Ivan Doig (1939–2015)

Hay libros que son como la primera vez que llegas a un lugar nuevo. En un principio todo resulta desconocido y cuesta acostumbrarse al entorno y a sus habitantes. Pero después llega un momento en que te conviertes en uno más del lugar y es como si siempre hubieses estado ahí. ‘Una temporada para silbar’ es uno de estos libros. Empiezas su lectura como si fuese un libro más, del que sí, esperas mucho pero no estás seguro, comienzas con titubeos conociendo a los personajes y sus show more historias, y cuando estás metido de lleno en la novela, ya sabes que estás ante un libro especial, algo que se convierte en una certeza absoluta cuando la terminas y te sorprendes echando de menos a los protagonistas.

‘Una temporada para silbar’ está narrada por Paul Milliron, superintendente escolar, que en los años 50 ha de notificar el desmantelamiento de las escuelas unitarias para dar paso a los grandes centros escolares. Será entonces cuando Paul comience a rememorar unos hechos que acaecieron en 1909, y que le dejaron una profunda huella.

Corría el año 1909 en Marias Coulee, una pequeña población rural de Montana. Paul, de 13 años, vive en la granja con su padre y sus dos hermanos pequeños, Damon y Toby. Su madre hace un año que ha fallecido, y ante el duro trabajo que supone encargarse de las tareas de la casa, de sus tres hijos y de los trabajos en el campo, su padre decide responder al curioso anuncio en el periódico de una mujer que se ofrece como ama de llaves que ”No cocina, pero tampoco muerde”. Cuál no será la sorpresa de los cuatro miembros de esta familia cuando reciban la llegada de Rose, pero no sola, sino acompañada de su hermano Morrie. La vida a partir de este momento para Paul y su familia dará un vuelco sorprendente.

Vistos desde las distancia, los recuerdos de Paul tienen una pátina de nostalgia, que el autor, Ivan Doig, transmite de una manera apasionada y tierna al mismo tiempo, no exenta de un cierto sentido del humor, proporcionándonos momentos memorables, como las carreras de los chicos a caballo, porque van al colegio montados a caballo; las relaciones de los hermanos con sus compañeros de escuela; la visión que de la época se tenía de las cosechas y la meteorología; la relación tan especial que se establece entre Paul y Rose, o entre Paul y Morrie.

Tras leer ‘Una temporada para silbar’, inevitablemente me vienen a la mente ‘La comedia humana’, de William Saroyan, y ‘Vinieron como golondrinas’, de William Maxwell, que comparten esa impresión casi mítica de una época pasada, vista por unos ojos inocentes.

Sin lugar a dudas, Ivan Doig, con un estilo ameno y aparentemente sencillo, ha escrito una de esas novelas que perduran en el recuerdo. show less

This is the middle volume of the trilogy that begins with [The Whistling Season] and concludes with [Sweet Thunder]. I read the first novel in 2012, and the third in 2013, having requested an ER copy not realizing the two were connected or that there was another in between. [Work Song] tells the story of Morrie Morgan's arrival in Butte, Montana, in 1919, where he hopes to make a fortune and escape his past. But, as well-read and resourceful as he is, even his best-laid plans are not proof show more against company goons and outside agitators as the miners take a stand against Anaconda Copper’s recent cut in their daily wages, and Morrie finds himself taking sides, against his better judgment. Morrie is one of my favorite characters of all time. He is charming; knowledgeable; good-intentioned but slightly unreliable (he’s apt to pack up and run---he’s done it before). A mining town on the brink of a strike is an odd place to set one, but this is pretty much a comfort read, when all is said and done. I’m fairly sure that I’ll be re-reading all three of these novels one day; they are very easy to settle into. I sure wish Doig could have stuck around and given us more of Morrie. show less

Morrie Morgan has arrived in Butte, Montana just after the end of World War I. Morrie is “an itinerant teacher, walking encyclopedia, and inveterate charmer” who’s been attracted by news of “the richest hill on earth” and a need to get as far from Chicago as possible. While he lands a position at the local library, he’s also soon immersed in the miners’ struggles to form a union and fight for better working conditions and fair wages.

What a charming and engaging story! Per the show more book jacket, Morgan first appeared in Doig’s The Whistling Season; I have not read that earlier work and didn’t feel I was missing any information to understand Morrie and follow this story.

The pace is somewhat slow. As events unfold we learn about the residents of Butte – Sandison (former cattle baron, and still an acknowledged “big man” in town), Grace (Morrie’s young, pretty, widowed landlady), Griff & Hoop (two old miners who share the boarding house with Morrie), Barbara aka Rabrab (Morrie’s former student, now teaching 6th grade), Jared (a young union organizer, and engaged to Rabrab), and Russian Famine (a waif of a boy who needs guidance). The town, itself, is practically a character with its small café, prolonged Irish wakes, boisterous bar, festival celebration, and church gatherings.

I liked Morrie’s slow, deliberate way of judging the situation. The bookworm in me loved all his literary references, and his ability to cite an appropriate passage, seemingly plucked out of thin air. Make no mistake, he’s no milquetoast librarian; Morrie can (and does) take care of himself, though he’s decidedly uncomfortable with firearms.

Grace is a marvelous strong woman. Principled, kind, compassionate, feisty, courageous and conflicted. Doig’s skill at character building shows in the way her actions reveal her inner struggles.

I need to go back and read The Whistling Season … heck, I need to read ALL of Ivan Doig’s works. show less

The third of Doig's novels to feature the roguish but loveable Morrie Morgan a/k/a Morgan Llewellyn. We first encountered Morrie in The Whistling Season, where he demonstrated his nearly encyclopedic knowledge of history and literature, and did a fine, if brief, turn as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Montana. Morrie was just one significant character in that book, which was told by an adult Paul Milliron looking back on his childhood. Sweet Thunder is all Morrie, and told in his show more voice. It picks up his life at a high point, a decade or so after the events of The Whistling Season, as he and his lovely wife Grace return to Butte, Montana, after a year-long honeymoon tour of the world, to take possession of an imposing Horse Thief Row mansion , which has somewhat inexplicably been turned over to them by Morrie's old boss, Sam Sandison, librarian and book collector extraordinaire.

The thrust of the action in Sweet Thunder is the newspaper war between the fledgling labor-friendly Thunder, for which Morrie is the editorial voice under the name of "Pluvius", and the big-business organ, The Post, which may as well have "Anaconda Copper Mining Company, Publisher" on its masthead. Words fly, and occasionally, so do fists and bullets. Meanwhile, there are some skeletons in Morrie's closet that Grace doesn't know about, and the course of true love encounters a few miles of rough road. He spends a fair amount of time looking over his shoulder, hoping not to be spotted and recognized by anyone from his gambling days. To compound the anxiety of that situation, he is "recognized" by underlings of a notorious and elusive bootlegger, who mistake him for their boss, the Highliner.

Doig knows how to make words work, and play. There is lovely writing, a lot of humor, and satisfactory outcomes a-plenty. I'll say what everyone who appreciates this author always says: he is one mighty fine storyteller. If you don't know his work, you're missing a treat.

(I thought the novel got off to a bit of a slow start, but I'm fairly sure that is merely because I should have read the in-between book, Work Song, which related Morrie's earlier adventures in Butte, before taking this one on. Doig does a good job of filling in the background so that Sweet Thunder can stand alone, but I still had a feeling of having missed a very interesting chunk of action, so I recommend reading Work Song first.)

Doig's own notes on the book are interesting: http://www.ivandoig.com/Sweetthunderbn.html show less