English Creek

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)

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Another treat for Doig fans, 2007-12-18
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.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Top-notch storytelling, 2007-11-19
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 narration and many of his characters. And in telling the story, Jick/Doig give us what I am confident is a realistic picture of ranching life in Northwest Montana, at the foot-hills of the Rockies as they rise out of the plains, just before WWII. Particularly vivid and memorable are extended set pieces of a community Fourth of July (with picnic, rodeo, and square dance), end-of-summer haying, and fighting a raging forest fire.

It may well be that the book will appeal most to readers "of a certain age," as they say. I am uncertain what the cut-off is (about 45?), but for those who have passed the threshold I have little doubt that they will enjoy the story immensely.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Very entertaining read..., 2006-12-22
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.


8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

An all-time favorite, 2005-04-01
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 copies to give as gifts to friends who I know will love the premise, the prose and the portrait of life on the edge of growing up.


3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

So-so novel of a Montana family, 2005-03-07
Set in northern Montana in 1939, this novel tells the story of the McCaskill family. Young Jick is 15 and interested in learning his family's history--not easy since his parents are pretty tight-lipped. His older brother wants to get married rather than go to college, which causes a rift in the family. The father works for the Forest Service and in tackling a big fire at book's end provides Jick with important family history. Good in spots, especially the last 50 pages or so, but one gets the feeling in much of the book that Doig is trying hard to write an epic, only it comes across as only boring details.

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