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    The Whistling Season
    The Whistling Season
    The Whistling Season
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Whistling Season

    Written by Ivan Doig

    Narrated by Jonathan Hogan

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Author of 11 books, including a finalist for the National Book Award, Ivan Doig is hailed as the “West’s preeminent literary novelist” by The Denver Post. A Montana native and respected historian, Doig leavens this tale of the prairie frontier with wonderful humor.

    In 1909, struggling to farm his remote homestead and raise three sons, widower Oliver Milliron desperately needs help. A housekeeper’s ad in a Milwaukee newspaper, “Can’t cook but doesn’t bite,” leads him to hire her sight unseen.

    When perky Rose Llewellyn arrives, she brings along her brainy brother, Morris.

    Though Rose whistles through her work at the Milliron house, and Morris becomes teacher at the one-room school, these two newcomers conceal a past that is colorful and infamous.

    Told through the eyes of Oliver’s 13-year-old son, The Whistling Season is filled with humor, hardship, and surprising moments of discovery.

    “The Whistling Season is a book to pass on to your favorite readers: a story of lives of active choice, lived actively.”—Publishers Weekly
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 9, 2006
    ISBN9781440782022
    Author

    Ivan Doig

    Ivan Doig (1939-2015) was born in Montana and grew up along the Rocky Mountain Front, the dramatic landscape that has inspired much of his writing. A recipient of a lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western Literature Association, he is the author of fifteen novels and four works of nonfiction.

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    Reviews for The Whistling Season

    4.5/5

    74 ratings60 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book, my first by Doig, It reads as a very breezy historical novel, but it is much deeper than it seems. Rich, fully-realized characters, deceptively simple story lines, and great sense of place make this a pleasurable read. Suitable for almost all ages (and great for boys) it is an adult novel that YA's will enjoy. The one room school scenes reminded me, favorably, of Anne of Green Gables.
    • 4/5
      Good storyline, and the author makes you believe that your'e actually in the small one-room school house. Sort of like little house on the prarie for boys. The ending was a bit far fetched forme though. I will read more of his stuff.
    • 5/5
      Ivan Doig's The Whistling Season is a well-written, charming look into America's past. The lives of the Montana homesteaders and their families come to vivid life within the pages, allowing this reader to lose herself in the beauty of Doig's descriptions. The language Doig uses is artistic, exquisitely illustrating a way of life lost to us many years ago.There are so many great things about The Whistling Season that I could quite literally write pages about it! The characters in are phenomenally well-formed. From Rose and her brother Morrie, to Oliver and his boys, to the schoolyard bullies they encounter, Doig has created realistic and complex characters, leaving the reader wanting more. The setting constructed in The Whistling Season is wonderfully atmospheric and the detail the novel contains is simply breathtaking.Ivan Doig's The Whistling Season is everything a good story should be - interesting and entertaining, with realistic characters and a strong sense of setting. What more can a reader ask for?
    • 5/5
      "Can't cook but doesn't bite." That's what the advertisement for a housekeeper says, and despite this lack of culinary skills Paul Milliron's widowed father decides to hire said housekeeper, a young widow Mrs. Rose Llewellyn. Dragging along her brother as a companion, Rose and Morrie turn the household of three growing boys living in Montana in 1909 upside down, and Paul remembers that year in the one-room schoolhouse fondly even while he, in the 1950s, has to announce the closure of many such schools in the district.I've never read a book by Ivan Doig before, but this most definitely will not be the last. The author has such a way with language and storytelling that I was sucked right in, savoring the moments and laughing right along with Paul as he divulged his boyhood memories. I was carried along entranced, and am still mulling over the ending. Time and place is evoked skillfully and the research that must have been done to make the story come together is woven in beautifully.
    • 3/5
      Quick easy read story about a young family.
    • 3/5
      Dancing at the Rascal Fair still is tops for me.
    • 4/5
      Well written story of a boy growing up on a dryland farm in rural Montana around 1910. The story centers around the one room schoolhouse, its teacher, and the very rural community.
    • 5/5
      It has taken me much too long to get around to Doig, whose story-telling skills, I now find, are among the best. This book lands solidly on Linda's Goodest Reads Ever list. It is set in Montana in 1910, the year Halley's Comet "came back". The narrator fits one of my favorite patterns---the adult looking back on a significant episode of his or her own childhood, and the characters are perfect, realistic, just-complicated-enough. I loved every one of them, even the scoundrels, as I'm sure I was meant to, and the story was beautiful too. Didn't hurt that it featured a lot of whistling (my Dad was a joyful whistler) and a pitch-perfect one-room school environment. No gratuitous violence, no incest or spousal abuse, no rebellious yout's, no heavy "issues", and only one minor character in the mold of Pap Finn, just for the spice of it. All five for this one.
    • 5/5
      THE WHISTLING SEASON by Ivan DoigThe picture of hardships on a “dry” farm in 1909 Montana is clearly shown in this delightful story of motherless family trying to survive and the brother/sister couple who answer their ad for a housekeeper.Homesteading, social life, family life, shenanigans, love, one room schools and the teachers who make them, and secrets, especially secrets, combine to make this a delightful, well-written tale that encompasses humor, fear, sacrifice and boyhood. 5 of 5 stars
    • 3/5
      This was a decent book, but not terribly remarkable. Another book, like Gilead, that I simply had a hard time relating to. I like books set in the prairie (I am from Nebraska), but I prefer books where things actually happen. The great mystery in this book was not exciting, and everything wrapped up a little too neatly.
    • 4/5
      Set in Montana toward the end of the one-room, all grades schoolhouse era, this book is filled with lovely, mysterious, and intriguing characters.  The story is told in flash back style by a state superintendent who while contemplating the fate of the last of such schools reflects on his own childhood experiences learning in such an environment. Great sense of place and wonderful characters!
    • 5/5
      This wonderful novel is 3 stories in 1: 1) A Montana state superintendent of public instruction in the 1950s is being pressured by the state legislature in the wake of Sputnik to close the state's one-room country schools. As he mulls over what he's going to do, he recalls, in first-person narration, his 7th-grade year in one such school in 1910, the year of Halley's Comet. 2) A widowed father of 3 sons (one is the narrator) responds to an ad for a housekeeper, and the family adjusts to her presence. 3) The housekeeper & her brother flee a mysterious past to make a new life in the isolated West; the brother takes over the one-room school with unusual tactics. It's wonderful storytelling with elegant simplicity of prose that avoids sentimental nostalgia.
    • 5/5
      Ivan Doig has a suprising descriptive ability with words. Lovely read about past times in Montana when life was slower and dryer. The one room schoolhouse was a gathering place for the community. The one great teacher could stimulate every child.Quotes: The circumference of love depends on the angle you see it from. Can't Cook but Doesn't Bite - advertisement for housekeeper
    • 4/5
      This was a recommendaton from the local libray book club. It was set in Montana and was about a family and a one room school. It is a wonderful story of a time gone by! Sometimes I wish I had a time machine!
    • 5/5
      There is nothing wrong with an old-fashioned novelist. Always a pleasure to read a book by this author whose voice is so open and ingenuous, perfect for his characters who retain a certain innocence I’ve come to associate with many Western characters in fiction.In small town eastern Montana lives Oliver Milliron, a widower, with his three young boys who all attend a one-room school. Paul is the eldest son and pov character. His father is in need of a housekeeper and answers a unique ad for one that includes pertinent information: “Can’t cook but doesn’t bite.” Thus Rose Llewellyn and her “brother” Morris arrive and become part of the family. A highly literary and over-educated for the posiition man, Morris takes over the one-room school while Rose whips the Milliron home into shape and begins to realize ambitions of her own when she purchases a neighboring homestead. Morris is the catalysing character and the mainshaper of Paul’s awakening intellect.Small secrets find their way out into the open and the one rogue is artfully banished. This small, simple, and evocative novel reminds us of the wonder of childhood, and more importantly, the value of a free public education. Doig is the master of warmth and the word artist of Montana’s landscapes and pioneers.
    • 5/5
      Thoroughly enjoyed the story of growing up in Montana and attending a one-room schoolhouse. The horse race scene? I couldn't read fast enough!
    • 4/5
      Very good, even if the end seems a bit contrived. Not quite up to his highwater mark, "Dancing at the Rascal Fair" but well worth the read.
    • 4/5
      Bittersweet book-- mostly enjoyed it except for some of the convoluted sentences which required repeated rereading for understanding. Also, Paul's confrontation with Morrie was troubling and sad to me but both handled it as well as possible. Incidentally, this cover is not the one that appears on the book I read though the ISBN matches.
    • 5/5
      What a truly great book! Doig writes with such explicit emotion and detail - across age ranges and temperments. His writing sweeps me away. The varied characters in this 1909 Montana setting are so timeless and believable. They remind me of real people I know today. This is a touching family story within a small community told by Paul, a 13 year old boy. Paul's father is a widower with three boys. There is humor, tragedy, love, fear, and amazement in their everyday hardscrabble existence as a feminine influence breezes in restoring order and connection. An interesting juxtaposition of perspectives of Paul at 13 and Paul in his later years is woven lightly throughout. Paul struggles and comes to terms with perspectives on adult relationships, temptations to compromise values in an effort to succeed in life, forgiveness, the value of a small town education and learning to live with others. I wanted to see the comet. I wanted to race backwards on horseback. I wanted to talk and listen to Morrie. I wanted to have an early morning cocoa with Rose. In a way, I did all that. Doig is that good.
    • 4/5
      Paul Milliron, Superintendent of Montana's Department of Public Instruction, has the unpleasant task of announcing the closure of the state's one room schoolhouses. He was a product of the one in Marias Coulee himself. Much of the book is a recollection of his 7th grade year. His mother had died. His dad sees an advertisement for a woman living in Minneapolis who wishes to move west and become a housekeeper. They really believe that the part of the ad about her not knowing how to cook is a joke, but soon find out its truth. Accompanying her is Morrie who is practically a walking encyclopedia. Morrie had a great influence on Paul. When I first began reading this book, I was a bit distracted by life, and the book got off to a slow start even though I really could not fault anything. However, the more I read, the more I enjoyed the book. I'm really not quite sure how I feel about the ending of the historic portion of the book. It's probably realistic, especially for that period in Montana's history, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I think the one thing that bothered me most about the pending closure of the one-room schools in favor of the consolidated schools was the statement made in the book that no child would have to ride on a bus more than 1.5 hours each way. In today's schools, I'm not sure this could be justified because of the high cost of gasoline. It also makes for a very long day for the children. That's 3 hours in addition to a normal 7 hour school day. I also believe that the students in many of those one room schoolhouses learned far more in the first eight grades than today's students. Some would say that it's just a different type of learning, but having seen many college students unprepared for college, I believe that some of those students were better prepared for today's colleges than are many current students. It's definitely a thought-provoking literary work.
    • 5/5
      What a wonderful book. Just perfect in every way. Great story, characters that breathe on the page, and a plot that's surprisingly clever. Morrie Morgan steals the show. Someone we all wish we had for a teacher, or a reminder of that special teacher we once had. Starting an ARC of Work Song, the sort of sequel, this time starring Morrie. Yea!
    • 4/5
      The book snuck up on me. Generally speaking, a historical coming-of-age novel is not my first choice, and while I was drawn to the unique characters from the start, I found myself wanting more from the plot.

      I wondered why the author chose to flash forward every so often to the narrator as an adult, discussing his job as a school superintendent.

      Late in the book, I got it. The Whistling Season is a love letter to the lost era of one-room schoolhouses.
    • 4/5
      Usually, if we’ve all liked a book in our book group, the discussion after reading is a little boring. “Good book.” “Yes.” “I liked it.” “So did I.” But Ivan Doig’s The Whistling Season was a little different. We all really liked it, but most of us felt dissatisfied, one way or another, with the ending. That made for a really interesting evening’s chat.Most of us found the book a little slow to start with. The voice is very authentic, but takes some getting used to. But it’s worth persevering, we agreed. Soon you’re absorbed in a not-so-distant world, watching an everyday life that you more-than-half regret missing. Everything is told from the view-point of a young teenaged boy—details skipped that you might have wished told—details added that surprise and intrigue. And there’s a cleverness in the way the tale is put together that rewards deeper thought afterwards. Why doesn’t Rose cook? Why does she whistle? How do different pairs of siblings compare? And whose decisions in the end are more similar than different?But, as I said, we weren’t at all sure about the end. We speculated at what might be missing, which questions unanswered perhaps, and came to no conclusion. Maybe that’s what the author intended of us, because life leaves us wondering too.I felt like I’d spent a year in the country when I’d finished. It was a pleasant time though the living wasn’t easy. I learned something, and I’m left questioning—what have we gained? What have we lost? And when will Halley’s Comet return?
    • 5/5
      This is the first book I've read by Ivan Doig, and now I want to read all of them (and there are a lot). I loved the high plains setting, and the era when cars are just becoming common, yet horses are still the usual mode of transportation has always held my interest. Plenty of character and plot development.
    • 3/5
      I didn't each this book quite as much as other books by Doig. It certainly had his same excellent writing, but the scope and plot were different from what he is best at.
    • 5/5
      A very unique and intriguing book. A look into the ordinary family life of early years Montana. A curious read.
    • 5/5
      Rarely do I award any book five stars, but this inauspicious little volume rocked me to the very core. Doig perfectly captured the rawness of Montana, without letting that same unyielding rawness transfer to the characters (save one or two), each of which was so beautifully written that I found myself savoring every page. His grasp on the workings of a little country school at the turn of the century proved to be quite accurate, from the stories that I've heard my grandfather tell of his days in a one-room schoolhouse. As a teacher, he inspired me to greater heights and the wish that I could be a Morris Morgan. He managed to perfectly blend the past and the present into a novel that is sure to stay in my imagination for years to come. Bravo!
    • 4/5
      "Can't cook but doesn't bite." So reads the ad for a position as a housekeeper which catches Oliver Milliron's eye. Widowed with three sons, Oliver is hard pressed to keep up with the farm and his drayage business--forget house work and don't even mention his efforts at cooking.The story is sad, funny and ironic, with a clear-eyed view of life on the plains with too much work and too little water.
    • 4/5
      I completely enjoyed this book although I agree with other reviewers who compare it to Little House on the Prairie and other "sweet" memories of growing up in the rural west before 1950. I am not one to judge whether a book is a literary novel or not. Usually I like a novel which provides some complexity to the characters, interest in the plot, and uses evocatively descriptive language without being overly dense and I think Doig meets these criteria. The story is about a widower, his three young boys, and a couple of people moving west to avoid their past. The young woman coming to the west advertises herself as looking to find employment in house work but "does not cook but does not bite", Oddly emough, she is hired by the widower who does not believe she does not cook. The book is written from the oldest boy's POV and conveys great love for this former way of life and since I agree with him, I enjoyed it a great deal.
    • 4/5
      A long setup with interesting characters and their lives in rural Montana. A bit of a thriller in the end as many little details come together. A well told story!