Authors: Ivan Doig
ISBN-13: 9780743271271, ISBN-10: 0743271270
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Date Published: May 2005
Edition: Reprint
Ivan Doig is the author of ten previous books, including the novels Prairie Nocturne and Dancing at the Rascal Fair. A former ranch hand, newspaperman, and magazine editor, Doig holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. He lives in Seattle.
In this prizewinning portrait of a time and place Montana in the 1930s that at once inspires and fulfills a longing for an explicable past, Ivan Doig has created one of the most captivating families in American fiction, the McCaskills.
The witty and haunting narration, a masterpiece of vernacular in the tradition of Twain, follows the events of the Two Medicine country's summer: the tide of sheep moving into the high country, the capering Fourth of July rodeo and community dance, and an end-of-August forest fire high in the Rockies that brings the book, as well as the McCaskill family's struggle within itself, to a stunning climax. It is a season of escapade as well as drama, during which fourteen-year-old Jick comes of age. Through his eyes we see those nearest and dearest to him at a turning point "where all four of our lives made their bend" and discover along with him his own connection to the land, to history, and to the deep-fathomed mysteries of one's kin and one's self.