In the days of arriving summer, on a rangeland green across northern Montana, Jick McCaskill comes of age late in the Depression. Jick is 14, able now to claim a man's place in the life of family, town and ranch.
His father is a roustabout turned forest ranger, his mother, practical and peppery mate. His brother Alec, his idol, is 18, set on marriage and life as a cowboy. Alec's choices throw the McCaskills into conflict, and through Jicks' eyes we see a family at a turning point -- "where all four of our lives made their bend."
"ENGLISH CREEK is a portrait of a time and place that at once inspires and fulfills a longing for an explicable past. It is a novel as luminously American as Cather's writing, Wyeth's painting and Copland's music." (Publisher's Source)
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Another treat for Doig fans:
Chronologically, English Creek is the second in Doig's Montana trilogy--better to read Dancing at the Rascal Fair first. This one gives us Montana frontier life in the 30s and invites one to continue with his contemporary book three, Ride with Me, Mariah Montana. I enjoyed all three and also recommend The Whistling Season.
Top-notch storytelling:
Like the other novels of Ivan Doig that I have read, ENGLISH CREEK might fall shy of great literature, but it certainly is top-notch storytelling. Doig's narrator for this story is Jick McCaskill, who has as personable a narrative style as one could want. Looking back over more than a quarter century, Jick tells the story of his summer of 1939, when he was 14 and grew from boy to young man. His story moves along at a leisurely pace, but it never stalls, largely because of the wry humor and charm of both his... more info
Very entertaining read...:
I hated to get sleepy at night, because I didn't want to put this book down. I thought this was a good story, and the author does a good job of describing the beautiful countryside to the reader.
An all-time favorite:
I uncovered Doig's "Dancing at the Rascal Fair" at a small bookstore in Oregon many years ago. Since then, his books have earned a "do not loan" status on my bookshelf. I'll tell friends how much I love his books, but they have to buy their own copies. English Creek is one of my favorites. It immersed me in Montana, in a young boy's summer, in the fold of time between childhood and adulthood. While some of Doig's books have a darker, gritty, edge, English Creek made me laugh outloud. I've just ordered three... more info
Privacy policy: we don't collect information
about visitors except for the standard technical server logs. We don't send unsolicited emails. We don't
sell the information that we don't collect about you to anyone. When you follow
links to other sites, their privacy policies apply. Thanks for visiting!
