If you’re looking for a good book to read while sprawled out on the grass this summer, perhaps a book with a bit more gravitas than the usual summer fare, pick up The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. The almost haunting cover image of a one-room schoolhouse is what drew me to it, and while the saying goes “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” it turns out that this story is centered around that schoolhouse, and the people whose lives revolve around it.
The basic plot involves the Milliron boys: Paul, the wise beyond his years narrator; Damon, the rebellious middle child; and Toby, the young boy who wants to explore everything around him. They have recently suffered a terrible loss in the death of their mother, and still suffer daily as they eat what their struggling-yet-determined father calls “cooking.”
Hope for salvation from gruel and a dusty house appears in the guise of Rose Llewellyn, a housekeeper from Minneapolis whose ad says, “Can’t cook, but doesn’t bite.” They think the cooking part is a joke, and hire her to put the house to rights. She sweeps into their house like Mary Poppins, whistling quietly while she subtly affects change in all of their lives (but truly can’t cook). Her brother, Morrie, sweeps just as easily into the Marias Coulee Schoolhouse, a teacher who enraptures and engages all eight grades of students.
Particularly troublesome is Eddie, a gruff eighth-grader whose father doesn’t see the point of getting an education. Yet, even Eddie becomes intrigued as the class learns about Halley’s Comet, which streaks across the sky above their heads, a mythical messenger that seems to influence events on the prairie.
Doig frames the story as a recollection by Paul, who, as an adult in the 1950s, is the superintendent of Montana’s remaining one-room schoolhouses. As he grudgingly prepares to inform the people that their schools are soon to be a thing of the past, he remembers the one year that altered his life.
Doig creates 1909 Montana with a simplicity and clarity that is refreshing. As Paul and Eddie race to settle a dispute (one of many amusing anecdotes), you can feel the wind rushing through the grass and sense the glee of the schoolchildren. As Morrie goes off on tangent after tangent, you find yourself drawn in and wishing you had attended his class. And when things go wrong, you find yourself on the edge of your seat, demanding that Doig provide the resolution that you desire.
Most spectacularly of all, Doig creates a mystery where you didn’t see one, even though he had been laying out clues like breadcrumbs the entire time. This beautiful and funny novel is reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie in its exploration of life on the plains, yet brings more depth and reality to that world and, in the end, is just as strong and haunting as the schoolhouse on the cover.
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