana novels—English Creek, Dancing at the Rascal Fair, and Ride with Me, Mariah Montana—form the...

... Full Biography
Link to Ivan Doig's Website

Name Pronunciation
Ivan Doig: iven doig (first syllable of last name rhymes with toy)

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