From Publishers Weekly
The summer of his 14th year brings challenges and changes to Jick McCaskill and his family, in this book which echoes with "the pioneering and human spirit," observed PW. Jick's older brother decides not to attend college, becoming a cowboy instead; a fire in Two Medicine National Forest threatens to destroy the community; and, "by summer's end, Jick has learned the secret his father and an old campjack have kept from the rest of the community," PW added. NovemberCopyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"Sheer magic...simply a national treasure."-- USA Today


Book Description
In this prizewinning portrait of a time and place -- Montana in the 1930s -- that at once inspires and fulfills a longing for an explicable past, Ivan Doig has created one of the most captivating families in American fiction, the McCaskills.The witty and haunting narration, a masterpiece of vernacular in the tradition of Twain, follows the events of the Two Medicine country's summer: the tide of sheep moving into the high country, the capering Fourth of July rodeo and community dance, and an end-of-August forest fire high in the Rockies that brings the book, as well as the McCaskill family's struggle within itself, to a stunning climax. It is a season of escapade as well as drama, during which fourteen-year-old Jick comes of age. Through his eyes we see those nearest and dearest to him at a turning point -- "where all four of our lives made their bend" -- and discover along with him his own connection to the land, to history, and to the deep-fathomed mysteries of one's kin and one's self.


From the Publisher
10 1.5-hour cassettes

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the days of arriving summer, on a rangeland green across northern Montana, Jick McCaskill comes of age late in the Depression. Jick is 14, able now to claim a man's place in the life of family, town and ranch.

His father is a roustabout turned forest ranger, his mother, practical and peppery mate. His brother Alec, his idol, is 18, set on marriage and life as a cowboy. Alec's choices throw the McCaskills into conflict, and through Jicks' eyes we see a family at a turning point -- "where all four of our lives made their bend."

"ENGLISH CREEK is a portrait of a time and place that at once inspires and fulfills a longing for an explicable past. It is a novel as luminously American as Cather's writing, Wyeth's painting and Copland's music." (Publisher's Source)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING