A review by larryerick
English Creek by Ivan Doig

4.0

After reading this author's excellent autobiographical, This House of Sky, I was immediately struck at the beginning of reading this book by how difficult it was for me to distinguish between the "true" non-fiction work and this fictional narrative. Both books deal with rural Montana and its life in livestock and the like. I rarely have trouble sorting out fiction and non-fiction, primarily because fiction writers, even when trying not to be fantasty-like in any way, still tend to eventually reach those points in the narrative where you can feel the author manipulating the course of events for effect. Non-fiction, assuming it isn't obviously biased, is not being manipulated by the author. No matter how unlikely an event may seem to the non-fiction reader, those supposedly strange twists in events are always true. This author makes even his fictional lives ring very real. Having said that, at some point in my reading, I realized I had transitioned from a nearly non-fiction fictional tale to just a great, engaging yarn. I found myself savoring the book in small proportions to extend my enjoyment. I look forward to the second installment in the author's Montana centennial McCaskill trilogy.