I hit book number 52 sometime in the summer - and then things got busy and I wasn't really reading much - finally rectified that with this last novel before his death from Ivan Doig. Leslie and I were having a discussion about The Whistling Season and she mentioned that she'd read a review of the last book he'd written - and I hadn't even known there'd been a last book!
The critics were not totally kind about it - but since he died, I guess they felt they couldn't be too critical. It is not his best work - but it's a good read once it gets going. And it is vintage Doig throughout - and that's why I read him. I think I have now read all the books he wrote - maybe some day I will rate them.
The major weaknesses are some improbable scenarios, wordy passages, and a too-tidy tying up of details at the end. But the tale of an 11 going on 12 year old on a Greyhound bus ride across the plains - who then goes back the way he came with an unlikely great-uncle he didn't know he had - is story-telling with pizzazz - something Ivan Doig did well most of the time.
I will miss more books coming from him!!
Number 54 is The Martian - Phoebe suggested it - it's slow starting too - but it will pick up I'm sure!!
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