The Slow Air of Ewan Macpherson - Softcover

Averill, Thomas Fox

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425190811 ISBN 13: 9780425190814

Publisher: Blue Hen Trade, 2003

Synopsis

Growing up in Glasglow, Kansas, the son of a Scotsman devoted to his attempts to make a single-malt Scotch, Ewan MacPherson falls in love at the age of twelve with Shirley Porter, a devotion that follows him through adolescence into adulthood, through his diverse roles as high-school teacher, bagpipe instructor, son, and keeper of Scottish traditions. Original.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Fox Averill has published two story collections, Passes at the Moon and Seeing Mona Naked, in addition to his previous novel Secrets of the Tsil Café. He is writer-in-residence and professor of English at Washburn University.

From Publishers Weekly:

Whiskey, bagpipes, haggis and Robert Burns: Averill plops Scottish institutions into the American heartland in this meandering coming-of-age tale. In 1952, Rob MacPherson and his infant son, Ewan, emigrate from Scotland to the very Scottish town of Glasgow, Kans., to realize Rob's dream of brewing a single-malt Scotch whiskey in America. The experiment fails horribly: the still explodes in 1963, killing a family friend and wounding Ewan. The remainder of the book is Ewan's story-his struggles with his father, his bagpipe playing and, primarily, his off-again, on-again romance with local girl Shirley Porter. After high school, the two "hand-fast," an old Celtic custom that amounts to a year-long trial marriage. Headstrong Shirley chafes at domesticity and betrays Ewan with his father before disappearing. In her absence, Ewan dates, drinks whiskey and spends a lot of time thinking about and playing his bagpipes (as does his father), which makes for tedious reading. Shirley eventually returns to Glasgow, where she and Ewan spar for long years over whether or not they should be a couple. Averill's second novel (after Secrets of Tsil Cafe) is filled with gloomy, stubborn people who seemingly expect to be unhappy and seldom disappoint themselves. Painful secrets are revealed very slowly, while the happy ending comes too suddenly for a book whose subject speaks primarily to the hardships of love.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blue Hen Trade
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0425190811
• ISBN 13: 9780425190814
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272