The Whistling Season

The Whistling Season is an homage to a lost way of life, the homesteading prairie farmers and their children who attended a one-room schoolhouse. This story is told from the perspective of Paul, the eldest and most intellectually gifted son of a recently widowed dry-farmer in Montana. Paul is fortunate to have a father who is well-read and supports the life of the mind. Unfortunately Paul is haunted by dreams and nightmares that leave him perpetually exhausted. Paul's father, Oliver, and his two brothers are devasted by the death of Paul's mother and struggle to keep the household together with the loss of the essential skills of the homemaker. Hiring a housekeeper, Rose, brings not only cleanliness and harmony to the home, but a new schoolteacher to the community. The school teacher is Rose's brother, Morris. Morris' love of learning and theatrical style inspire the children in the tiny schoolhouse. Ultimately the story turns on how these newcomers fit into and transform this little community. The strengths of this novel are in its vivid portrayal of prairie life, elegant language and poignant plot. Definitely a novel that leaves me wanting to read more of this author!

This is the fourth Doig book I've read and I never fail to be impressed. As a long-time teacher I've read hundreds of books that sometimes blur together, but I can absolutely remember every one of Doig's. Like Wallace Stegner, Doig has a way of evoking a time and place (the West) that is accurate while being truly lyrical and memorable. What I like about Doig is that you can "see" it all just so clearly. If you have an interest in life for some at the turn of the century, this book is for you. If you ever wondered about rural education and how the teacher coped, this book is for you. If you like hisorical fiction that is one hundered percent accurate while telling a good story, this book is for you. Ultimately, if you like quality writing that is worth reading in and of itself, this is time well spent. You will find yourself wanting to read other Doig novels. Like me, I know you will find them truly satisfying.

I read so much trash that sometimes I forget what real fiction writing is all about. This book is a little masterpiece. Doig Brings Simplicity of style, character development, and his mastery of dialog to tell a beautiful story about the end of days for Montana's one room school houses. Everyone should read Ivan Doig, he is one of America's best writers of the 20th (and now 21st) century!

It's 1957, and Paul Milliron, Montana's Superintendent of Schools, finds himself forced by the legislature to close the state's remaining one-room schools. On the way to perform his task, Paul takes a trip back to 1909, when he attended a rural, one-room school like the ones he must now close, and he relives a school year that shaped his life. We get to know his family, consisting of his widower father and his two younger brothers, plus an eclectic array of classmates, all brought to life by the author's masterful descriptions. When Paul's father hires a housekeeper from a newspaper ad, she comes with a surprise, and the action really begins. Sure, some of the events are pretty predictable, but all are delightfully so. Doig wraps it up with some deft twists to the predictable, however, as Paul shows a somewhat different side of his character in dealing with the dilemmas of both the past and present. The reader is left wanting to know more about what happened to Paul's brothers and classmates. But Doig does not clutter the story with that information, leaving it for our imaginations--or perhaps another trilogy as good as his English Creek, Dancing at the Rascal Fair and Ride with Me, Mariah Montana series. Wonderful reading and inspirational as well.

If you're looking for sex and violence, skip it. But if you like finely drawn characters and a picture of a place and time that really was -- this is for you. It was very well-written, amusing, had a story to tell. And I found it thought-provoking. Can't do much better than that.