Customer Reviews

Whichaway

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

 

 

The original edition from 1966 (you can tell the difference since Glendon Swarthout's name is the only listed for the book--the paperbacks of the original ran through at least 1996) is excellent. Tough, taunt and no excess fat. Great boy's book! The newest edition has a tacked-on chapter by Swarthout's widow that softens the hard ending and makes the father much less cold & harsh. Bare in mind, I don't blame Mrs. Swarthout for the cop-out current ending. Rather the publishers who apparently find it impossible to believe that a dad could still be cold and distant to his son even after the son has been through some pretty rough times. Get the original edition. It's well worth your time.

"With its vivid characters, its suspense, its lean writing always fresh, vigorous, and true, it may well become a minor classic." Chicago Tribune

"Remarkably convincing." Saturday Review

"It took only two pages for the story to jump the hurdles and be off and running -- and never stop until its triumphant finish...This is one of the rare ones." Publishers Weekly

"A taut, compelling story of an Arizona rancher's son who, stranded by two broken legs on a four-by-four platform of a windmill tower 30 feet above the ground, survives two days and nights of pain, thirst, hunger, fear, and desperation and finally contrives a way to get himself down and astride his horse. Vivid, incisive writing gives reality and immediacy to the narrative which perceptively reveals every thought and emotion of the inept fifteen-year-old boy through a man-making ordeal that helps him decide 'whichaway' he is going." Booklist

"Whichaway is not a question readers will have to ask. Once they start this, they'll read it right through to the end without stopping or losing their place...Unusual and absorbing, it's a book young people can enjoy discussing." Kirkus Reviews

"Whichaway is a fifteen-year-old boy at the Box O, a spread near Prescott, Arizona, who gets stranded atop a 30-foot windmill with both legs broken and nobody but a couple of cattle rustlers for company down below. This is a terrific, good-humored story, full of the spirit of an unforgettable kid who lingers on the mind long after the last page is turned."

Dale Walker, Sunday Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado