Synopses & Reviews
It's World War II, and young Wendall Oler has been sent to stay will his father's family in rural Stebbinsville, Vermont. Using this opportunity to act out his resentment for the death of his mother and his father's leaving to fight in the war he does all he can to tyrannize his new family. Yet, thrown into the warmth of this country family, Wendall finds his resolve softening.
Review
"It is clear that Wendall and the Oler family are on their way to a place in American literature now held by Tom Sawyer and Aunt Polly and Holden Caulfield and his little sister. . . . [The novel has] a touch of genius about it--reaching beyond the word for the emotion no word can express." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Review
"A marvelous book. . . . Richly comic, abounding in decency (in the largest and finest sense), never reluctant to wear its heart on its sleeve and proclaim its passions straightforwardly, this is a novel to be remembered and cherished." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Synopsis
"John Nichols has remarkable insight into life's crazy blend of comedy and tragedy. . . . Pure pleasure to read." --
About the Author
John Treadwell Nichols moved to Taos in 1969, he felt "strung out, on edge, going down fast, and scared stiff." Outraged by the Vietnam War, depressed by New York City, uncertain about his own career as a writer (he was, at twenty-nine, the author of two acclaimed novels, The Sterile Cuckoo and The Wizard of Loneliness ), he was returning to a spiritual homeland, where he had spent one memorable summer as a teenager, and where he hoped to create a new life for himself and his family.