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Ivan Doig has been called "the reigning master of new Western literature." And THE WHISTLING SEASON, his latest book, certainly confirms his writing stature.
The story is told from the point of view of Paul Milliron, currently the Montana state superintendent of schools. He has been delegated to decide the fate of the state's last rural schools. As he struggles with the decisions he must make, Paul recalls his childhood and the one-room schoolhouse he attended in Marias Coulee, Montana in the fall of 1909.
Paul's father Oliver has been recently widowed. The family, including three boys --- Paul, Damon and Tobey --- are struggling to keep their daily chores done. This includes cooking, housekeeping, attending to their father's farming duties and going to school. It's too much for all of them, so Oliver decides to advertise for a housekeeper. When a woman applies with the statement, "Can't cook but doesn't bite," she is hired anyway, sight unseen. None of the Millirons quite believe that she can't cook.
The widow Rose Llewellyn arrives in Montana with an unexpected guest: her brother, the well-educated but quirky Morris Morgan. Both Rose and Morris are hard workers. Rose knows how to clean a house through and through, and Morgan works at any job that Oliver can find him --- including cleaning out a chicken coop.
For the boys, school life is never without its challenges. When Paul Milliron slugs the school bully, Eddie Turley, Damon comes up with a plan to prevent a fight. He suggests a horse race. The loser is to leave the other boy alone for the rest of the year. The only catch is that the riders will sit backwards on the horse. Paul wins the race and all is well, until their father finds out. As punishment, Paul will help Morris stack the wood piles for their elderly Aunt. During their work time together, Paul and Morris begin a relationship of mentor to student.
When the schoolteacher runs off to get married to a traveling minister, Paul's father talks Morris into taking on the job. As Morris engages the class, the reader is engaged in the minds of the students, the Milliron home and life in rural Montana in the early 1900s. Morris also tutors Paul in Latin after school, which deepens their relationship. His teaching abilities are tested when the inspector comes to visit.
A horse crushes Tobey's foot and Rose moves into the house to help Oliver take care of him. The closeness leads to romance between Rose and Paul's father, and Paul figures out the puzzle of why Rose and Morris left the midwest to journey to Montana.
Ivan Doig evokes the sense of the Old West as few writers can. His depiction and description of Montana gives the reader the breadth and depth of life on the land a hundred years ago. The reader travels back to the early 1900s with Paul, as he revisits his past to choose what to do with Montana's last rural schools in the 1950s.
--- Reviewed by Jennifer McCord
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