Who Has Seen the Wind

by W.O. Mitchell

W.P. Kinsella has called Who Has Seen the Wind, the quintessential novel of growing up on the Prairies, "Canada's Catcher in the Rye." W.O. Mitchell, who was born and grew up in small-town Saskatchewan, evokes the immensity of the landscape with a lyrical prose style, from the ferociousness of the wind to the far reaches of the bright blue sky. It's probably the most important Canadian novel of boyhood.

Mitchell used memories of his own childhood to create the world of Brian O'Connal, balancing a finely drawn sense of humour with a delicate nostalgia for a world that had already been lost even as Mitchell wrote about it in the aftermath of the Second World War. Like children everywhere, Brian is curious about everything, and the author allows him to freely explore his prairie world, taking in everything from gophers to God, from his feisty Irish grandmother to his friends Ben and Saint Sammy, the town of Arcola's local madman. Mitchell gives readers a most memorable glimpse into the ins and outs of small-town life during the Depression years, always through Brian's eyes, and in doing so creates a poignant and powerful portrait of childhood innocence and its loss. --Jeffrey Canton

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Classics, Coming Of Age, Canadian Literature, Literature, Historical Fiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

William Ormond Mitchell was an author of novels, short stories, and plays. He is best known for his 1947 novel Who Has Seen the Wind, which has sold close to a million copies in North America, and a collection of short stories, Jake and the Kid, which subsequently won the Stephen Leacock Award. Both of these portray life on the Canadian prairies where he grew up in the early part of the 20th century. He has often been called the Mark Twain of Canada for his vivid tales of young boys' adventures.

In 1973, Mitchell was made an officer of the Order of Canada.

Reviews

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am fascinated by the prairie, in the US or Canada, so this book gave me the child's version of what it might be like. The sky, the wind, the grasses and endless horizon are much different from what I know, but in the hands of this author, both the Prairie and the boy who grows up there are a thing of beauty.

Brian lives in a small town in Saskatchewan. His father is a druggist, his mother a housewife. He has a younger brother, and his unpleasant grandmother lives with them as well. The town has its share of misfits, his adored uncle being one of them. The boy grows up, life happens, and we get to see the beginnings of maturity and understanding in his young mind. It's not all pleasant, but it's real.

The writing is the star here. Not too much of a plot, things move along slowly, but Mitchell gifts us with beauty, not just with the surroundings, but with people, good and bad. I've had this book on my shelf for a couple of years, but the reviews of Charles, Howard, and Antoinette convinced me to take it off the shelf and put it in my head. I know who to listen to when it comes to good books.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Canadian Prairies are the equivalent of the American Midwest. Set in a small town in Saskatchewan, Who Has Seen the Wind pairs vivid writing with the uneventful days of a boy growing up in the middle of a flat, scarcely populated landscape. The years are those of the Great Depression and to make up for the comparative emptiness of his surroundings, the boy’s head proves full of questions. The novel becomes a community and family chronicle as seen through his eyes.

The first few dozen pages had me growing wary, with young Brian obsessing over the existence and the meaning of God. Everywhere he goes at first, everyone he talks to, everything conspires to feed the preschooler’s fascination with a higher power. Then, through the magic of anagrams, Brian gets a dog and shifts his focus elsewhere. After a lavish if single-minded introduction, the story can finally begin in earnest.

On the morning of the first day of September, the bright noise of sparrows just under the window high in the peaking front of the O’Connal house woke Brian. The curtains in his room breathed in and out with the fall breeze as he lay still beside his brother; he could see his clothes folded over the foot of the white-enamelled iron bed. His mother had put them there the night before. Today was to be his first day in school.

Brian will grow up by about ten years over the course of the novel. How W.O. Mitchell captures childhood scenes of all sorts is a thing of beauty. It is interesting to note that one thing missing from the coming-of-age story is the first inklings of love. The novel does not feel incomplete because of it, not in the least, but it becomes impossible not to notice such a glaring absence. An unusual choice.

As the book description has it, "a great Canadian classic on boyhood" sounds absolutely right.

[Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I moved to Calgary, Alberta ( one of the prairie provinces) from Montreal in late 1980. The landscape out West seemed so immense- the sky seemed larger, the mountains bigger, the prairies endless once you set eyes on them. And that wind- to this day, the wind still affects me. A beautiful day can be ruined by the annoying wind.

W.O. Mitchell grew up in Saskatchewan where this book takes place. He understood what life on the Prairies was like. This book takes place in the 1930’s- a time when everyone was still reeling from the Depression. The Prairies were hard hit- they still have drought conditions; the people are still struggling to make ends meet.

We meet Brian O’Connal. He lives with his parents, his brother Bobbie and his grandmother. We follow him from age 6-12. Brian is an old soul living in a young body. He is a thinker- he questions life. He knows he is searching for something but he ‘s not sure what it is. He asks hard hitting questions of himself: What is the point of being human? Why did people die?

He lives in a small town, where everyone knows each other’s business. We meet a kind principal, Mr. Digby; one miserable teacher and then a kind one. We meet a woman, Mrs Abercrombie, who meddles in everything. We meet the Ben’s, father and son, who are outcasts. A typical small town, other than it is in the Prairies, where weather and the wind can be extreme.

W.O. Mitchell writes beautifully of a place he knows and people he has probably encountered. Brian experiences a lot in just 6 years- life is challenging and by the age of 12, he knows what it feels to have grown up.

A passage I loved:
The clock bothered her; it was an electric clock with a thin , gold thread of a hand to push time around its square face. Crazy, quivering, enamel box trying to tell all the time in all the world. It had measured out little of her past life, and now it thought it was going to dole out what was left. “.

Published: 1947

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I;
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

– Christina Rossetti

*****

If you prefer plot over lyricism or a story that ties everything up in a nice neat bundle with a ribbon at the end, Who Has Seen the Wind is not your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you appreciate lyrical prose that could be read as poetry – or set to music – you will enjoy this coming-of-age story set in Saskatchewan during the 1930s.

Here are a couple examples of what I mean:

And all about him was the wind now, a pervasive sighing through great emptiness, as though the prairie itself was breathing in long gusting breaths, unhampered by the buildings of town, warm and living against his face and in his hair.

I would walk to the end of the street and over the prairie with the clickety grasshoppers bunging in arcs ahead of me, and I could hear the hum and twang of wind in the great prairie harp of telephone wires. Standing there with the total thrust of prairie sun on my vulnerable head, I guess I learned – at a very young age – that I was mortal.

The author nicely summarizes his book in its preface:

"Many interpreters of the Bible believe the wind to be symbolic of Godhood. In this story I have tried to present sympathetically the struggle of a boy to understand what still defeats nature and learned men – the ultimate meaning of the cycle of life. To him are revealed in moments of fleeting vision the realities of birth, hunger, satiety, eternity, death. They are moments when an inquiring heart seeks finality, and the chain of darkness is broken.

"This is the story of a boy and the wind."

Published in 1947, Who Has Seen the Wind was W.O. Mitchell’s debut novel and though he went on to write eight more, it is his best-known and best-loved book. It sold close to a million copies in Canada and the United States.

He has been called the Mark Twain of Canada in recognition of this book and other stories he wrote about the adventures of young boys.

[BrokenTune · Rating 2 out of 5]

"It had something to do with dying; it had something to do with being born. Loving something and being hungry were with it too. He knew that much now. There was the prairie; there was a meadow lark, a baby pigeon, and a calf with two heads. In some haunting way the Ben was part of it. So was Mr. Digby."

Thanks to my cross-Atlantic flight which kept me in a seat for hours with little distraction I finished reading the Canadian classic that is Who Has Seen the Wind. This is a feat that I probably would not have accomplished if I had any other options to occupy my time, because this was a really boring read.

Imagine The Heart is a Lonely Hunter but without the tension, without a plot, without any of the interesting characters, and with a lot of gophers. Dead and alive gophers. Oh, and set in the prairies.

To be fair, there were some good scenes in the book that did keep me reading but they were so under-developed in favour of the simplicity and celebration of the thoroughly uneventful, that they are hardly worth mentioning. Some involve people, some involve animals, one involves a gopher.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I personally like this book a lot, but I do not think it will fit everyone. On the surface, it is simply a coming of age story. The central character, Brian O’Connal, is an introspective boy growing up in a small town on the Saskatchewan prairies of Canada. The tale commences with the boy at the age four, his two-year younger brother is very ill. Brian struggles with the question of why no one is paying the slightest attention to him! His queries are of course both understandable and normal. We are always to see the world through Brian’s eyes. Right from the start, the reader perceives the focus upon internal musings.

The following sections move forward two or three years at a time. In the second, for example, he begins school. At the end, we learn that he will be off to university—he is interested in the study of soil. The thirties were years of drought. Although Brian’s father was the town’s druggist, his uncle was a farmer battling the elements, continually seeking out the best sowing and irrigation techniques.

The telling focuses upon Brian, a lad who questions all aspects of life. As he ages his questions change, but he never stops posing questions or searching for answers. Birth and sex, illness, aging and death are put under a lens over and over again, each time from a different angle as the boy matures. Animals play a strong part in the telling—dogs, rabbits, owls, calves. Through them, topics related to empathy, physical abnormalities, birth and death, the desire for independence and freedom of choice, over-possessiveness, respect, friendship and the need for a loving connection are the themes dealt with. We observe hypocrisy, religious fanaticism, jealousy and heartfelt kindness. We note sibling relationships.

The questions analyzed are the questions we all thing about sooner or later. Why do some people cry with the death of a loved one, while others do not? What cements friendship? Why does a person behave bitchy and mean, when what they are really feeling is worry, fear or sadness? The questions posed are the questions life throws at all of us. They are the questions philosophers debate. Adults in Brian’s world discuss such matters too. We come to know the personalities of a wide range of characters.

Throughout, the prairies and the wind hover as a ubiquitous presence.

Questions are not answered. We are instead urged to think and draw our own conclusions, just as Brian must do. Answers are found from within. Think of it like this—when a problem is bothering you, you know you have found the right solution when peace and calm pervades your whole sense of being. Then you know you have found your answer, the solution that is right for you!

Gene Foad, performing for RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind), gives an excellent narration. He speaks clearly and slowly. His tone is conductive to contemplative thinking. The narration I have given four stars.

Make sure you don’t by mistake grab an abridged version of this book. You must not miss parts. The parts hold together as a whole.

If you are looking for a fast-moving, action-filled tale, this book is not for you. On the other hand, if what you are looking for is a contemplative, thought provoking mind puzzle, then I do think the book will satisfy you.

Thank you, Gundula, for reminding me again of this renown Canadian author and classic. The author’s books listed below are suitable for both young adults and those of us who are no longer young. Gundula has told me that How I Spent My Summer Holidays is the better of the two. It wasn’t available to me.

***************************************

*Who Has Seen the Wind 4 stars
*How I Spent My Summer Holidays TBR

[W.D. Clarke · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am still recovering —** years hence—from being beaten into submission by this book, by my grade 11 English teacher (whom I have otherwise since come to adore), being force-fed so much of its prairie-fields of wheat, its bodies coming through the rye, its wind barely shaking the barley, writing as bland and endless as those plain plains, as bowlfuls of Cream of Wheat with nary a sultana in sight to break up the monotonony of white. It sticks in your throat....
Damn you, Canadian Content-Mongers (CCMs for short) for goose-stuffing me with this meagre corn, and how dare you, GR, harass (pronounced "hair-iss" north of the 49th Parallel, or so the language coaches at the CBC keep coaching us) me now, so many years since, with your canned CanConned recommendations, so?

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10




William (W.K.) Kurelek, Artist

Nothing happens in this book. Nothing at all. The prairies lie flat, and the wind blows.

There are wide, wide open spaces -- flat, unbroken, endless.

The days of a life, so too, lie flat, unbroken and endless.

The prairies lie flat, the wind blows, and the sky is clear, unburdened even of clouds.

A boy cast against such a sky is as naked and defenceless as a prairie gopher: a little, wriggling ball of energy and essence fighting for breath and for life, bleakly battling the whirlwind.

But he is rooted to the prairie, and as expansive as the sky is, and as forceful as the wind is, his roots run deeper still. He will bend; he will lose faith, he will regain it, he will find joy. He will become a man.

As you can see, nothing happens in this book.

But then that would mean that you count life, and living and all the heartbreak and all the joy and all the lessons and all the moments and all the memories and all the revelations and all the disappointments, and all the achievements and all the losses, and all the triumphs, and all the people you've ever loved -- to be nothing at all.

There is so much blank space in this book -- so many countless moments of nothingness, that you can write your own story while still living the story of a young boy who becomes a man by the end of the last sentence.

This reads more like a long poem to the flatlands and to the sky and wind above them, and to the wide open world that lies beyond. Don't read it in one gulp, as you would a story. Pick out your page, and break open the lines, and read it as poetry, because that's what it is.

If you don't like poetry, and you don't like dancing on the edge of nothingness, even for a little while, while you experience the grandeur of the void, then you might want to give this one a pass.

[bookyeti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aa coming-of-age during the Great Depression

If it be a no-brainer adventure or a plot full of relentless debauchery you’re looking for, I suggest you avoid this book entirely. However, if you seek a deeply touching novel of intelligence and substance, indeed I urge you to read Who Has Seen The Wind.

It tells the story of a prairie boy’s initiation into the mysteries of life, as he discovers death, God, and the spirit that moves through everything: the wind.

The plot details the little things in life that most of the masses overlook, and accurately relates the expressions and deep feelings of a young person growing up during the Great Depression. At the time I read it in school I could relate very easily to the primary character, Brian O’Connal.

The novel’s greatest strengths lie in its sensitive evocations of Brian’s feelings, sometimes associated with his various experiences of death, sometimes with a child’s fundamental, inarticulate but insistent curiosity to discover the world within and beyond himself. I was lost in the character’s maturation and progression as a person.

This book is truly one I will never forget. WHSTW has definitely contributed to the way I looked at life in general, as a young person at the time.

[Maja · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Feathering lazily, crazily down,loosed from the hazed softness of the sky, the snow came to rest in startling white bulbs on the dead leaves of the poplars, webbing in between the branches. Just outside the grandmother's room, where she lay quite still in her bed, the snow fell soundlessly, flake by flake piling up its careless weight. Now and again a twig would break off suddenly, relieve itself of a white burden of snow, and drop to earth."


The prose is absolutely beautiful; you are in the scene- in the prairies, in the wind, in the cold... and he creates each character so completely, you wholly understand everyone in the town. Essentially a book about regular every day life...yet the wonder (and pain) that still exists in that.

[Sheila Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read Who Has Seen the Wind in school when I was about 13, back in the late 1970's. It was the first book that truly touched my soul. Remember in the movie of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone when Harry first holds his wand in Olivander's shop? It was like that.

I couldn't wait to discuss it in class. My teacher asked some question I've forgotten, and I raised my hand and enthusiastically expressed the fullness of my heart and all the novel had revealed to me. My teacher flatly responded, " No, that's not what the author meant at all."

Sitting back in my chair, at that moment, I understood the fallibility of teachers, and further that THIS teacher didn't have a clue. W.O. Mitchell's genius was utterly clear to me. He had somehow spoken to me, a girl of 13 living in Ottawa, across the decades and the miles, and my poor teacher had missed out on the transmission. My teacher's loss, but not mine.

I've kept that paperback novel ever since, moved it from hovel to apartment to house, and now some 37 years later, with some trepidation, I decided it was time to read it again. Could it ever capture my heart as it did when I first looked on it with young, fresh, innocent eyes?

Miraculously: Yes! I am enraptured now as I was then.

This is not a story in which big events happen. On one level, it is the story of a little boy, Brian, growing up in a small town on the prairies in the "dust bowl" years, a thoughtful boy who learns to grow into a compassionate, caring human being. He learns from being affected by life and death (too many deaths for a young boy), and finding a spiritual grace in nature.

On another level, it is a love story for the Canadian prairies, and a parable of the value of wilderness and wild things.

It is also a exploration of good and evil in the hearts of men and women, and the "group think" that allows decent people to follow the path of least resistance. Two different characters refer to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (in referring to the same third character).

Within these pages, Mitchell has brought to life a wide cast of believable characters with a light but precise touch. His exquisite descriptions of life and nature show his love of the prairie landscape. Throughout, he weaves thoughtful explorations of the meaning of life and what it means to be human.

So glad I read this again!

[Ian M. Pyatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quintessential Canadian read. A wonderful tale of a boy growing up on the prairies with his family, friends, neighbours, teachers, religious leaders and some unsavory & misunderstood characters.

I would imagine my father had a similar life growing up as Brian did, as my dad was a farm-boy on Salt Spring Island, but no prairie crops or winds as my grandfather had sheep and cows on his farm. Dad did go to a one-room school house so I imagine the story-line in the book would resemble what he went through.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book bathed in the golden sunshine of a sepia-tinted childhood. This is a novel touched with a magic few authors can compete with. Whatever world Mr. Mitchell inhabited, we are all blessed that he translated it to the printed page for all of us to enjoy. It made even the early-teenaged me weep with sadness and joy.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose to read this classic Canadian lit for a GR Group’s “Canadian Reads” thread. I chose it because I was interested in the story’s time, location and plot: a story about life in a small Saskatchewan village in the early 20th century. I had feared it might be a slog of a read but instead, I found it to be a gentle elegiac tale of a young boy named Brian growing up in that village and a book that I looked forward to reading every day.

A key to the book’s success for me is how the author gets inside Brian‘s brain and captures his musings and thoughts on life as he ages from 6 to his tween years. The author gets inside the thoughts and musings of other characters as well. Some of these musings were quite interesting and unexpected to me. I was struck by how much and how well the book deals with more serious, almost philosophical, life issues.

The writing is fluid and descriptive and helped heighten my experience with the book events. There are serious, even tragic events, but the better part of the story describes the everyday events in Brian’s life. However, the nature of these seemingly mundane everyday events was so different from my own and so well-described that I found them more interesting than the more momentous events.

The whole locale and setting are well-described, and I felt I could clearly visualize and know the village and its inhabitants. I felt the wind’s presence here as I felt the wind in the movie version of The Last Picture Show. The writing is what helped me visualize and get a feel for the town.

At times I thought this was a 5-star novel. For now, I rate this as just shy of that class. A 4+ - star for me. If images from this book stay with me, I will reevaluate it in a few months to determine if it’s 5-star worthy.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian O'Connal is a little boy living on the Canadian Prairies with his parents, his grandmother and younger brother Bobbie. This is a gentle and touching look at his early years in a small town where everyone knows everyone else and it's hard for a boy to get away with anything.

The authour takes us inside Brian's home life and school life, his ups and downs with friends, neighbours and a new puppy, and then (spoiler alert) the tragedy of losing his father when Brian is still a young boy. His father's affectionate nickname for Brian was "Spalpeen" and the reader can feel Brian's aching loss, knowing he will never hear his father speak that name again.

The writing is quite beautiful. One of my favourite things about reading is coming across a line that perfectly describes a thing I have thought or felt but never found words for. One such in this book is "Within himself, Brian felt a soft explosion of feeling". Isn't that wording lovely? Another line I love is "The poplars along the road shook light from their leaves". So perfect and I can see it, can't you?

Mitchell seems to create that "small town on the big prairie" feeling effortlessly. It's nice to read something that makes you want to slow down and savour every word, breathing in the airy atmosphere that feels safe and yet wild and uncontrollable at the same time.

The copy I read was a library loan and I was lucky enough to get the illustrated version with lots of monochrome, and a few full colour, sketches. It was a sizable book, probably 14"x10" so the artwork was large and, like the writing, easy to get lost in. I recommend this beautifully written book to everyone

[Tome · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy hell.

A very Steinbeckian voice meets "To Kill A Mockingbird."

Sad and beautiful. Couldn't put it down.

"Where spindling poplars lift their dusty leaves and wild sunflowers stare, the gravestones stand among the prairie grasses. Over them a rapt and endless silence lies. This soil is rich."

[Kaden Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok i have this massive gripe with canadian literature because its always the most little house on the prarie horse wagon colonizer canola oil lamp wheat hanging out of mouth shit ever

This was that but in a cool self aware way, very excited to read more sentient canadian lit

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stunning book. I can think of few others which have conveyed such a strong sense of time and place while still maintaining the universality of their themes. For the majority of its 300 pages, it is a deeply affecting and often humorous coming of age story. I read these with an involuntary smile on my face, interrupted only by temporary bouts of melancholy during the book's more tender moments. Then, in the book's final act, the story naturally - perfectly - transforms into a meditation on the way in which we live our lives and come to terms with the impermanence of our existence. The transition is not abrupt, though the change in the direction of the story is significant. Rather, it is at that moment that you realize what the story - seemingly without plot to that point - had been building to. "Who Has Seen the Wind" is a beautiful, beautiful book and I would recommend it to anyone.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the enormous reputation of the author and of this book in particular, I found it diappointing. Certainly, the imagery and lyricism are outstanding; so as a book of prose it sits at the head of the class. And Mitchell's portrayal of the socially oppressive environment of a prairie town rang true -- perhaps a Western variant of Davies' Deptford with all its local petty tyrants and their victims.
But that failed to make it an enjoyable story -- in fact there's not much story at all, just a set of character studies. Mitchell goes to great lengths to make his main character real and appealing but in the end he's just an overly-sensitive child whose fancies appear to spring from his Irish ancestry. The other characters are mostly archetypes -- the aging schoolteacher posing as a philosopher, the frustrated younger teacher who can't get her love life sorted out, the town drunk/bootlegger, Mrs Abercrombie the tryannical self-appointed arbiter of social standing. Apart from the outrageous madman Saint Sammy, we've met them all before in small towns.
To sum up: A beautifully written book about not very much.

[Dezell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this four times during four different phases of my life. The first time was as a lonely, neglected eleven year old. The second time was as a nineteen year old military girl. The third time was as a twenty-five year old nanny. The fourth time was as a forty year old wife and mother. I LOVED it each time. Something about the sweeping, vast prairie, golden fields and blue endless skies speaks comfort, patience, love, peace and beauty to my heart.

[Jo-Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book! I found characteristics of most of the characters to resonate inside me. I applaud the sensitivity of W.O. Mitchell in entering the world of children, especially boys. I cannot wait to read more of his work.

[Shane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am adding this book but it has the honour of being the worst, driest book I have ever read.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brian is a boy growing up in Saskatchewan in the 1930s. He lives with his parents, a younger brother, and his grandmother, whom he hates! The book starts when Brian is (I think) 4-years old and continues until he is 11 (I think).

It was ok. Pretty slow-moving, as nothing big really happens. It was just things that happened in his life as he was growing up. I grew up in Southern Sask (though in the 70s and 80s!), but “recognized” some of the small town prairie happenings (i.e. (sadly) kids trying to get gopher tails; luckily, I never saw it, just heard about it). Overall, it was ok.

[Hannah Belyea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian O'Connal has begun pondering the deeper meanings of spirituality and the truths of God at the ripe age of four, and as he grows up in his small Canadian town, begins his search for a strange and unexplainable feeling that seems to come to him upon the wind. Mitchell will delight readers with this engaging novel brimming with a colourful cast and ageless tales of the meager, homey ways of the prairies, though riddled with crude language throughout. With no city for miles, the possibilities for intrigue amongst neighbours is endless...

[Mmars · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were moments like this that awed me:

“For a long time he had lain listening to the night noises that stole out of the dark to him. Distant he had heard the sound of grown-up voices casual in the silence, welling up almost to spilling over, then subsiding. The cuckoo clock had poked the stillness nine times; the house cracked its knuckles, and the night wind stirring through the leaves of the poplar just outside his room on the third floor, strengthened in its intensity until it was wild at his screen.
He had thought again of the strange boy on the prairie and felt, as he did a stirring of excitement within himself, a feeling of intimacy elusive as the pale perfume of a violet.”

But also in there lies my crux. This mature thought is about a boy just of age to be starting school. And, this inability to understand such elusive feelings continues throughout the book as he grows to his teenage years.

The reader picks up on Brian being a somewhat precocious boy unaware of and learning the dos and don’ts of life, but also that he is sensitive to life’s cruelties which are accompanied by feelings he doesn’t understand. He is also drawn to the town’s outcasts and sympathetic to the injustices and cruelty placed upon them.

The story is set on the Canadian prairies in the 1930s. Brian’s hardships focus more on death and loss, though others in the community suffer from the impact of the drought. Many of those community members (teachers, principals, ministers, doctors, storekeepers, farmers) play parts in Brian’s life and their stories intertwine with Brian’s. Town politics and policing, school discipline, religious influence, and economic disparity all play roles in the story. For this reason, I found the book interesting. Unfortunately, some of these parts dragged, while many of the sections focusing on Brian’s shenanigans were highly entertaining.

I recommend this book for people interested in life on the Canadian prairies during this time period, but for me it was a choppy read.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

How I Came To Read This Book: I believe this is the first book I read in my Canadian fiction course in first year university.

The Plot: Brian is four years old when we’re introduced to our protagonist, growing up on the prairies with his father the druggist, along with his mother and Scottish grandmother. As a baby boomer, the adult world is still reeling post-WW2 but Brian is simply exploring it – from the wonders of prairie wildlife and weather to his relationships with friends and family members. It’s a relatively sweeping coming of age story of a young boy’s life on the prairies.

The Good & The Bad: Eeee…this is Canadian fiction at its best and worst. If you LIKE classic Canadian fare, with plenty of dry, dusty prose, you will dig this book. If like me, you find it boring, you will want to sleep every time you pick the thing up. Sorry W.O. Mitchell, but life in the mid-20th-century prairies is not the stuff of thrilling novels. To Mitchell’s credit, the book does evoke the same emotions and styles of other similar Canadian AND coming of age novels, and it’s interesting to see them through the eyes of a young boy rather than Hagar in ‘Stone Angel’ or Scout in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. Alas though, I am not a Can lit girl, despite how much of it I’ve read.

The Bottom Line: Snoozy prairie fiction.

Anything Memorable?: Nope.

50-Book Challenge?: Nope.

[Ibis3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally read this after bailing on it in grade 9 English almost 3 decades ago (what I recall is that I was bored by it, but it could be I was turned off by the treatment of the animals too).

I can see why, as a kid, I'd have been bored out of my mind. Very little plot, a lot of interior life and natural description, death-death-and-more-death, and far too subtle social and psychological commentary for a 14 year old--even an aware, intelligent one--to fathom. I can appreciate all those things more now, but still, it's not my favourite book (I think I'd have liked it more if more empathy had been shown for the animals throughout--that sadistic gopher scene was especially tough).

The underlying themes of conforming to one's nature being more holy than conforming to one's society or religious dogma/standards, and Brian's "spiritual" feeling of what? empathy with Divine Nature? (which happened to remind me of Emily Starr's feeling of poetic inspiration) were intriguing.

Failed the Bechdel test, but there were at least some full-fledged women characters: Miss Thompson's telling off Mrs Abercrombie and the school board was effin' brilliant.

[Carl R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s odd how one gets involved in things some times. I have a Canadian son-in-law who gave me this and two other books by Canadian writers for Christmas/Birthday with the idea that I might enjoy and profit by a deeper acquaintance with Canadian things literary. Every literate Canadian, he says, has read Who Has Seen The Wind at some point.
I’m glad that Mr. Mitchell gained success with this book and that he has enjoyed a long and distinguished career. I’m glad also that Canadians have a bonding literary experience to share. I wish that I could give it higher marks for excellence.
Mitchell’s prairie world of the 30’s (a decade earlier than the book’s publication) is a Norman Rockwell kind of place. There are boys and dogs and a rogue (though not real bad) uncle. Bad things happen, but somehow they don’t hurt too much. They bring a lump to the throat and evoke a sort of pleasant melancholy. In the end, life is good out on the small town prairie and a fella wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

[Lee Scoresby · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mother tried to have this book removed from the curriculum in the Christian high school I went to.

After she failed, I could hardly wait to read the book. I was very disappointed. There was absolutely nothing any reasonable person could have objected to, and very little to titillate a typical boy in grade 10.

According to my mother, the word damn appeared too often, and there was a religious fanatic who wasn't portrayed in a positive light.

I love my mom, but she was way off base on this one. The religious fanatic was a crazy person who was not (of course) meant to represent anybody except crazy people.

Having said that, I found the book not particularly interesting or compelling. I was only fifteen then, so maybe it deserves better. If I read it again, I may give it another star.

[Chelsea Hagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some parts of this book I loved the way it was written. Some parts I'm not sure I understood it. I liked how W.O. Mitchell was so descriptive. Somethings like a mouse was a complete riddle to figure out he was talking about a mouse, but when I knew that's what he was writing about I was like wow that's amazing.