1. Montana 1948

      I am reading Montana 1948,  a classic novel written by Larry Watson. I am a little less than a quarter of the way through.
      So far, not much has happened. The beginning of the book is mostly background information and introduction of characters. Basically, I have met David (the narrator), Mom, Dad (a police man), Uncle Frank (a doctor), and Marie (called the housekeeper, but is actually a babysitter). What has happened so far is very minimal. Marie has an indian background and she gets sick. This upsets David because he is kind of affectionate towards Marie. He doesn't like to see Marie in pain. Whereas, David's father has no sympathy. Marie hates doctors and David's father is very racist toward Marie because he believes that the reason she won't see a doctor is because of her indian background. This is basically the extent of what I've read so far. David tells a lot of old stories about living in a small town and being compared to other people.
      So far, this book hasn't done much to excite me. I do have a good feeling about it though because there is a police man in the story. Police men often have stories to tell and I think there might be a little mystery inside this book.
      On the front cover of the book it says, "A beautiful novel about the meaning of place and evolution of courage..." This makes me believe that the message in this book is courage. So maybe the author experienced a similar situation and wanted people to learn about it. I am also predicting that courage will be the theme of the book. I'll have to wait and see.
      So far, the best character is David (the narrator). He seems kind of odd. He has a huge crush on his babysitter who is way older than him. I also kind of think of him as an outcast. David seems rather interesting. I definitely have not seen him grow or change yet. I will have to keep reading.
      David says, "Out of town I could simply be, I could feel my self, firm and calm and unmalleable as I could not when I was in school or in any of the usual human communities that seemed to weaken or scatter me." This is important because it seems kind of odd. I believe that David is shy and awkward around people, like an outcast.
      The only question I have so far about my book is what will the inciting incident be? Something has to get the ball rolling and make this an exciting book.