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1st out of 85 books
—
40 voters
The Whistling Season (Morrie Morgan #1)
by
Ivan Doig
Can't cook but doesn't bite." So begins the newspaper ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition" that draws the hungry attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909. And so begins the unforgettable season that deposits the noncooking, nonbiting, ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris M...more
Hardcover, 345 pages
Published
June 1st 2006
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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Jul 02, 2007
William
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
coming-of-age,
western-america
Sometimes you just want a story of simplicity. You want to go to a place that reminds you of things about how you grew up and who you grew up among. You want a more recognizable time, even if the recognition is emotional rather than experiential. Maybe you just want a story that is a little less alienating than the one you find yourself in.
The Whistling Season is a lovely book of this kind of unapologetic simplicity: the issues are of character and growth, the characters are quirky and complex,...more
The Whistling Season is a lovely book of this kind of unapologetic simplicity: the issues are of character and growth, the characters are quirky and complex,...more
This was my first Ivan Doig, and it was an unexpected delight. Doig's deliciously droll delivery and richly drawn characters make him the kind of storyteller we all wish for and rarely find. There's something so comforting and lyrical about the subtle repetition of themes and that perfect narrative voice---what Ivan Doig himself calls "the poetry of the vernacular."
The characters in The Whistling Season just pop right off the page. I miss them already. I loved Toby, with his sweet innocence and...more
The characters in The Whistling Season just pop right off the page. I miss them already. I loved Toby, with his sweet innocence and...more
Reading this story made me wonder again what are the stories we want to tell about our country's history and the people who settled the west? Doig reminds us that many of the homesteaders were intelligent, inquisitive and adventurous, all willing to work harder than most of us can imagine to live a full life and what we came to call the American dream - to claim land of their own. This novel reminds me of Wallace Stegner in the way the author richly describes the life of the mind of the characte...more
The oldest of three brothers growing up in Montana during the early 1900s narrarates this wonderful and joyful story. Paul Milliron's widower father sends for a housekeeper in Minnesota after reading an add that says "Can't Cook; Doesn't Bite" in their local newspaper. The housekeeper, Rose, moves to Montana with her brother Morty and the book really takes off from there. I started reading this book thinking that the tone would be a lot darker but it was actually a really uplifting book--I espec...more
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This is a beautiful book. Doig's use of language is thoughtful and clever. Sly, quiet jokes are tucked into the text here and there and if you read too fast, you might read right past a good laugh. The story is composed of a perfect blend of both the joy and trouble that make up life and work out to be joy overall ("I laughed, I cried," as they say, but it's true here!). Doig evokes, as always, what it meant in times past to be part of a community. But this time, he gives hope to all of us rootl...more
Loved, loved this book! I loved the unforgettable characters and his writing was fabulous. I laughed out loud in parts, and I wanted to cry in others. His writing is witty and super descriptive. It wasn't predictable and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
There really isn't much to the plot at times, just a coming-of-age story of a widowed father and his 3 extremely likable sons and their life on a Montana homestead in the early 20th century. It is about their housekeeper they hire and her brother she brin...more
There really isn't much to the plot at times, just a coming-of-age story of a widowed father and his 3 extremely likable sons and their life on a Montana homestead in the early 20th century. It is about their housekeeper they hire and her brother she brin...more
5 likes · like · see review
Slowly but surely, I grew to love this novel. It evolved into something different than I anticipated, and certainly something more. Ever encounter one of those stories that lends a certain impression, perhaps that a character and a storyline are going to emerge in a somewhat predictable way? Such was this - I envisioned focus on a budding romance between a homesteading Montana widower (Oliver), circa 1910, and his newly hired and transplanted "housekeeper" (Rose), while his three immensely perso...more
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Why have I never heard of this author? He is an amazing writer! (I liken him to Wallace Stegner, Leif Enger, Marilynne Robinson.) I thoroughly enjoyed reading this quiet, humorous, intelligent book about homesteaders in Montana in 1910. I love the narrator (a 13-year-old boy-genius). I love the story. I love, love, love the language. I'm going to read Ivan Doig again as soon as possible.
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"The Whistling Season" takes place in the mid-west in the early 1900’s. It is narrated by Paul a seventh grader who attends a one-room school house. His father is a widower and a farmer. The story is their struggle of living off the land and coping with loss. The tale takes a twist with the arrival of Rose the hired housekeeper who can’t cook and her intellectual brother. The two add intrigue to the ordinary lives of the main character and his family. Doig’s style is descriptive and he effective...more
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Set in 1909-1910 in Marias Coulee, Montana, the feel of this book isn't very far off from the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. Paul Milliron and his brothers Damon and Toby go to school in a one-room schoolhouse. Their mother died last year and their father is one of the last homesteaders when this land was opened. Their father Oliver one day sees a notice in the paper, advertising the services of a housekeeper. Although she claims not to cook, the Millirons believe she can be persuaded otherwise onc...more
This book is one of my all time favorites. It is "poetry of the vernacular". If this story doesn't capture your heart you must be a snobbish city dweller who has no appreciation of America's rural past. The setting is rural Montana in 1909, a one-room grade school, and a family of three young boys and their father still mourning the death of their mother (and wife) the previous year. It takes a skilled writer to turn such a plain setting into one of the most enjoyable, interesting and humorous b...more
If you like "A Prairie Home Companion," you will love this book. It's got the same charming, organic, grass roots atmosphere as Garrison Keillor's stories, except that it's set in 1909 Montana instead of Minnesota. (Though there are some Scandinavian families involved.) The narrator remembers the year he was 13, when his recently widowed father hires a housekeeper, sight unseen, from a newspaper ad. She arrives in Montana with her brother Morris, who suddenly finds himself as teacher in the comm...more
Ivan Doig is a fine, fine writer. In The Whistling Season, he tells the story of a widower living with his three sons on a dry farm in rural eastern Montana. He reads an advertisement for a woman living in the East who would like a housekeeping job and is willing to relocate to Montana. The ad states she doesn't cook, but she also doesn't bite. Rose comes to Montana to be the Millirons housekeeper and brings her brother, Morris, with her. This is a fine set-up for what could have been some prett...more
Having grown up in Montana, I felt a certain duty to read Ivan Doig. I selected "The Whistling Season" based on library availability and hope that this title is representative of his other novels. Doig's writing style and character development have made me a big fan. He turns a beautiful phrase, but does so in an apparently effortless manner that provides richness without excess. Characters initially seem simple but develop into those you know and care about as if they were family.
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The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig was another book club pick. I wasn't really looking forward to reading this one, just because I didn't feel like it was up my alley, but I ended up enjoying it for the most part. It did get to the point, about 2/3 of the way through, when I knew a secret would be revealed (he laid the foreshadowing on pretty thick here, I don't think I am spoiling anything), and I just wanted to be done. Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable read centered around a very likable fami...more
There are two stories here that are necessarily entwined - the current story of the adult Paul, school inspector, who has the sad task of informing the Marias Coulee school of its fate and the child Paul who lives through an uncertain time in the history of the same school. Even though the basic story was interesting and the characters were realistic, I had a very hard time staying interested in this book. I had to renew it twice, not because it was such difficult reading, but because I kept fin...more
This is an interesting book set in the past in rural eastern Montana where education still revolves around the one room school house and within the parental trades of family life. The Milliron family, who lost their wife/mother several years past, enlist the service of a woman from the east to help bring a sense of female responsibility and knowledge to their male saturated home. Although the father and head of this household holds education in the highest degree and has taught his three sons to...more
This is a quite enjoyable read, but not literature. Doig paints a wonderful picture of the one-room schoolhouse on the prairie and life on a homestead in the Montana east of the Rockies. In fact, the narrator is writing from the perspective of 1957 just after the Sputkik launch and is remembering his childhood in a particular school. As the State Superintendent of Schools, he seems willing to write the eulogy for this education setting.
This was exactly what I needed to be reading just now, but u...more
This was exactly what I needed to be reading just now, but u...more
2 likes · like · see review
Nov 24, 2008
Kaye
marked it as to-read
I've loved every book I've read by this author, especially "Dancing at the Rascal Fair". Doig is a noted author who writes rich, detailed storeies about people usually living in the west (Montana, etc.).
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This was surprisingly enjoyable, and I liked it more and more as it went on. I adored the parts about studying Latin, and I thought it a fitting and poignant tribute to one-room schoolhouses. The revelations at the end took me by surprise as well--I had not guessed about Rose and Morris' mysterious past.
05/09/13: This book holds up really well to a second reading. In fact, I think I enjoyed more of the descriptive language this time around, and I found many expressive phrases and hints that I'm...more
05/09/13: This book holds up really well to a second reading. In fact, I think I enjoyed more of the descriptive language this time around, and I found many expressive phrases and hints that I'm...more
It is a great story about a little town and a one-room schoolhouse. It sort of reminded me of Anne of Green Gables school experiences. I would have said this book was amazing but it took me a while to get into it and I was disappointed at the ending.
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"If I have learned anything in a lifetime spent overseeing schools, it is that childhood is the one story that stands by itself in every soul."
"Mother's death had been hard for all of us to b...more
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"If I have learned anything in a lifetime spent overseeing schools, it is that childhood is the one story that stands by itself in every soul."
"Mother's death had been hard for all of us to b...more
I liked this story, the time it took place, the characters. It was fun and entertaining. Touching at times. I like that time, 1909, when things are simpler, yet harder. I don't like to say much more as to spoil it for you, but if you like one room school houses with a vast array of kids, inventive teachers, and a little twist and turn here and there, you will probably enjoy this as much as I did.
I will add I might have given it a 5 if wasn't for the narrator, an adult telling this story, jumpin...more
I will add I might have given it a 5 if wasn't for the narrator, an adult telling this story, jumpin...more
As problematic as they can be, settling-the-west stories are a guilty pleasure of mine. Chalk it up to being obsessed with Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child as well as my own "East Coast? Where's that? Is that the mythical place where radio and television station names start with W instead of K?" perspective on the United States, but stories of homesteads and schools on the prairies, plains, and deserts tend to attract me.
The Whistling Season is twelve-year-old Paul Milliron's story of the year hi...more
The Whistling Season is twelve-year-old Paul Milliron's story of the year hi...more
This was Maggee's introduction to Ivan Doig and, over several years, she has read (and reread) every book in his collection (except DANCING AT THE RASCAL FAIR which is currently on the request list for and inter-library loan).
Recently, I ENGLISH CREEK aloud to Maggee, and I can see why she was so taken with Doig's writing.
THE WHISTLING SEASON is told in the voice of Paul Milliron as he wanders through the house on the family homestead and remembers back fifty years to the school year of 1909 and...more
Recently, I ENGLISH CREEK aloud to Maggee, and I can see why she was so taken with Doig's writing.
THE WHISTLING SEASON is told in the voice of Paul Milliron as he wanders through the house on the family homestead and remembers back fifty years to the school year of 1909 and...more
A single father and his three young sons, living on the Montana prairie, need a housekeeper. Rose, a lovely and charming Minneapolis widow, comes to do the job, bringing along her equally charming brother, Morrie. When the boys' schoolteacher abandons them unexpectedly, Morrie takes over the one-room schoolroom, winning over the local children with his flamboyant teaching style. Over the course of a school year, the Milliron family, Rose, and Morrie get to know everything about each other, for b...more
I really liked this book and the character development was superb. I must admit loving my first Doig more - The Bartender's Tale. If these two books are to be taken as representative of Doig's novels, then the main characters will be adolescent boys, mystified by the world of adults, just as they are beginning to become a part of the fringes of the adult world. Paul, the main character in this book, is a brilliant young man with an aptitude for language. When Rose and her brother Morrie arrive a...more
Thirteen year old Paul Milliron is the narrator of this charming novel set in the “Wild West,” nineteenth century Montana. Paul’s father, a widower with three young and mischievous sons, is desperate to find a housekeeper for his unconventional family, and ends up placing a newspaper ad, which is answered by a woman named Rose Llewellyn, who claims that she “can’t cook, but doesn’t bite.” She arrives, young and brilliant (but can’t cook), with her brother Morris in tow. The boys quickly take to...more
Following the 1950's Sputnik orbit, State School Superendendent Oliver Milliron prepares to announce the consolodation of the one-room school ("small prarie arks of education")in Montana. As he considers a plan to bus children to large mega-schools, he thinks back (flashes would be too sudden a trip) to his own boyhood in a one-room school in rural Montana some 40 years earlier. This coming-of-age story is so beautifully told, so straightforward, so true, that I kept expecting some irony and cer...more
Ivan Doig's The Whistling Season is a well-written, charming look into America's past. The lives of the Montana homesteaders and their families come to vivid life within the pages, allowing this reader to lose herself in the beauty of Doig's descriptions. The language Doig uses is artistic, exquisitely illustrating a way of life lost to us many years ago.
There are so many great things about The Whistling Season that I could quite literally write pages about it! The characters in are phenomenally...more
There are so many great things about The Whistling Season that I could quite literally write pages about it! The characters in are phenomenally...more
A nice read. The first 40 pages, I thought it was just going to be an adult version of Sarah, Plain and Tall or a male version of the Penderwicks. Then the fabulous, lyrical, sweeping descriptions of Montana filled in and reminded me of Wallace Stegner, then it was Dead Poets' Society, then a Chicago Mafia caper, then it finished and ended up Sarah, Plain and Tall again.
Doig nailed the depiction of minds who love to learn, the desperation of frontier Montana in a drought, and the plethora of sma...more
Doig nailed the depiction of minds who love to learn, the desperation of frontier Montana in a drought, and the plethora of sma...more
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Ivan Doig was born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana to a family of homesteaders and ranch hands. After the death of his mother Berneta, on his sixth birthday, he was raised by his father Charles "Charlie" Doig and his grandmother Elizabeth "Bessie" Ringer. After several stints on ranches, they moved to Dupuyer, Pondera County, Montana in the north to herd sheep close to the Rocky Mountain Front.
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“Childhood is the one story that stands by itself in every soul.”
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Principality of Sleep
Happy Land of Forgetfullness”
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Principality of Sleep
Happy Land of Forgetfullness”
