Jake and the Kid [Paperback]

W.O. Mitchell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2008

When Ma, the Kid, her twelve year old son, and Jake, the hired man, first appeared on the pages of Maclean’s and shortly after on CBC Radio, the lively boy and his cranky hero found their way into the hearts of thousands of readers. Now, in this new edition of Jake and the Kid, Crocus, a prairie town in the forties and fifties, comes alive once again. In these lovingly rendered stories, we encounter the glorious minutia of small town life on the Canadian prairie. Jake and the Kid are surrounded by an entire community of richly eccentric characters: old Sam Gatenby, a rival to Jake and just as cantankerous; Miss Henchbaw, the stern and proper Rabbit Hill schoolteacher; and Mayor MacTaggart, the owner of the town’s General Store. In all, W. O. Mitchell created about eighty characters to populate the town, including Daddy Johnson, the oldest man in Canada; Repeat Golightly, the philosophizing barber; and Professor Noble Winesinger, a conman with a heart. Touching and laugh-out-loud funny in equal measure, this classic Canadian story collection epitomizes the magic of W.O. Mitchell’s storytelling. Pitting tall tale against reality, Mitchell delivers a realm resplendent with a vibrant setting, a compelling cast of characters, and everyday events that speak directly to what it means to be human.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

When Ma, the Kid, her twelve year old son, and Jake, the hired man, first appeared on the pages of Maclean’s and shortly after on CBC Radio, the lively boy and his cranky hero found their way into the hearts of thousands of readers. In this new edition of Jake and the Kid, we encounter the glorious minutia of small town life on the Canadian prairie. Jake and the Kid are surrounded by an entire community of richly eccentric characters: old Sam Gatenby, a rival to Jake and just as cantankerous; Miss Henchbaw, the stern, proper Rabbit Hill schoolteacher; and Repeat Golightly, the town’s philosophizing barber. Touching and laugh-out-loud funny in equal measure, Mitchell delivers a vibrant setting, a compelling cast of characters, and everyday events that speak directly to what it means to be human.

About the Author

W.O. Mitchell’s critically acclaimed novel, The Kite, is a humorous yet touching story of a journalist’s worst nightmare. Set in the Prairie backwater of Shelby, Alberta, seasoned reporter and minor television celebrity David Lang arrives to write a magazine feature on the town’s oldest living citizen, the 111-year-old curmudgeon Daddy Sherry. Still recovering from the disappointments of a fatherless childhood, the uptight David just wants to file his story as quickly as possible and hightail it back to Toronto. But he hasn’t reckoned on the cantankerous cunning of Daddy Sherry. As David chases his recalcitrant subject all over town, he begins to understand the meaning of life and finds love and happiness for the first time. This new edition of The Kite coincided with the publication of a newly discovered and never-before-published edition of the novel in audio format, featuring Mitchell’s own reading. It also introduces a whole new generation of readers to the rampaging Daddy Sherry, a holy terror whom Margaret Laurence considered to be Mitchell’s “best and most complete character.“

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions; No edition edition (October 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0864925239
• ISBN-13: 978-0864925237
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,306,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stories About Prairie Life, August 30, 2007

By 

J. E. Robinson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jake and the Kid (Paperback)

This is the original collection of Jake and The Kid from 1961-62.

W.O. Mitchell is a highly regarded Canadian prairie author who wrote about life in Canada. We wrote with a great deal of passion, humor, and emotion. His stories are often simple, but very entertaining. They leave the reader laughing or crying or both. Few have his talents for writing. In his day when Canada had a population of fifteen to twenty million or so, he sold a bit less than one million books and if he had been an American writer he probably could have been an equal to John Steinbeck or similar.

This is a great collection of 13 short stories, under 200 pages long. They are narrated by Jake and alternately by "the kid." They are stories about their life on a Saskatchewan farm near Crocus, Saskatchewan, which we can assume is realistic but fictional. The kid's ma is alive, but the father is dead and Jake is a surrogate father of sorts, and of course he is the "hired hand" on the farm. He does most of the work and manages the planting and harvesting, etc. The stories are set in a time spanning the WWII era up to the early 1950s.

The stories touch a lot of current and universal issues and themes including the people who fought in WWII, school teachers, medical care, the courts, getting old, etc. most of these issues are still at the front of the social agenda. I liked all the stories; but, I especially liked the one where the kid got a new horse at the auction. Also, Mitchell is able to create a lot of charm and attraction in his descriptions of the life on the sometimes bleak prairies.

As a comment, Mitchell has a new 1989 collection also named after the famous 1950s CBC radio series and the earlier book titled "According to Jake and The Kid." The newer book is about 50% bigger than the original collection of short stories from 1962. This new collection has mostly all new stories, but not 100%, and a few of the stories are based on the original stories and have altered and improved plots.

This is a wonderful collection. It is highly entertaining and most will love the book. Suggested follow up reading are his other two famous books: Jake and the Kid (1989) and Who Has Seen The Wind (1947), both of course by Mitchell.