Harbinger of Books

Downtown Owl is the story of three people who live in a small town called Owl, ND. The story is comprised of a high school student, Mitch "Vanna" who is a QB for a football team and never quite fits in, Julia a young college grad who is now a local history teacher and a widower, Horace who spends his time in a coffee shop debating politics . Despite the small size of the town these three people have never met.

I liked how the story is told and while we never learn much about each character we get is an individual perspective or a global view of the town and what life is like in it. The humor was dead on, I found myself recalling certain events and certain words and/or euphemisms that I had forgotten. The story really has no over reaching plot except the snowstorm which looms overhead because it is told to us in the beginning but it is just about the events that unfold from August 1983 to February 1984. Each individual story is ordinary but nevertheless fascinating and even though the book is done I find myself thinking "this is life this is how you live it could be anywhere really"

I did not care for the ending. The book was so enjoyable but never reaching a conclusion. The snowstorm felt clumsy and bizarre.

The audio version of this was so good I am not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if I had read it.