John M. (drfugawe) - , reviewed on 12/13/2007 + 64 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Seeing as this splendid book has no reviews here, I felt I must remedy that. Stegner opens this story as an autobiographical look at his childhood in a small southern Saskatchewan plains town, and his return many years later with different eyes. He's actually more surprised about what hasn't changed than with what has, and he uses that perspective to introduce the rest of his tale, the early pioneering of the western plains, and why that history was characterized by more failures than successes. His re-telling of the winter of '06/'07 in Genesis is masterful, and we are left wondering how is was that humans could have endured all those early pioneers did. But he is careful never to suggest that the northern plains are wasteland, rather he adds another puzzle piece to the picture of why the plains was, and is still so important to mankind.

A book very worth reading, and enjoying!
jm

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