This is the book we'll discuss at next Tuesday's book group meeting. I wasn't thrilled with when I first saw it. Just a one-room school house on the cover and a postage-stamp sized picture of the author on the back, and old man with prominent cheekbones. So, judging this book by the cover, I wasn't thrilled. I let myself polish off a few other books before I got to it last week. But once I got started, I had a hard time resisting.
Right off the bat I aligned the book with "Sara, Plain and Tall" and "Cold Sassy Tree" and "Growing Up." If you've read any of these books, alone or in combination, you might have an inkling what "The Whistling Season" is all about. I thoroughly enjoyed Doig's writing style. The words and imaged flowed as if I were reading my own memories, seeing my own home-movies. I wouldn't call it a comical book but there were some genuine parts of humor.
The story carried on pleasantly enough, but I knew some sort of scandal had to happen at the end. I was starting to get nervous about 50 pages from the end and no scandal had surfaced. But I was surprised and caught off guard at the nature of said scandal.
I wish I could say more about the content of these books. I do my best to write my feelings and impressions about what I read without spoiler warnings, just in the off-chance anyone else reads this.
It took me while to get into it, but I finished it off this morning! I enjoyed it, but as you'll tell by my book blog, a lot of what I took from it was the educational strand of the story. I was only part right about the scandal, and definitely a little conflicted at the end, but overall satisfied.
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