The Whistling Season

I'd love to give this book a rave review, because by the time I finished I really had come to enjoy it. However, I had too many issues with it along the way to really sing its praises. The first issue was really my fault for not catching the historical background of the text--it presents itself as a book about life on the Montana prairie, which I foolishly equated to life on the South Dakota prairie. So it took me awhile to get used to all the horse references, especially since I do not have much familiarity with horses. Another issue I had with it was the fact that it's written from the perspective of a man looking back on his childhood. However, I felt that it didn't make very clear distinctions when it would shift back to the present, which always left me confused for a paragraph or two. My final, and biggest, issue was that the book's action moved very slowly. The first few hundred pages had a couple of exciting occurrences, but they were far and few between. I suppose you could argue that the narration and pace of the book would be fitting for life on a Montana homestead in the early 1900s, because really, besides going to school in a one-room schoolhouse and waiting for the rain, there wasn't much to do. However, at the end of the book, things started to unravel out of no where, which started to add some drama and excitement (which made me glad that I never put the book down and refused to finish it in the midst of the slower sections). Part of me wants to reread the book now and see if I can identify the clues that I missed that might have given away the ending.... But I also know that I have some much more exciting and scintillating books on my "to-read" list that I want to get through first (like The Book Thief, which I started a few days ago and am just flying through).


The bottom line? I guess I probably wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone. It's not terrible, but if you don't have a strong interest in life on the Montana prairie (which I learned means horses and ranches) or experiences in a one-room schoolhouse, then it probably isn't going to keep your interest.