collected
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction
About 7 h 30 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 16 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
Forced to flee an Oregon sheep ranch after helping with a jailbreak, sixteen-year-old orphan Clay Calvert takes to the road among homesteaders searching for land and work. Traveling with a Tunne boy, he joins a wandering horse trader's family and falls in love with the trader's daughter, Luce. His journey carries him through hop fields, coastal forests and country east of the Cascades, among people struggling to make a living.
Dry humor runs through this coming-of-age novel, which unfolds in loosely connected encounters. The pace is leisurely, and detailed descriptions of the landscape frequently interrupt Clay's adventures; the portrait of Oregon is as prominent as his own story.
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Highly regarded
Not really. The loosely connected encounters make the structure straightforward, and no prerequisite knowledge is needed. The main demand is patience with detailed landscape descriptions that frequently interrupt Clay’s adventures.
No. Clay’s flight from an Oregon sheep ranch leads to encounters with homesteaders and a wandering horse trader’s family, but the pace is leisurely. Dry humor and the portrait of Oregon are as prominent as the adventures.
Coming of age, survival, belonging, and work shape Clay’s experiences as a sixteen-year-old orphan. His search for land and work among people struggling to make a living gives those themes a concrete rural setting.
380 pages in the University of Idaho Press 1992 paperback edition.
University of Idaho Press · 1992 · Paperback. ISBN 9780893011550.
About 7 hours 30 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 380-page University of Idaho Press edition. Dense books can take longer.
Robert Lewis Taylor
Historical Fiction · Adventure · Literary Fiction
The catalog does not yet include a matching edition. Details may differ between editions.
