Customer Reviews

Mountain Time : A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you have never read a book by Ivan Doig, you're missing a wonderful collection of stories. As with earlier books, Mountain Time is largely set in Montana and Seattle and Doig makes it highly visual with his writing style. The terrain, the climate, the family generations and local customs are all described so well and so subtly that you will not immediately realize that he has transported you there. You will feel the story more than you read it. You will NOT be able to put this book down because you will be so committed to the characters and their search for meaning in life.

It's true this is not Ivan Doig's best work. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to top my favorite, Dancing at the Rascal Fair. Mr. Doig's storytelling is honest and straightforward; his wordsmithing in high form. Some of the reviews indicate trite characterization of western Washington, and an uninvolving story with unsurprising revelations. Not true if you come to this story with different expectations. Life in Washington isn't the point of this story (and what may seem trite seemed all to real to what I've seen here in Seattle. Mr. Doig writes issues many Baby Boomers may be facing or have confronted: a dying parent; coming to gripes with a parent's choices; life changes, in this case, the impact of divorce on self; loss of job. Having experienced aspects of what this story covered, I found the novel a good depiction of these issues and relationships. Yes, it takes a while to get into the story, but once in I found it quite satisfying.

In Montana, not far from where Ivan Doig grew up beneath a big sky that still haunts him, three rivers flow together to form the deep and wide Missouri, lacing through both time and landscape, the old West and the new. And like the brawny Missouri, Doig has channeled three deep literary tributaries into "Mountain Time," a coda to his McCaskill family trilogy.

Three people, three intense relationships, three rivers. "Mountain Time" is the confluence: The very real familial clash between Lyle and Mitch echoes the clash between the historic and contemporary West, where exploitation has always been at odds with environmental anxiety.

"Mountain Time" will not dissuade those who rank Doig among the best living American writers, and one might even begin making comparisons to some of the best *dead* ones, too. Faulkner comes most readily to mind: The Snopeses of Yoknapatawpha County are no more troubled and no more human than the McCaskills of the Two Medicine country in Montana. Two great rivers in different landscapes.

This is the first Doig novel I've ever read, and I'm afraid it will take a great deal to get me to try him again. This book was a real disappointment - from the characters I had a hard time caring about to the unbelievable dialogue. Who talks like that? Seattle may be oh, so hip, but pu-lease! Doig throws in so many one-liners and cultural references, it's like listening to a Dennis Miller routine. Yeah, I get 'em - it just becomes ridiculous after a while. I almost threw the book down when I came to the line "I came, I saw the paperwork, I don't concur." Yuck.

The best parts where those describing the land - Montana, Seattle, Alaska. The book was good enough to get me through a flight to D.C. and back, but to compare this writer to Wallace Stegner causes me to wince.

For those who are familiar with Doig's subject family, the McCaskills, Mountain Time brings back the original powerful relationships between family members, as seen in English Creek and Dancing at the Rascal Fair. I feel that Ride with Me, Mariah Montana lacked a great deal of the characterization found in the prior two novels, and now in Mountain Time. Doig also borrows from the mystery element of Bucking the Sun in his newest work. His language and word choice are definitely superior to any of his prior works, as much of Mountain Time read like poetry. I felt let down by Ride with Me, but Doig has given his readers a gift with Mountain Time.

A painted silk scroll from China shows a zen poet and calligrapher trying to capture the satori, the spontaneous enlightenment sometimes attained by the immensity of the landscape. The tree-lined mountains, and the winding creeks and brooks overshadow the artist who sits at his bench as incense plumes rise into the landscape.

Ivan Doig has written what could be a zen contemplation with the power of a volcano in his newest work. It's not so much the wonderful characterization of the main characters and their innocence and fragility in terms of one another, but it is the way their bodies and minds, abused like much of the landscape, try desperately to connect.

Generations must come to terms: a dying one that had survived the depression and had fought through two world wars and an aging one, "the baby boomers" who rebelled against older ideals but feel what it's like to age, and wonder, in a cloud of nostalgia; Are there resolutions? Between Father and Son? Wife and Husband? Daughter and Father? Man vs. Nature?

All relationships are represented maginificently in Mountain Time. Nature casts a shadow on all the characters. The forests, the mountains, and the streams age with humanity, but they won't remember us.

In short, an apt metaphor is Mt. St. Helens, which figures in the novel and which Doig brings alive as a character. No one can forget the force of power, the gray blast of hot ash, the blanket of destruction marking itself in the mind. And one can see, today, the renenwal and rebirth of the landscape even after such destruction.

another good book by ivan doig. Although it isnt his best it will keep your attention. not as descriptive as others or colorful. However the great story telling is there of how a family copes with the loss of a loved one. It's a keeper

steve

This story provides the reader with characters that are so real, so unpredictable, so human, that the world around you is mirrored in each one. Not always pretty, not always rational, not always logical, just the kind of story that I love. And Doig weaves a fantastic story as he always does and it is one highly worth reading. I would not miss this modern look at Montana and its people.

I wait for Mr. Doig's books and have never been dissapointed until now. Unfortunately I got stuck on someone driving from Seattle to White Sulpher Springs going through Choteau. Didn't make much sense and I kinda of lost it after that. But I will not give up as I re-read many of his books every year.

After reading four prior Doig novels and loving three of them, I felt that this would be another good read. I was wrong. I found it hard to care about the characters and felt that Doig was relying his overly-stylistic prose rather than developing a story. After reading the other bad reviews, I tend to agree with their characterizations, but will now have to finish the book as I just began the backpacking trip which I is where I tossed the book down in disgust. As an avid hiker and one who has traveled the country Doig writes of, I found the trip account unrealistic and painfully uninformed. The only reason I didn't choose 1 star is that "I hate it" is too strong a statement for a book I couldn't care about.