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stacthor's review against another edition
5.0
Rodeo - making hay - fighting fire. I loved this book!
em8ly's review against another edition
2.0
Panifully slow read. Some parts were very good, but when I was looking for Doig's great storytelling, I found a lot of rambling. And rambling. And rambling. I went back to look at other's reviews of this and I guess this is a common theme in relation to this book. From what others say, the next in the series is much better, so I would continue to give this series a try. However, I think I will need a break befoelre I go on to the next one.
middleditch's review against another edition
4.0
This is a slice of life from one important summer in a young boy’s life. Doig’s writing puts you right in the time and place with the characters. Love his wonderful writing. Marvellous descriptions of the countryside.
kiwi_fruit's review
3.0
This is an ode to early 20th century way of life in Montana. I enjoyed other novels by the author more than this one but sure I learned a lot about rangering, sheep herding, fire fighting, country fairs and rodeos. 3.5stars.
Fav. quote:
I somehow knew even then, that the fracture of a family is not a thing that happens clean and sharp, so that you at least can calculate that from here on it will begin to be over with. No, it is like one of those worst bone breaks, a shatter. You can mend the place, peg it and splint it and work to strengthen it, and while the surface maybe can be brought to look much as it did before, the deeper vicinity of shatter always remains a spot that has to be favored.
Fav. quote:
I somehow knew even then, that the fracture of a family is not a thing that happens clean and sharp, so that you at least can calculate that from here on it will begin to be over with. No, it is like one of those worst bone breaks, a shatter. You can mend the place, peg it and splint it and work to strengthen it, and while the surface maybe can be brought to look much as it did before, the deeper vicinity of shatter always remains a spot that has to be favored.
sfahrney's review against another edition
4.0
Starts slow with a lot of landscape description. I almost didn't pursue the book. But glad I did as once characters were developed I was hooked. Good read.
ajsdf's review against another edition
5.0
I have to laugh at myself for thinking it would take forever to read these 300-some pages of dense type, I who think nothing of rereading the 900-some pages of Bleak House over and over. I thought I wasn't going to enjoy this book. Why, I really don't know. But I loved it. The narrator is charming. The Two Medicine country might as well be another of the book's characters. (I'm sure I've read of landscapes being like novel's characters, but I'm not sure I've ever really thought so before.) There is one extended scene in the middle of the book that makes the whole thing worth reading, if indeed the whole thing were not worth it otherwise. The timelessness of the book kept me wondering all the time, forgetting it was set in 1930s Montana: rural life, familial and community relationships, protecting the National Forest, none of those are time-dependent even when approaches and tools change. After The Whistling Season, I knew I wanted to read more Doig, now after Prairie Nocturne and this, I won't be able to get enough.
jeanetterenee's review against another edition
4.0
From forest fires to sheep counts, haying season to a whizbang Fourth of July celebration, Jick McCaskill moves through the summer of 1939 in Montana's Two Medicine country. For Jick it's "The Summer When..." He begins noticing a lot of things, including the fact that "time is the trickiest damn commodity," and he won't be a boy for very much longer.
Full of charm and drollery, English Creek is not for the easily bored, but it's worth the patience if you want to see how an author can sometimes make the language get up and dance. The characters are vivid and the vernacular sublime. Some of the one-liners might make you wish you had occasion to recycle them.
My favorite line comes when one guy goes up on a rock outcropping to relieve himself and Jick's father says, "I hope you've got a good foothold up there. Because you sure don't have all that much of a handhold." (Ouch!)
If you find this book too slow moving but you want a taste of Doig's magic, pick up The Whistling Season. It's a masterpiece of storytelling.
Full of charm and drollery, English Creek is not for the easily bored, but it's worth the patience if you want to see how an author can sometimes make the language get up and dance. The characters are vivid and the vernacular sublime. Some of the one-liners might make you wish you had occasion to recycle them.
My favorite line comes when one guy goes up on a rock outcropping to relieve himself and Jick's father says, "I hope you've got a good foothold up there. Because you sure don't have all that much of a handhold." (Ouch!)
If you find this book too slow moving but you want a taste of Doig's magic, pick up The Whistling Season. It's a masterpiece of storytelling.
belle0819's review
5.0
A 5 and here’s why. I love a teenage boy narrator when it’s done so right as this. Jick is as honest and forthright as a kid that age can be and more importantly highly observant. Not every teen boy is but I know a few personally who are. If you take the time to listen to them when you stumble on them you will never quite think the same again.
This book is that. He tells the story of the summer when his whole family takes a bend. It is 1930s Montana and his father is a forest ranger.
There is plenty of forest life description and more haymaking than maybe I needed but that’s just the point I make above. When you stumble on one of those teenage boys that is a keen observer you are going to have to ferret out the observations in and amongst a lot of words about haymaking.
Be patient and this story will not disappoint.
This book is that. He tells the story of the summer when his whole family takes a bend. It is 1930s Montana and his father is a forest ranger.
There is plenty of forest life description and more haymaking than maybe I needed but that’s just the point I make above. When you stumble on one of those teenage boys that is a keen observer you are going to have to ferret out the observations in and amongst a lot of words about haymaking.
Be patient and this story will not disappoint.
spoth's review
5.0
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Good prose, interesting characters, and heavier on atmosphere than on action.