" This is my first excursion into the land of Ivan Doig, and I had such mixed feelings about it. He does a wonderful job of creating very real and down-to-earth characters in a small town in Northwestern Montana in the late 1950s. At times the novel reminded me of a modern-day Mark Twain, a Tom Sawyer for the 21st century. So why only 3 stars? There was an "aw shucks" quality to this novel that wore one me. Expressions that were endearing (e.g., "s of a b") became wearing to be when read over and over. And I had some trouble with the narrative aspects of the book. There were various incidents in the plot where I found myself not really interested in what was going on (fishing, dealing with drunks in the bar, amongst others), and there wasn't enough tension or narrative drive to keep me involved. I felt that if a movie was made of this book, it would be by the Hallmark Channel (not necessarily a bad thing, they do Anne Tyler novels). He does wrap up everything very nicely with emotional satisfaction. The last 20 pages are actually quite compelling. "
— Robert, 2/20/2014