Customer Reviews

Winter Wheat

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I initially picked this book up at the local library, liking the title itself. When I started reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. Mildred Walker does a fantastic job of getting the human heart onto paper and I highly recommend reading this book. My wife and two daughters also read this book, largely based on my recommendation. One of my daughters also had the same reaction I did, and she is only 9 years old. This book only spans the period of less than two years of a girl's life, but oh what a two years! Please read this great book.

Mildred Walker is a suburb writter who can span the entire emotional spectrum of humanity. This book is one of my favorites, I have read it several times. Each time I find new ways in which I can relate to the emotion's of the characters. I really enjoy her descpriton of Montana's landscape. Her ability to describe takes the reader into the wheat fields to join in the life journey of her characters. Powerfully written, this book will change how you view yourself and the realtionships around you.

Written over sixty years ago about ranchers living in remote parts of Montana, this old fashioned coming of age novel has a surprising currency. Its bittersweet portrayal of human relationships has a deep ring of emotional truth, and its understanding of the constantly shifting nature of identity makes it almost postmodern. Meanwhile, it can be read with a kind of page-turning breathlessness that keeps readers hoping that everything - against all odds - will somehow turn out for the best.

Most remarkable for a reader growing up in a mid-century rural community, the novel evokes vividly the seasonal rounds of living and working on a farm circa 1940. Though Montana was her adopted home (Walker grew up in eastern Pennsylvania and attended Wells College), she writes with an intimate knowledge of farm work that is rare in literature. Also remarkable is the novel's wartime setting, as Walker writes of Pearl Harbor and the impact of entry into WWII on the lives of her characters, even while that war was still being fought (the novel was published in 1944).

I recommend this novel highly for its way of creating very individual characters leading quite plausible lives rooted firmly in very real physical and psychological worlds. Its lessons about hard work and survival, the bonds of love, living with insecurity, and the lifelong effects of choices made affirm a view of life that embraces both loss and reward. Thanks to the University of Nebraska Press for keeping this fine novel in print. Also recommended, Judy Blunt's "Breaking Clean" and Mary Clearman Blew's "All But the Waltz."

Such a beautiful, beautiful book. The characters are gently revealed through their choices, actions, dialogue, and even their interaction with the harsh/lovely landscape. Ellen's situation is unique to her era and environment, but then again, much about her is timeless: her longing, her confusion, her stamina, the bitterness of the lessons she learns in growing up. Her parents are--I'd say richly drawn but that makes me think of the florid descriptions of a Pat Conroy or something, and Walker is as far from that as imaginable. I'll say instead that they are hard and true characters whose own story adds much to Ellen's. You will not regret reading this wonderful book.

Mildred Walker must have lived on a farm. Surely she could write about the unpainted house, the yard light, the wind breaks and snow without living on a farm, but her descriptions of winter wheat, the elevator, driving a truck and harvesting wheat are too real to just be observations or a result of research.

I grew up on a dry land farm in eastern Montana and reading WINTER WHEAT was a thoroughly enjoyable trek back to my childhood sans hayfever or sloppy mud. The main character, a young girl becomes stronger as she loses her nearly perfect man and learns to see the best of all places, even the depths of tragedy and despair. Her assumptions colored her relationship with her parents, a familiar yet somewhat unexplored topic in books set in the west. I found the combination delightful and easy to relate to my quiet Danish father and mother I thought was always old.

This is a definite read if you've lived through life-threatening snow storms, driven a combine or sat on a tractor working far into the night just to finish a field. I could feel the crust of the snow and the warmth of the wood stove. Remember the smell of wet mittens drying and floors slippery with thawing snow and ice?
I don't expect city folk to grab this book as a must-read, but the country ones of us - or those who long to be farmers - will delight in Mildred Walker's setting and character study. It tells the hard and the soft of farming and makes the wheat report on the radio come back - clear and holding the future of the crop in a few words.

Read it? Yes, but you may want to wait for a sunny day so you can sit at the edge of a field in the shadow of the tall windbreak and grab a handful of dirt now and again.

What can I say? This is quite possibly one of the best books I have ever read. Mildred Walker wove a story that stole my heart away. Ellen Webb, Gilbert, Leslie, Anna, Ben, and Warren were so alive in this story. It's as if it really happened. I was transported in time to their lives and I did not want to leave it. Splendid literary talent like this comes rarely. I felt like I was there with them. I could not stop reading this book.
I highly recommend this book to all and I have already purchased several copies to distribute to my family and friends. I am going to read it again and again... Thankyou, Mildred Walker, for your depth of understanding of the human heart.

The book Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker is a great story for everyone to read. I could really relate to the main character, Ellen, who is in her teens. A long story short is it is a story of a girl going away from home for the first time and how it causes her to change the way she looks at things in her life and the changes of other people's lives. All the little twists and turns of her life keep you keeps you guessing and wondering what is going to happen next.
The characters that I enjoyed the most was Leslie and Ellen, because one Leslie is my name, even if it was a guy, and Ellen was very well written and had an exiting two years. It's as if it really happened it been like you were there and apart of their lives. I felt like I was there with them every step of the way. The unpainted house, the yard light, the windbreaks, snow, and the winter wheat were very descriptive just like they would be during to Montana seasons.
The main character Ellen becomes stronger as she sees the losses in life. She learned how to find the best of all places, no matter how good or even bad. Her relationship with her parents is more graphic than other families in other books, like showing some of the "smaller town life" people.
When I was reading the book I could feel the crust of the snow and the warmth of the wood stove. Also the smell of wet mittens drying and floors slippery with thawing snow and ice from our big snow boots. I would recommend this book to anyone, big city or small little honky tonk people. It gives you the best views into the heart of Montana that I have seen. You should really read this book.

This quiet, character development approach to writing is enhanced by the glorious descriptions of the external environment in (desert-like) countryside. The character's appreciation of her environment grows throughout the book, even in the harshest weather. It is a wonderful story, with an ending that knocked me off my feet with surprise.

I'm considering this title for adoption in my American Literature class for juniors in high school. Fairly straight-forward, coming-of-age story which captures the time period of WWII nicely. What I think will be interesting with high school students is discussing what they think about her not being able to return to college because of fluxuating family income. Not many kids these days face that -- at least not in my school district. It also has an interesting conflict with "you're just a girl" issues.

My husband brought this book home for me and having never heard of Mildred Walker, I have to admit that I judged the book by the cover. I thought that I might have a hard time connecting with this book and the main character seeing how this book was written over half a century ago and was about a young woman living in rural Montana. Boy was I wrong!
I assumed that there would be a period of adjustment as this is not a modern book, but within a matter of a few pages, I was sucked right in. This book could have been written today. Ms. Walker has a wonderful way with words, she describes everything in such a way that you feel you are almost there, yet somehow avoids being overly descriptive or flowery. I just couldn't put this book down, and about 2/3 of the way through I began feeling sad as I just didn't want it to end, and there are precious few books in my life that have made me feel this way. This was a wonderful book, and now I've ordered several more of hers.

*A note: if you are ordering the edition with the foreward by James Welch, I HIGHLY recommend that you save the foreward and read it as an "afterward" as he describes nearly all the major events in the book.