Customer Reviews

Who Has Seen the Wind

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is a classic. Right up there with To Kill a Mockingbird, Grapes of Wrath etc. The story of Brian O'Connal growing up on the wilds of the Canadian prairie is beautifully woven against a powerful, sometimes sinister, backdrop of small town Canadiana. This book captures life in a small town like few can. It is hilarious in spots, and sometimes very moving. Mitchell captures the heart of a young boy's spiritual, and intellectual growth with wonderful detail. I highly recommend this book.

I've read this about three times now, maybe more. What keeps taking me back is something like rain to the earth. These are indeed stories that are 'close to the earth' -- the human spirit, in all its simplicity, yet all its complexity. I read to a group of senior citizens and they often ask for more of this book. The stories read great aloud and I recommend it for anyone who enjoys an author who writes about the everyday, with a very deep insight into the human condition. Don't pass this one up.

I was required to read this book as a rambunctious 15 year old. I hated the fact I was forced to read it, but loved the story as I had grown up on the prairies. Mitchell captures life on the prairie and the mind of an inquisitive boy like no other.

I usually don't like coming of age stories, but this book is the exception to that rule. I loved the author's style; it reads almost like poetry. The imagery and symbolism is amazing and the characters are unforgettable.

The story is about a young boy, Brian, growing up during the depression in a small town on the Canadian pairie. It basically deals with all the things coming-of-age books usually deal with, but what makes this a classic, is the other characters that affect his life. Like his strange friend, Young Ben, who pulled a knife on their first grade teacher to defend Brian. Or my other favorite character Mr. Digby, the school principle, who's understanding and integrity are matched with his unkempt appreance and lack of social graces.

Although some might complain the story is a bit slow, and not be far wrong, the descriptions are beautiful, and for anyone who has every lived on the prairie, it is just going back. It is one of two books I "borrowed" permanently from my parents when I left home.

I had the privilege of reading this book in Malaysia for my OSSD English class and I found it to be rich and full of Canadian values. I then went to university in a relatively small town (Lethbridge, Alberta) and found the praire life to be a facsimile of that described in the book. Mr. Mitchell has truly captured the essence of Canadian life in the praires.

This book is honest, deep and deals with the cycles of life with humble tenderness. It is a compelling book that opens you to a world of simple honesty and beauty in the Canadian Praires. This book is touching and you will feel it as Mr. Mitchell tells it like no one can.

The person who rated this book as boring must not have read the same book I did. This is an elegaic portrait of life on the Canadian Prairies in the early 20th century. It captures something significant about the Prairie psyche and the Canadian psyche as a whole. It is, in the final analysis, a sweet, beautifully written story by a master story teller. It is not full of car chases or other amusements for tiny minds, but is a treat for anyone who appreciates a great tale well told.

Brian Sean MacMurray O'Connal comes to his own conclusons when, at age four, he goes to the local church alone and no one answers his knock. After meeting the minister later, however, he thinks he hears the voice of God--"My name is R. W. God, BVD." Brian's search for answers to life's biggest questions takes him through ages four, six, eight, and ten in this 1947 novel set during the Depression on the plains of Saskatchewan. Focusing on the O'Connal family, and especially Brian--their friends, acquaintances, life crises, and search for harmony in nature--the novel glorifies small town life and the local residents' closeness to the soil.

Here Brian expresses the normal curiosity of young children his age as he tries to understand the life cycle of nature--why the baby pigeon died after he plucked it from its nest, how two-headed calves can develop, why his puppy died and what to do afterward, and how to deal with the sudden death of his father and the more predictable death of his grandmother. Each of these major events in his life brings him closer to understanding the ebb and flow of life, further emphasized by the author's choice of repeating imagery and symbols from nature--goshawks, meadowlarks, grass and flowers, an owl, the movement of poplar trees, and, of course, the wind. Biblical imagery permeates the novel, and the poetic language and style--filled with alliteration, internal rhymes, and onomatopoeia--create a lyrical celebration of life on the prairie.

Contrasting characters further illustrate the themes. The two Bens--Old and Young--and St. Sammy, a not-so-crazy man who lives in a piano box and has his own theology, prefer their free, unfettered life on the prairie. These contrast with characters like Miss MacDonald, Brian's cruelly insensitive first grade teacher who is dedicated to crushing the free spirits of her young charges. Other characters see their lives as falling somewhere between unrestricted freedom and social responsibility.

A book full of sweetness and nostalgia for childhood and its discoveries, Who Has Seen the Wind is beautifully constructed, resonant with life's themes conveyed in heady poetic language. It is so saccharine in its depiction of the sweetness of childhood and so removed from present day life, however, that it is difficult to imagine this book appealing to today's young pre-teens and teens. Their issues regarding life and death and their big questions about the value of life are far more complicated than life as seen in this period piece. n Mary Whipple

There are books you can blast through, action packed where the story is all on the surface. Tom Clancy, for example. I love a read like that.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a book that will reward you on a quick read, this isn't it. Nor for that matter, are any other of W.O. Mitchell's works (with the possible exception of Jake and the Kid). This is a book that is better on the second reading than the first, and on the tenth than the eighth. Slow down and wallow in it. Soak up the images and let the alliteration create the sounds for you, and when you do, you will be transported into the world about which Mitchell writes. I grew up a couple of dozen miles from the town which he identifies as Crocus, and know real people with the surnames he uses in this book. When I slow down and spend time with Mitchell, it resonates - and evokes with remarkable accuracy the world I grew up in thirty years later. There is no excitement here, but if you have patience, the insight you gain can generate its own profound excitement.

I found this book to be beautifully written. It is a look inside the lives ofpeople growing up, living and working in a small town in the beautifulprovince of Saskatchewan. I have been fortunate enough to visitSaskatchewan and W.O.Mitchell paints the province beautifully withhis words. I am very fond of this book. This book was recommended to me by someone who grew up in a small farming town in Saskatchewan and I am very fond of this personso I thought I would give it a try. I'm glad I did.As for the person who wrote that this book "sucked"-nice languagefirst of all and secondly, I feel very sorry for you that you will nevergrow to expand your mind!

I had to read this book for my english class, and I must admit, the first time around it was very boring, which is the only reason i gave it a 4/5. My english teacher, however, showed me some interesting concepts to look for, and to read a little deeper. I tried to look into every word and find its own hidden meaning, and when you do that, the book becomes very enjoyable.