Children of the Wind

by Ed Sundt

On a scorching, dusty road in south-central Illinois in the late 1930's, Doc finds Cully, eleven, running from his father's death in the fields. He takes Cully in, as he had taken in other stray creatures, and teaches him the life of a rural veterinarian. Thus the boy gains an understanding that death, a commonplace in nature's cycle, reaches animals and people, young and old, by accident or intent. One day a letter from Connecticut, three-months delayed, arrives for the boy Cully from the mother who had abandoned him two years earlier. The letter, an old out-of-tune piano, a curling photograph, and some names buried deep in his vanished youth draw Doc with Cully eastward on the National Road, Cully toward his future and Doc toward his forgotten youth. With quiet, poetic force, the journal-told story emerges like the gradual focusing of an old stereopticon, the two pictures blending to reveal an unsuspected three-dimensional depth as the lost boy searches for his mother and Doc tries to piece together a repressed and catastrophic past. Cully and Doc's odyssey of discovery is steeped in knowledge of and love for the land across which they journey. It is a true American myth, yet it reverberates with echoes of the Arthurian legend, of Henry Hudson, of the orphan trains, of traumatic conflagrations, and of the dying rooms where waifs' bodies are sold for cash. The dramatic and surprising ending is at once a tearful defeat and a smile-producing victory.

212 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2012

Reviews

[Stephen Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

i usually have 3 or 4 books on my nightstand and move back and forth as the spirit moves me from one to another. Once in a while one book will capture my attention and become the only one i'm reading until it's done. Children of the Wind caught me a week ago in the first few pages and I devoured it. In fact I set aside Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth, which I was enjoying and am now enjoying again. McEwan is a gifted pro, a slick and prolific storyteller, but "Children" is a much more compelling, unusual read. It seemed old-fashioned, suggesting fiction from the 19th century. The subject matter is historical, taking place in the 1930s and earlier, but its old-fashionedness lies in its tone, which is serious and direct, eschewing wit, silliness. The book's chapters are alternating journal entries from its two main characters and a remarkable amount of ground is covered in telling the stories of their lives. I feel better informed about the textures of 20th century life having read it: details regarding farms, orphan trains, animal medicine are offered, in a clean informative but casual, economical, prose. The reader is pulled into the story as the characters are pulled into their plots, driving, walking, training from place to place, to take responsibility for things they've done, or for others in need, or to figure out the mysteries underlying their lives. A real literary accomplishment.

[john alper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read into the past

Gripping story of regular folks with unusual histories. Life has its ways with the characters in this novel who are all connected in a sweeping rural and exurban landscape of early America.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is so good that it makes me wish all the more he were a better writer....I wanted Cully's chapters to have a much different voice from Doc's...I wanted less foreshadowing of the potential outcome...I wish for a clearer ending (What was that part at the very end? Who was that Augustus II? I'm so confused.) Maybe it's just me, as the other reviewers seem to have loved this. The story really was such a good one, and good historical fiction, just, something was lacking for me...

[Katrien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, beautiful book.