Wednesday, July 10, 2013

"it takes a good storyteller..."

A quote by a guy I have been reading. Just randomly came across a 'talking book' in the library several weeks ago, and was so entranced by his style, I wanted to read everything he has published. He has a number of books in print, and has a beautiful lyrical way with words.

Even if I didn't know from reading the back cover, it is obvious the man loves Montana. A place I know practically nothing about, except what I have gleaned from his writings. But reading the fiction as well as one that is autobiographical, of his early years of growing up in the west, makes me know I have missed seeing some beautiful country.

The quote by Ivan Doig: "...it takes a good storyteller to turn ears into eyes". Just a passing line in one of the books I have recently consumed. But so true.

I recommend 'The Whistling Season', a sweet story of a widower raising three boys in the early part of the twentieth century, struggling to hold a family together. (The one I read while driving all over GA was 'Work Song', which inspired me to want to read others.) His characters are so well developed, and clearly described, you do see them with your ears. And don't want the story to end, though you are so immersed and intrigued, waiting, you can stay up much too late, just to assure yourself that things do work out. Plus: I'm seeing some of the characters move from story to story, book to book and feel, as soon as I find their names in the new book, I already know them as old, familiar friends from the others already read.

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