Helpful Score: 10
I was swept up from the first page, as eager as the boys in the story to meet their new housekeeper that "doesn't bite"....and I fell in love with Rose and her brother just as quickly as the family does in a story that will surprise you with the twists it takes. A new look at the definitions of family and loyalty set quite believably at the dawn of the century in rural Montana.
Helpful Score: 6
A coming of age novel on the Montana plains at the beginning of the 20th century and the role of the one room school house in the community. His characters, dialog, language and plot are enchanting. I can't wait to read more of his books.
Helpful Score: 5
Paul Milliron is a seemingly insignificant child. Living with his father and 2 younger brothers on the plains of Montana in 1909, the motherless family knows hardship and good times in equal measure.
When Pauls father takes it upon himself to hire a housekeep from Minneapolis, Paul and his younger brothers are in for the treat of their life when Rose Llewellyn and her brother Morrie Morgan show up on their front steps.
Gradually the relationship between Mr. Milliron and Rose grows to be something more and the boys begin to see her and Morrie as irreplaceable parts of their lives. Morrie and Rose are harboring a secret however, one that could either break, or make the family.
I had mixed reactions to The Whistling Season. Overall I liked it. The writing is superb and descriptive and the characters are people I can relate to and want to know more about. On the flip side, there really was no solid plotline. Yes, there was a growing relationship between the characters and minor happenings that will happen in 1909 Montana, but besides that it was like an ongoing episode of The Waltons.
Thats really all I have to say about it. It was good, I liked it. Would I read a sequel? meh. Maybe, if I couldnt find anything more interesting to pick up.
I give The Whistling Season 4 stars for the quality of writing and the characters, 3 for the overall plotline. Overall it was unremarkable through a haze of slightly peaked interest.
When Pauls father takes it upon himself to hire a housekeep from Minneapolis, Paul and his younger brothers are in for the treat of their life when Rose Llewellyn and her brother Morrie Morgan show up on their front steps.
Gradually the relationship between Mr. Milliron and Rose grows to be something more and the boys begin to see her and Morrie as irreplaceable parts of their lives. Morrie and Rose are harboring a secret however, one that could either break, or make the family.
I had mixed reactions to The Whistling Season. Overall I liked it. The writing is superb and descriptive and the characters are people I can relate to and want to know more about. On the flip side, there really was no solid plotline. Yes, there was a growing relationship between the characters and minor happenings that will happen in 1909 Montana, but besides that it was like an ongoing episode of The Waltons.
Thats really all I have to say about it. It was good, I liked it. Would I read a sequel? meh. Maybe, if I couldnt find anything more interesting to pick up.
I give The Whistling Season 4 stars for the quality of writing and the characters, 3 for the overall plotline. Overall it was unremarkable through a haze of slightly peaked interest.
Helpful Score: 5
Wonderfully evocative ode to the one-room schoolhouses of early twentieth-century Montana. I fell in love with the Milliron family, dry-land farmers trying to make it after the death of their mother and the always whistling Rose Llewellyn who rescues them from the squalor of their all-male farmhouse and her brother Morris, who rescues their minds from the limitations of their country school.
Helpful Score: 3
Extremely well written; funny and entertaining. "The West's preeminent literary novelist...Doig's characters, new and old, are unforgettable...they are becoming a part of the American mindscape." Doig pulls you into this book with writing magic.
