According to Jake and the Kid
by W.O. Mitchell
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Book Summary Information
Author: W.O. MitchellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-07-30
ISBN: 0771060718
Number of pages: 280
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Book Reviews of According to Jake and the Kid
Book Review: Simply Terrific
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a 1989 collection named after the famous 1950s CBC radio series and the earlier book, Jake and The Kid, from 1962.
W.O. Mitchell is a highly regarded Canadian prairie author who wrote about life in Canada. We wrote with a great deal of passion, humor, and emotion. His stories are often simple, but very entertaining. They leave the reader laughing or crying or both. Few have his talents for writing. In his day when Canada had a population of fifteen to twenty million or so, he sold a bit less than one million books and if he had been an American writer he probably could have been an equal to John Steinbeck or similar.
This is a great collection of 16 short stories, almost 300 pages long. They are narrated by Jake and alternately by "the kid." They are stories about their life on a Saskatchewan farm near Crocus, Saskatchewan, which we can assume is realistic but fictional. The kid's ma is alive, but the father is dead and Jake is a surrogate father of sorts, and of course he is the "hired hand" on the farm. He does most of the work and manages the planting and harvesting, etc. The stories are set in a time spanning the WWII era up to the early 1950s.
The stories touch a lot of current and universal issues and themes including the people who fought in WWII, immigrants, women's rights, hunting, school teachers, medical care, the courts, getting old, birth, native citizens, etc. most of these issues are still at the front of the social agenda. I liked all the stories; but, I especially liked the one where a goat is brought into the court house in a defamation action (the goat and the man look similar?). Also, Mitchell is able to create a lot of charm and attraction in his descriptions of the life on the sometimes bleak prairies.
As a comment, the present book or collection is about 50% bigger than the original collection of short stories from 1962. This new collection has mostly all new stories, but not 100%, and a few of the stories are based on the original stories and have altered and improved plots.
This is a wonderful collection. It is highly entertaining and most will love the book. Suggested follow up reading are his other two famous books: Jake and the Kid (1962) and Who Has Seen The Wind (1947), both of course by Mitchell.
Summary of According to Jake and the Kid
Set in the forties and fifties, these stories take us back to a simpler, gentler world, the one we all like to think we grew up in. The Kid at the centre of the stories is a boy on a Saskatchewan farm ?down Government Road from Crocus, which is on the CNR line between Tiger Lily and Conception.? Jake is the hired hand who helps the Kid?s mother run the farm (and who played a huge role in Canadian history, what with capturing ?Looie Riel? and all), and who now keeps the Kid abreast of events in the greater world and in Crocus.This is no easy matter, for the stories reveal that Crocus is a town in constant ferment. The Kid?s teacher, Miss Henchbaw, is unfairly dismissed by the school board until her friends fight back in ?Will of the People?; Chet Lambert of the Crocus Breeze is hauled into court for comparing George Solway with Malleable Brown?s goat in ?The Face Is Familiar,? resulting in a courtroom confrontation unrivalled in the history of Canadian jurisprudence; and ?Political Dynamite? shows the men terrified by women curlers threatening to vote en bloc in the upcoming town election to gain equal curling time.
The town, of course, is rich not only in disputes but characters, from Repeat Golightly in the barbershop (?One ahead of you, Jake. I say there's one ahead of you?) to Old Man Sherry, the town?s Oldest Inhabitant, who wavers between tributes to Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria. Then there?s Old Man Gatenby, brought from death?s door by prolonged exposure to romantic purple prose in ?Love?s Wild Magic.?
Adding to this rich mixture are the entertainers who come through town: Belva Taskey, the sweet songstress (?Lo! The Noble Redskin!?) and her memorable poetry reading; The Great Doctor Suhzee, the hypnotist; and Professor Noble Winesinger, whose snake-oil remedies have been known to turn his customers black.
There are also stories of prejudice against Indians, or against ?foreigners? named Kiziw, that in the end remind us of the core of decency at the heart of this collection. Whether the stories are told by Jake or by the Kid, they always speak to our hearts, and provide us with W.O. Mitchell's usual magical mixture of tears and laughter.
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