What do you think?
Rate this book
How I Spent My Summer Holidays
Nearly 40 years after the publication of Who Has Seen the Wind, W.O. Mitchell returned to the Prairies to take another look at that earlier novel's treatment of childhood innocence. From old age, Hugh looks back at the summer of 1924, when he was 12. Hugh's experience is markedly different from young Brian O'Connal's in Who Has Seen the Wind. Here we find more sinister characters lurking in the background, including King Motherwell, an alcoholic bootlegger who murders his wife and lands in an insane asylum, and who is responsible for bringing Hugh's childhood to an end. Mitchell's publisher, Douglas Gibson, described the relationship between Who Has Seen the Wind and How I Spent My Summer Holidays as akin to that between Tom Sawyer and the darker, deeper Huckleberry Finn. But though it is a much darker coming-of-age story, How I Spent My Summer Holidays retains Mitchell's love of the landscape, and there is still a sense of the gleeful joy of childhood when Hugh and his friend Peter set out to dig a secret cave. Even Hugh's boyish adulation for the adventurous King is understandable to a point. But the gentle Saint Sammy of the earlier book has been replaced by the tortured Billy, who has escaped from the abuses of the local insane asylum. How I Spent My Summer Holidays takes a more balanced look at rural Canadian life early in the 20th century than did Mitchell's first novel, but it is still a portrait full of affection. --Jeffrey Canton
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
2 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
W.O. Mitchell
24 books48 followersWilliam 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.
In 1973, Mitchell was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
February 4, 2026
Because this classic of modern, of 20th century Canadian literature, because W.O. Mitchell’s How I Spent My Summer Holidays (which was first published in 1981) is often thought of as being somewhat of a children's or at least a young adult themed story, the novel is thus often read in both junior high and senior high English classes (and especially in the prairie provinces, in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba). However, while the main character of How I Spent My Summer Holidays, while Hugh (or Hughie) is indeed a twelve-year old boy (at least during the flashbacks, in his memories of that one summer), Mitchell’s presented narrative is in my opinion still and most certainly NOT children's fare (for even though Hugh is twelve years old during that summer described and remembered in How I Spent my Summer Holidays, I do not think that most twelve year olds would either be able to fully comprehend the scope of the story or even all that much enjoy it). And yes, I first read How I Spent my Summer Holidays in grade eleven English, and while I very much enjoyed the novel then, I believe that I actually got much more out of my more recent reread of How I Spent my Summer Holidays. Furthermore, while I would not hesitate to warmly recommend How I Spent my Summer Holidays, it is most definitely (and in my humble opinion) more a book for adults and for older teenagers above the age of sixteen or seventeen. I think I was about sixteen when we read How I Spent My Summer Holidays for school, and while I truly did enjoy it at that age, if we had been made to read How I Spent My Summer Holidays in junior high (which I think approximately corresponds to middle school in the United States), I know I would likely have had a much less positive opinion of How I Spent my Summer Holidays (and would probably have found W.O. Mitchell's story and his penmanship very much an overly difficult and also a rather hugely depressing read).
Now main protagonist of How I Spent my Summer Holidays (Hugh, who appears as both an adult and as a child) is sensitive, intelligent, from a secure home and community, but in his child persona of How I Spent my Summer Holidays, he also displays obvious traits of rebelliousness, particularly towards adults (and in this way, twelve year old Hugh is of course also a typical budding teenager). And while there is much joy portrayed in Hugh's recollections of that one summer holiday, the innocence of youth, the fun of boys' clubs, of the summer swimming hole, against these familiar (and delightfully innocent) activities of boyhood are presented by Mitchell and equally juxtaposed in How I Spent my Summer Holidays the problematic and uncomfortable aspects of Hugh's sexual development, and the violence and horror of the events which transpired specifically during that one summer (the discovery of Bella's body in the cave, that King Motherwell had murdered Bella, his wife, King hanging himself at the "Mental" as well as Hugh's own guilt, for it was he who had inadvertently and innocently revealed Bella's secret love affairs to King).
And the older Hugh, the one recollecting in How I Spent my Summer Holidays, the one remembering that one summer, in a way he is kind of being shown by W.O. Mitchell as sitting in judgement of a society, where the natural development and expression of sexuality is considered sinful and at the very least distasteful (and to be hidden), where humanity and decency are denied to the mentally ill, where puritanism and puritanical thoughts are forced even onto and into children (and if some of these children later break under the dictates and strictures of said puritanism, they are simply tossed aside and consigned to the "Mental" as deficient). Innocence is lost, but not only is it lost, the children actually seem to be somewhat guilty themselves and bear the sins of the entire community, perpetuating its destructiveness in their adult lives, in their chosen careers (like for example Austin Musgrave, who as an adult uses his childhood talents and his tendencies for nasty gossip, spying and tattle-taling in his profession of being a child psychiatrist, oh brother).
How I Spent My Summer Holidays shows thematically that darkness, that both good and evil can and do exist within us all (even in children). And Mitchell's story is therefore for all intents and purposes quite dark in general outlook, although there are also an undeniable optimism and feelings of hope ever-present as well, with in many ways, How I Spent my Summer Holidays being a typical "Bildungsroman" (a novel of development, of coming of age). But while the main theme of How I Spent my Summer Holidays seems to focus on the narrator's (Hugh's) childhood, the central theme is actually (for me) the reconciliation of the now adult narrator's past with his present (his childhood self with his adult self), personal responsibility and acceptance of said responsibility, of one's past, of one's memories are required for growth towards deeper and lasting self-knowledge. Therefore Hugh's narration tends to move back and forth in time throughout How I Spent my Summer Holidays, and although this does render How I Spent my Summer Holidays rather confusing and somewhat distracting at times, it is actually an ingenious narrative tool used by W.O. Mitchell, as it both focuses and continuously refocuses the reader's concentration and attention. The reader is thus not able to be lulled into a sweet sense of nostalgia; he, she or they need to remain continuously engaged and vigilant. And the back-and-forth narrative of How I Spent my Summer Holidays also causes the reader to reflect on exactly "what is memory" and to even question his, her or their own memories and recollections of the past (namely on what is illusion and what is reality).
Now the impetus in How I Spent my Summer Holidays for Hugh to review the circumstances of a period of his adolescence is a recurring disturbing dream he has been having as an adult (dreams might be illusions, but they also hold the keys to memory, and these memories, these dream sequences are both realistic and illusionary at the same time). Memories might be nostalgic, they might be dark, they might be light, and taken together, taken in combination, they can perhaps provide answers and a deeper sense of self-awareness. And How I Spent My Summer Holidays therefore also demonstrates in no uncertain terms that one's memories are part of a larger story (of family, society, the world). No man is an island, and Hugh finally realises that his own memories, his own story are simply part of a whole, one of several pieces of the jigsaw puzzle(s) of life, society, community, both past and present.
And finally, Hugh's life, Hugh's ways of thinking, it is shown in How I Spent my Summer Holidays that they have been shaped not only by himself, by his family, his community, his own experiences, but also by the prairie landscape of the Canadian wilderness (which is exquisitely and gloriously portrayed by Mitchell). The children's joy in the simple pleasures of prairie (country) living permeates How I Spent my Summer Holidays and does much to somewhat mitigate and relegate the horrible events of Bella's death, King's suicide and the problems and traumas experienced by the mentally challenged (and the stigmas attached to them). Hugh's memories of the prairie landscape in How I spent my Summer Holidays are likely somewhat nostalgic and overly glowing, but the children's response to and appreciation of nature is authentic, spiritual, cleansing and meditative, providing a welcome relief and foil to the horrible occurrences of that recalled summer, showing that even in the most dire circumstances, nature and the beauty of nature is present to lay a healing hand of potential hope on the world and its inhabitants.
Now main protagonist of How I Spent my Summer Holidays (Hugh, who appears as both an adult and as a child) is sensitive, intelligent, from a secure home and community, but in his child persona of How I Spent my Summer Holidays, he also displays obvious traits of rebelliousness, particularly towards adults (and in this way, twelve year old Hugh is of course also a typical budding teenager). And while there is much joy portrayed in Hugh's recollections of that one summer holiday, the innocence of youth, the fun of boys' clubs, of the summer swimming hole, against these familiar (and delightfully innocent) activities of boyhood are presented by Mitchell and equally juxtaposed in How I Spent my Summer Holidays the problematic and uncomfortable aspects of Hugh's sexual development, and the violence and horror of the events which transpired specifically during that one summer (the discovery of Bella's body in the cave, that King Motherwell had murdered Bella, his wife, King hanging himself at the "Mental" as well as Hugh's own guilt, for it was he who had inadvertently and innocently revealed Bella's secret love affairs to King).
And the older Hugh, the one recollecting in How I Spent my Summer Holidays, the one remembering that one summer, in a way he is kind of being shown by W.O. Mitchell as sitting in judgement of a society, where the natural development and expression of sexuality is considered sinful and at the very least distasteful (and to be hidden), where humanity and decency are denied to the mentally ill, where puritanism and puritanical thoughts are forced even onto and into children (and if some of these children later break under the dictates and strictures of said puritanism, they are simply tossed aside and consigned to the "Mental" as deficient). Innocence is lost, but not only is it lost, the children actually seem to be somewhat guilty themselves and bear the sins of the entire community, perpetuating its destructiveness in their adult lives, in their chosen careers (like for example Austin Musgrave, who as an adult uses his childhood talents and his tendencies for nasty gossip, spying and tattle-taling in his profession of being a child psychiatrist, oh brother).
How I Spent My Summer Holidays shows thematically that darkness, that both good and evil can and do exist within us all (even in children). And Mitchell's story is therefore for all intents and purposes quite dark in general outlook, although there are also an undeniable optimism and feelings of hope ever-present as well, with in many ways, How I Spent my Summer Holidays being a typical "Bildungsroman" (a novel of development, of coming of age). But while the main theme of How I Spent my Summer Holidays seems to focus on the narrator's (Hugh's) childhood, the central theme is actually (for me) the reconciliation of the now adult narrator's past with his present (his childhood self with his adult self), personal responsibility and acceptance of said responsibility, of one's past, of one's memories are required for growth towards deeper and lasting self-knowledge. Therefore Hugh's narration tends to move back and forth in time throughout How I Spent my Summer Holidays, and although this does render How I Spent my Summer Holidays rather confusing and somewhat distracting at times, it is actually an ingenious narrative tool used by W.O. Mitchell, as it both focuses and continuously refocuses the reader's concentration and attention. The reader is thus not able to be lulled into a sweet sense of nostalgia; he, she or they need to remain continuously engaged and vigilant. And the back-and-forth narrative of How I Spent my Summer Holidays also causes the reader to reflect on exactly "what is memory" and to even question his, her or their own memories and recollections of the past (namely on what is illusion and what is reality).
Now the impetus in How I Spent my Summer Holidays for Hugh to review the circumstances of a period of his adolescence is a recurring disturbing dream he has been having as an adult (dreams might be illusions, but they also hold the keys to memory, and these memories, these dream sequences are both realistic and illusionary at the same time). Memories might be nostalgic, they might be dark, they might be light, and taken together, taken in combination, they can perhaps provide answers and a deeper sense of self-awareness. And How I Spent My Summer Holidays therefore also demonstrates in no uncertain terms that one's memories are part of a larger story (of family, society, the world). No man is an island, and Hugh finally realises that his own memories, his own story are simply part of a whole, one of several pieces of the jigsaw puzzle(s) of life, society, community, both past and present.
And finally, Hugh's life, Hugh's ways of thinking, it is shown in How I Spent my Summer Holidays that they have been shaped not only by himself, by his family, his community, his own experiences, but also by the prairie landscape of the Canadian wilderness (which is exquisitely and gloriously portrayed by Mitchell). The children's joy in the simple pleasures of prairie (country) living permeates How I Spent my Summer Holidays and does much to somewhat mitigate and relegate the horrible events of Bella's death, King's suicide and the problems and traumas experienced by the mentally challenged (and the stigmas attached to them). Hugh's memories of the prairie landscape in How I spent my Summer Holidays are likely somewhat nostalgic and overly glowing, but the children's response to and appreciation of nature is authentic, spiritual, cleansing and meditative, providing a welcome relief and foil to the horrible occurrences of that recalled summer, showing that even in the most dire circumstances, nature and the beauty of nature is present to lay a healing hand of potential hope on the world and its inhabitants.
August 18, 2015
When I first started my Canadian reading project, W.O. Mitchell seemed to appear on every list of recommended authors.
How I Spent My Summer Holidays tells the story of a summer in 1924 when a group of boys were set on adventure and inadvertently got mixed up with a murder.
It is only several years later when the MC returns to his hometown that he is able to put his childhood memories into context and understands the story fully.
In many ways, How I Spent My Summer Holidays reminded me of the film Stand By Me.
Both are coming of age stories in which a group of boys are faced with the discovery of a dead body, and in both stories, even though the boys set out as a group, every one of them gets to hold on to a different part of the story, a different reality which will eventually shape their lives.
How I Spent My Summer Holidays tells the story of a summer in 1924 when a group of boys were set on adventure and inadvertently got mixed up with a murder.
It is only several years later when the MC returns to his hometown that he is able to put his childhood memories into context and understands the story fully.
In many ways, How I Spent My Summer Holidays reminded me of the film Stand By Me.
Both are coming of age stories in which a group of boys are faced with the discovery of a dead body, and in both stories, even though the boys set out as a group, every one of them gets to hold on to a different part of the story, a different reality which will eventually shape their lives.
May 12, 2017
We listened to the audiobook of the classic HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER HOLIDAYS written and read by W. O. Mitchell and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. This master of the English language had us laughing aloud more than once, and occasionally cringing as he related the experiences of small prairie town 12 year old Hugh and his friends in the 1920's.
W. O. Mitchell's CBC Radio broadcasts delighted a generation of Canadian listeners.
4****
W. O. Mitchell's CBC Radio broadcasts delighted a generation of Canadian listeners.
4****
September 19, 2013
One of the most amazing books I have read in a very long time. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you think. Very fast paced and easy. If you manage to get your hands on it, I would recommend it! (although I did have a hard time finding it)
Want to read
December 5, 2022Thank you, Gundula, for reminding me again of this renown Canadian author. The books listed below are suitable for both children and adults.
***************************************
*Who Has Seen the Wind TBR
*How I Spent My Summer Holidays TBR
***************************************
*Who Has Seen the Wind TBR
*How I Spent My Summer Holidays TBR
August 6, 2018
Dramatic
W.O. Mitchell
1982
Note for some reason Goodreads would not accept Dramatic, so I went with the flow and am putting my notes under "How I Spend My Summer Holidays." Such is life!
Five plays moved from stage to book giving a chance for greater audience.
1. Devil’s instrument
2. Back to Beulah
3. The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon
4. The Kite
5. For Those in Peril on the Sea
Devil’s Instrument:
• …followers of Jacob Hutter
• Survived a massacre in Russia, which reduced them to fifteen souls
Back to Beulah
• A little bewildering
The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon
105: I certainly disapprove of gambling – especially on loose women. ~ Pringle
• Quirky and fun
The Kite
192: Has to be death for life to keep on…
• Fun and why?
W.O. Mitchell
1982
Note for some reason Goodreads would not accept Dramatic, so I went with the flow and am putting my notes under "How I Spend My Summer Holidays." Such is life!
Five plays moved from stage to book giving a chance for greater audience.
1. Devil’s instrument
2. Back to Beulah
3. The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon
4. The Kite
5. For Those in Peril on the Sea
Devil’s Instrument:
• …followers of Jacob Hutter
• Survived a massacre in Russia, which reduced them to fifteen souls
Back to Beulah
• A little bewildering
The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon
105: I certainly disapprove of gambling – especially on loose women. ~ Pringle
• Quirky and fun
The Kite
192: Has to be death for life to keep on…
• Fun and why?
October 29, 2013
I actually listened to this on CD while driving back and forth to work. The scene in which the kids dig the first cave had be roaring with laughter in the car. I am sure anyone driving past me thought I was nuts.
October 24, 2021
1.5 stars
It's the kind of messed up book that only someone from Saskatchewan could write. Some of the scenes were very vivid (watching the girls from the bushes) - while some of it (King's response to the...events) was a bit of a stretch.
I'm not sure why anyone would read it, though it did have quite the backdrop on early 20th century Saskatchewan.
It's the kind of messed up book that only someone from Saskatchewan could write. Some of the scenes were very vivid (watching the girls from the bushes) - while some of it (King's response to the...events) was a bit of a stretch.
I'm not sure why anyone would read it, though it did have quite the backdrop on early 20th century Saskatchewan.
April 23, 2015
Near the beginning of this book there is a dream that contains a disturbing image that made me shy away from reading this story. The book is about a boy's loss of innocence and the retelling of the dream led me to believe it would be a different type of tale than it was.
It turned out to be a memorable coming-of-age chronicle about Hugh who lives in a small prairie town. The year is 1924 and the details make it sparkle with life. W.O. Mitchell knew how it felt to be a boy on the cusp of adulthood and all the dreams, fears and follies that entails.
Hugh is looking back as an adult on a time of his life that may have caused the recurring dream and takes us with him on the journey that is at times funny, sad, scary and fresh.
It turned out to be a memorable coming-of-age chronicle about Hugh who lives in a small prairie town. The year is 1924 and the details make it sparkle with life. W.O. Mitchell knew how it felt to be a boy on the cusp of adulthood and all the dreams, fears and follies that entails.
Hugh is looking back as an adult on a time of his life that may have caused the recurring dream and takes us with him on the journey that is at times funny, sad, scary and fresh.
August 30, 2020
It took me a while to get into this, as I thought he was skipping around too much. Soon, I was laughing uproariously over his boyhood antics. After that, I was drawn into the intrigue and sadness of that summer. Although we may not have experienced the extreme events Hugh did, the childhood of all of us is captured in some way here.
August 16, 2017
If your only experience with W.O. Mitchell is "Who Has Seen the Wind" you might be surprised by the undercurrent of darkness running through this book. Mitchell manages to take what is, on the surface, a very young adult story and add layers of grown-up revelation, awakening, and even violence. It's a surprisingly melancholy take on growing up, resulting in a very engaging & gripping story.
February 11, 2018
An excellent Canadian coming-of-age novel. It reminds me of my own childhood and also stories from my Grandpa who would have been a contemporary growing up on the prairies. It has an interesting plot, excellent character development, and some nice observations about memory and the creation of personal legends.
June 14, 2008
"How I spent my summer holidays" is a story about a young boy growing up on the Prairies of Western Canada. My mother's family homestead is not far from where the story takes place, as a result, this book has a special fondest.
absolutely a delightful read!
absolutely a delightful read!
June 27, 2012
Really enjoyed this, maybe more so because I was once a 12 year-old boy and lived in the country. Definitely not as innocent as the last book of his that I read (Who Has Seen the Wind) so be prepared for teenage-boy language and thoughts. Love the way Mitchell writes and this is no exception.
April 27, 2021
Mitchell’s book seems dated, as if it had been written in old-fashioned times but this is only because it is so well written (in 1981) that the reader feels they are there, in 1924 and on the Prairie with Hughie and his friends. How I Spent My Summer Holidays has Hughie revisiting the town after a long absence and the book is a memoir of that one summer, more than 50 years ago. The reminiscence seems a sad one but the story is light and easy, and enjoyable to read. It is also not tragic and quite comedic in many places but as the narrator says of that summer: ‘I was in trouble. I was in it way over my age depth’.
The story takes place in an unnamed town in Saskatchewan, a Canadian Province, and just north of the border with Montana. It seems a mid-sized place, large enough to have a busy railway yard, an RCMP detachment with senior staff, many churches of varying denominations, a whorehouse staffed by a Madame and her seven acolytes, and a Mental institution. It is also a safe place, for kids and adults alike. There is a refreshing sense too of a world uncluttered (and uncluttered by adults).
The author, W. O. Mitchell, masterfully crafts a boy’s world, having them explore the prairies, looting someone’s garbage to sell stuff to the junkman so they can buy candy, catching (and killing) gophers and such to sell their tails, swimming naked and carefree in the stream - the Little Souris River flowing by both the CPR railway bridge and ‘Mental’. Being twelve years old, somewhat clueless, innocent, just on the verge of adolescence: or, paraphrasing another author (John Wain, The Contenders): the boys are “just (before) the point where the rat-race of adolescence quickens and boys begin to see life in competitive terms”. To which I am compelled to add another Wainian quote: “as opposed to girls, who seem to see life in competitive terms from the age of about ten minutes”; and girls, appropriately for a twelve-year-old boy in the 1920s, play a minor role in the story.
This is not to say that there are no boobs. There are boobs, and nudity, and erections but what normal twelve-year-old boy, then, obsesses over that when there are adventures to be had. And the adventures include mistakes, betrayal, observing (but not yet comprehending) infidelity, lesbianism, even death, and boy-hood secrets coupled with the drama associated with the keeping of these secrets, or as Hughie says ‘The difficult skill I had to learn that summer was to walk a defensive highwire, using as much truth as possible for my balance pole’.
So, I characterize How I Spent My Summer Holidays as a gentle story, meandering through the equally slow life in a town in the Prairies, evoking nonetheless the complexities and challenges of human life anywhere. We all reach some level of experience of the world, and that it can be quite a mean and rather disappointing place at times. We are expected I think to rise above that. The epigraph W. O. Mitchell uses to introduce his book (‘Arma virumque cano’) says it all: This is the story of a man and his struggle. The narrator, Hughie himself now probably about 79 years old, looks back to his life when he was twelve, characterizing that summer as when “the corruption of his innocence was imperceptible and took time but (this summer was) what accelerated it”. Corruption is a relative term, and my thinking is this is simply the price that Hughie has, and we all have, to pay and the pain that must be endured to become a man, to emerge seemingly abruptly but actually slowly, awkwardly and painfully from the chrysalis of our childhood. The alternative is, again from Wain’s The Contender, ‘I didn’t like them (because) they were just too cautious, just plain scared of life’.
However, because this was a reminiscence, I wish there had been some resolution on key characters. For example, I liked Hughie’s parents and miss not knowing how his relatively-young mother fared after his father’s passing in 1937. King Motherwell too was an interesting character as well, having joined the Arms Force at sixteen to fight in WWI, who married badly, excelled at bootlegging and was such a presence and companion to the kids – was being with them perhaps partly an antidote to what he saw and experienced as a too-young man in the trenches? And, finally why had Hughie stayed away for 50 years, and why had he come back now?
Edwin
The story takes place in an unnamed town in Saskatchewan, a Canadian Province, and just north of the border with Montana. It seems a mid-sized place, large enough to have a busy railway yard, an RCMP detachment with senior staff, many churches of varying denominations, a whorehouse staffed by a Madame and her seven acolytes, and a Mental institution. It is also a safe place, for kids and adults alike. There is a refreshing sense too of a world uncluttered (and uncluttered by adults).
The author, W. O. Mitchell, masterfully crafts a boy’s world, having them explore the prairies, looting someone’s garbage to sell stuff to the junkman so they can buy candy, catching (and killing) gophers and such to sell their tails, swimming naked and carefree in the stream - the Little Souris River flowing by both the CPR railway bridge and ‘Mental’. Being twelve years old, somewhat clueless, innocent, just on the verge of adolescence: or, paraphrasing another author (John Wain, The Contenders): the boys are “just (before) the point where the rat-race of adolescence quickens and boys begin to see life in competitive terms”. To which I am compelled to add another Wainian quote: “as opposed to girls, who seem to see life in competitive terms from the age of about ten minutes”; and girls, appropriately for a twelve-year-old boy in the 1920s, play a minor role in the story.
This is not to say that there are no boobs. There are boobs, and nudity, and erections but what normal twelve-year-old boy, then, obsesses over that when there are adventures to be had. And the adventures include mistakes, betrayal, observing (but not yet comprehending) infidelity, lesbianism, even death, and boy-hood secrets coupled with the drama associated with the keeping of these secrets, or as Hughie says ‘The difficult skill I had to learn that summer was to walk a defensive highwire, using as much truth as possible for my balance pole’.
So, I characterize How I Spent My Summer Holidays as a gentle story, meandering through the equally slow life in a town in the Prairies, evoking nonetheless the complexities and challenges of human life anywhere. We all reach some level of experience of the world, and that it can be quite a mean and rather disappointing place at times. We are expected I think to rise above that. The epigraph W. O. Mitchell uses to introduce his book (‘Arma virumque cano’) says it all: This is the story of a man and his struggle. The narrator, Hughie himself now probably about 79 years old, looks back to his life when he was twelve, characterizing that summer as when “the corruption of his innocence was imperceptible and took time but (this summer was) what accelerated it”. Corruption is a relative term, and my thinking is this is simply the price that Hughie has, and we all have, to pay and the pain that must be endured to become a man, to emerge seemingly abruptly but actually slowly, awkwardly and painfully from the chrysalis of our childhood. The alternative is, again from Wain’s The Contender, ‘I didn’t like them (because) they were just too cautious, just plain scared of life’.
However, because this was a reminiscence, I wish there had been some resolution on key characters. For example, I liked Hughie’s parents and miss not knowing how his relatively-young mother fared after his father’s passing in 1937. King Motherwell too was an interesting character as well, having joined the Arms Force at sixteen to fight in WWI, who married badly, excelled at bootlegging and was such a presence and companion to the kids – was being with them perhaps partly an antidote to what he saw and experienced as a too-young man in the trenches? And, finally why had Hughie stayed away for 50 years, and why had he come back now?
Edwin
July 8, 2017
Classic coming of age story. I could really picture the boys and their summer adventures.
July 4, 2019
Towards the end, it gets a bit disturbing, but otherwise I really enjoyed this book. It was great to hear the author's own voice reading it, too.
August 6, 2020
Excellent. This short novel contains everything a novel should. The writing is flawless.
August 7, 2022
Are we, in the year of our lord, 2022, finally ready to admit the homoerotic undertones in W.O. Mitchell's work?
December 24, 2016
I had to read this one is middle school or high school and didn't enjoy it. It was uncomfortable and strange to read. The only part i remember is the weird scene at the swimming pool. I was a kid once and never acted this way or saw boys act this way. I'll give it another flip through now that I'm an adult. But it was one of those painful to get through assigned books in English class. It was one of the worst I had to finish for school.
Catcher in the Rye was much better. Stone Angel was also fantastic. The Lottery Rose and All Quiet on the Western Front were all good books that were assigned reading. I remember so many things from these books and would eagerly read them again. They are all sad books also. It could have been a better teacher or just better novels. Go Ask Alice was also great, I read it during the troubled Teen Years and felt her writing was so honest.
Catcher in the Rye was much better. Stone Angel was also fantastic. The Lottery Rose and All Quiet on the Western Front were all good books that were assigned reading. I remember so many things from these books and would eagerly read them again. They are all sad books also. It could have been a better teacher or just better novels. Go Ask Alice was also great, I read it during the troubled Teen Years and felt her writing was so honest.
September 6, 2011
I stopped writing book reviews for several years, but I can recommend W.O. Mitchell as he is always good.
Here is a quote that I underlined...
"Everybody gets scared," King said. "Nothing wrong with that. Main thing is -how do you handle it.
"How?" Peter said.
"By not thinking."
"I find that difficult to..."
"But it's right-you got to turn off thinking-right off-and do what you got to do. If you think about it, then you'll get more and more scared and more and more paralyzed. So-blank it out-thinking. That's the way the army works."
Here is a quote that I underlined...
"Everybody gets scared," King said. "Nothing wrong with that. Main thing is -how do you handle it.
"How?" Peter said.
"By not thinking."
"I find that difficult to..."
"But it's right-you got to turn off thinking-right off-and do what you got to do. If you think about it, then you'll get more and more scared and more and more paralyzed. So-blank it out-thinking. That's the way the army works."
May 23, 2016
Roman à clef. Not my usual, but nice. I learned a lot because I had to use Google to look up about ten thousand terms. And by the way, did Stephen King steal from this for "The Body"? He definitely stole most of it for "It".
May 23, 2009
My mom actually met W.O. Mitchell, and I have an autographed copy of this book.
It's not a very big paperback, and it does deserve a reread.
It's not a very big paperback, and it does deserve a reread.
July 25, 2010
Lovely. I love the work of W.O. Mitchell. Quite truly.
October 31, 2013
I can't believe I've never read this classic before. Lovely coming-of-age story by an icon of canadian literature.
Read
March 31, 2013 A Calgarian and a Windsor Professor, Wow, so many connections to the author, he seems to be a Truly canadian author, no pretense in his writing, which makes it worth while reading. a Classic
May 21, 2015
I read this book right after reading "Who Has Seen the Wind" by W.O. Mitchell. I have to say that I enjoyed this one even more!
April 21, 2024
Love W O Mitchell's story telling.
So realistic, visual, fun.
So realistic, visual, fun.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews