I was truly fascinated with this. The characters are 3-dimensional, eccentric, true to themselves. They cope with what life brings them in their own ways. In one sense, it seems to me not so much a coming-of-age story (that focuses on the main character's growth and impact on the world), as one that gradually reveals the nature of these other characters, as he matures enough to understand them better, or at least accept even without understanding. If you are familiar with the movie "Secondhand Lions", you may hear a similar chord in this one--more realistic, but still amazing in its more-localized world.
"In the summer of 1948, six-year-old Austen Kittredge is sent by his widowed father to spend the summer with hjeis grandparents on their farm in Lost nation hollow, near Vermont's Canadian border, with the hope that he will remain and attend school there." This is the story of life in that region for the next twelve years.
Excellent. Story of a boy, at age 6 that goes to live with his grandparents in rural Vermont and stays till college. Beautiful story of family and the end of a rural life in America.
Northern Borders was a very interesting book regarding the US/Canadian border area in Vermont. I don't recall ever reading about that area before. The book involves a boy into a family of farmers and their history through the boy's school years. Not much happens and yet the book keeps your interest. What does that say about the writer? Good stuff!
I was truly fascinated with this. The characters are 3-dimensional, eccentric, true to themselves. They cope with what life brings them in their own ways. In one sense, it seems to me not so much a coming-of-age story (that focuses on the main character's growth and impact on the world), as one that gradually reveals the nature of these other characters, as he matures enough to understand them better, or at least accept even without understanding. If you are familiar with the movie "Secondhand Lions", you may hear a similar chord in this one--more realistic, but still amazing in its more-localized world.
