I’m looking forward to seeing Ivan Doig tonight at the annual Friends of MSU Libraries dinner. I’ve been a fan of Doig’s since the 1980s when I read his marvelous memoir, This House of Sky. Like Ivan, I grew up in Montana ranch country, so I find much to identify with in his work.  He got the people, times, and the setting I grew up with right.

I’m sure that Ivan gets other times and settings right.  I was so impressed with his novel, English Creek, that I gave it to my mother.  Mom came of age during the Great Depression in rural Montana, just like the protagonist of English Creek, Jick McCaskill.

The next time I visited, I asked, “Mom, what did you think of that book I gave you?”

“It was okay,” she said.

“But did he get the times right?” I persisted.

She agreed that he had, but she was still unimpressed.

“He just wrote about things the way they were,” she said.

If I get a chance to talk with Ivan tonight, I’ll tell him that story.  I think he’d be amused.  At least, I hope so.

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