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msilkwolfe's review against another edition
4.0
The wisdom and eloquence that you experience in Wink’s short story collection Dog Run Moon is in this one too, but not as much, in my opinion. There is something so incredible about his writing that is hard to put into words. It’s perceptive, beautiful, and elegant. It gives you a glimpse into a Montana lifestyle that is so foreign from my own, and yet I can recognize my own life in its pages. Really liked this one! But the short story collection stills reigns king, in my opinion.
tch0's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
nikman34's review against another edition
The writing itself was done well. I found every character unlikeable, even the main character, and some of the themes to be disturbing. It was a slow paced read with no chapters (but three sections).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, and Animal cruelty
Minor: Racial slurs
abarkmeier's review against another edition
2.0
if you love exposition through dialogue and a few hundred pages of the male gaze this is a great pick
keysersuze's review against another edition
4.0
I was drawn to this book as something different, a departure from the books I’ve been reading recently, memoirs and female driven stories.
August is a young boy when the story opens, stuck between his bickering parents and the burden of the dairy farm that demands all of his Dad’s time. The plot skips along quite neatly, as August grapples with friendship and loss, moving to another state far from the farm he grew up on and trying to maintain the balance between his parents while finding himself.
I’m not sure I would say that I was really interested in what happened to August, but I did like the writing style, the stories about the rodeo and the conspiracy theorists August is with – he’s a likeable enough character if not entirely sympathetic. Near the beginning, for example, his father sets him a task to decrease the surplus farm cat population and he’ll pay him for the tails. As a cat owner, I understand the difference between pets and pest control, but it was still hard to like this slightly sociopathic 12 year old after he’d taken to the task with glee, thinking only about the money. There are hints of him being afraid of the cats too, actually, so maybe that’s part of it.
This is another instance where I don’t think the blurb of the book matches up with the story within. It’s described as having a teen life until ‘a shocking act of violence pushes him off course once more’. Three quarters of the way through the book, I had to have a real think about what that act of violence actually was, as there are a couple. I’m not too sure now, to be honest. It’s not that there were loads of gory bits, but more that the Violent Act wasn’t highlighted enough. Or maybe I just didn’t pick up on the cues!
The Americana element of the book was engaging – the farm, the rural life August leads as a child and young adult. I could see the river and the fishing line, feel the sun and the tension between working enough to pay your way while getting some time to spend elsewhere.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this but feel that it was more of a collection of short stories about the same character, than a bildungsroman character arc. Wink appears to be most well known as the author of essays and short stories, so perhaps that’s where he ‘s most comfortable. The writing style is quite spare, so if that’s what you’re into, I’d recommend it. If I spotted another Callan Wink on the shelf, I would probably be interested to read it.
Thanks as always to Netgalley, and to the publisher Granta Publications, for the copy.
August is a young boy when the story opens, stuck between his bickering parents and the burden of the dairy farm that demands all of his Dad’s time. The plot skips along quite neatly, as August grapples with friendship and loss, moving to another state far from the farm he grew up on and trying to maintain the balance between his parents while finding himself.
I’m not sure I would say that I was really interested in what happened to August, but I did like the writing style, the stories about the rodeo and the conspiracy theorists August is with – he’s a likeable enough character if not entirely sympathetic. Near the beginning, for example, his father sets him a task to decrease the surplus farm cat population and he’ll pay him for the tails. As a cat owner, I understand the difference between pets and pest control, but it was still hard to like this slightly sociopathic 12 year old after he’d taken to the task with glee, thinking only about the money. There are hints of him being afraid of the cats too, actually, so maybe that’s part of it.
This is another instance where I don’t think the blurb of the book matches up with the story within. It’s described as having a teen life until ‘a shocking act of violence pushes him off course once more’. Three quarters of the way through the book, I had to have a real think about what that act of violence actually was, as there are a couple. I’m not too sure now, to be honest. It’s not that there were loads of gory bits, but more that the Violent Act wasn’t highlighted enough. Or maybe I just didn’t pick up on the cues!
The Americana element of the book was engaging – the farm, the rural life August leads as a child and young adult. I could see the river and the fishing line, feel the sun and the tension between working enough to pay your way while getting some time to spend elsewhere.
Ultimately, I enjoyed this but feel that it was more of a collection of short stories about the same character, than a bildungsroman character arc. Wink appears to be most well known as the author of essays and short stories, so perhaps that’s where he ‘s most comfortable. The writing style is quite spare, so if that’s what you’re into, I’d recommend it. If I spotted another Callan Wink on the shelf, I would probably be interested to read it.
Thanks as always to Netgalley, and to the publisher Granta Publications, for the copy.
bibliozo's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
hannahhh3's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
2.75
brooke_review's review against another edition
3.0
Head to Big Sky Country in Callan Wink's poignant coming of age novel, August, named after the title character, who sets off on his own after high school to make a life for himself on a ranch in Montana. August, a quiet and descriptive novel about a young man forging a life in a beautiful, yet barren land, devoid of those particulars that are usually of a young man's fancy, namely women, will appeal mostly to male readers and those who enjoy westerns. I found this book to be quite masculine in tone, with a reserved, stoic narrator and several instances of hunting and/or death, as well as many passages going into great detail about working the land and using machinery. With that said, this book fell outside of my preferred tastes, but may be quite insightful and meaningful to the right reader.