The Big Rock Candy Mountain cover art

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

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The Big Rock Candy Mountain

By: Wallace Stegner
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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About this listen

Bo Mason, his wife, and his two boys live a transient life of poverty and despair. Drifting from town to town and from state to state, the violent, ruthless Bo seeks his fortune in the hotel business, in new farmland, and, eventually, in illegal rum-running throughout the treacherous back roads of the American Northwest.

Based largely on his own childhood, Stegner has created a masterful, harrowing saga of a family trying to survive during the lean years of the early 20th century. It is the conflict between the hardscrabble existence and Bo's pursuit of the frontier myth and of the American dream that gives the book such resonance and power.

©1938 1940, 1942, 1943 by Wallace Stegner (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Classics Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Stegner has felt the spell of mountain and prairie, of drought, flood, and blizzard....a harrowing saga." - ( New York Times)
"Stands out beautifully and unforgettably." ( New Yorker)
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First time ever that I went right back to the beginning on finishing this fantastic book about a families struggle to live and love against the background of childhood adversity and neglect and the relentless elements. I was on tenterhooks first time round, and now knowing the ending, I'm back looking for the clues to how and why. Stegner brings all the emotions, the characters spring into life, and at points I felt so moved that I had to pause and reflect. The hope, the love, the despair, it's all there. The only other book that I found equal evocative was Suttree by Cormac McCarthy, another epic about frontier life.

A roller coaster of a novel

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This was another book where you are introduced to the main character as a child, and see what an awful upbringing they had; so feel sympathy for them in adulthood. Then, they make the same mistakes they were running from in the first place, so you find it conflicting as to where your loyalties lie.

Bo is the dad and grows up living hand to mouth until he meets his wife and has two children. He's always looking for the next big thing, be it oil, gold or whisky and the family just has to go along with him as he is so violent it's not worth complaining. The family keep seeking their fortune across America and Canada and the history is rich along the way. You'll enjoy it.

Blood is thicker

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