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The Summer of Ordinary Ways: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Nicole Lea Helget
Publisher: Borealis Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $19.94 (100%)
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Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 779534
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0873515439
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.29209776092
EAN: 9780873515436
ASIN: 0873515439
Publication Date: October 15, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
“Helget breaks open the tough shell of family life to reveal a girlhood both tragic and lovely, with all its hidden violence, all its secret beauty.”—Carolyn Parkhurst, author of The Dogs of Babel Practicing baseball with Dad, then watching him go after a cow with a pitchfork in a fit of rage. Playing chicken on the county road with semi trucks full of hogs. Flirting with the milkman. Chasing with your sisters after Wreck and Bump, mangy mutts who prowl farmsteads killing chickens and drinking fuel oil. Dandelion wine. The ghost of a girl buried alive over a century ago. These unforgettable, sometimes hilarious images spill from a fierce and wondrous childhood into the pages of The Summer of Ordinary Ways.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 starts slow, finishes beautifully January 7, 2008
This is a nicely written book, a beautiful memior of chilhood on a farm. It starts slowly but by the end I loved her writing...
 Interesting... June 16, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I didnt pick this book randomly off the shelf, I work in Sleepy Eye MN, closely with the people. I did not grow up in Sleepy Eye, but in another small farming community. I know some of the people who she is talking about, although I do not know her or any of her immedate famliy. There was a huge uproar here about this book when it came out and I had to see what it was all about, of course!
What I found was someone I knew, a girl raised with the same type of envirnment I think most of us were raised with in small midwestern farm towns. The local stories, small town attitude, where everyone knows everyones business and you are judged by your last name, relatives and great-grandfathers history 'all those Haalas are crazy'. I found myself and my friends in her stories, my sister, my parents. Its a story about life, the memories of a girl and a kid becoming a woman the fast way, by becoming a mother. She made me feel I was with her @ the nuns retreat, when her dad shot the puppies, on her uncles bike. I was rereading a story I already know. It was creepy, but comforting. I think thats talent.
I really enjoyed this book, the style is different, jumping around, even mid story, to different, semi-related stories, different then what I'm used to, I guess. Her discriptions make me see the tree, the barn, her uniform, blue and white on the steps of St. Marys Catholic School. Beautifully discripted. Definately not the brutal, horrible book some people 'couldnt even finish'.
If you grew up in a small town, or in a large close-nit family, you will relate to Nicole. A glimps of snipits of small town life, real or imagined by her, is truely what this novel is.
A riveting story by an extraordinary writer June 17, 2006
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
In my long reading life I have rarely come across a book written in such compelling and poetic language. I have just read Nicole Lea Helget's memoir in one sitting and can scarcely catch my breath. And to those who might question the authenticity of the book, please remember that a child's interpretation of happenings may not always agree with that of an adult who was there, too, but that does not make the child's recollection any less true. Just think about the mysteries and taboos in your own childhood!
Harsh and dry--the story and the weather. June 12, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This collection of beautifully written short pieces work together to give a view into a difficult Minnesota childhood. It's a stark story, and slim in several ways. Pages aside, it lacks context, and the landscape is almost missing, which is odd for a farm story. The writer's gift with words is considerable, and the final chapter left me gasping (what a tour de force). Did I like it? yes, I did. Still, I have to ask, as a child, was there no laughter? Was her entire childhood taut and poetic, all smashed grasshoppers and bleeding animals? It seems in a family like this, there might have been at least some laughter. I guess that is another area where the book is slim--I didn't sense the fullness of a life when reading it. Perhaps she will write a longer exploration of her life, or a novel. If she does, I'll definitely read it, as she is quite a writer.
 Stories of Animal Cruelty May 5, 2006
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I agree with the earlier reviewer, as far as mean people and animal cruelty go. I could hardly finish the book myself, not only because of the animal cruelty and abuse but also the author's total indifference to it. I don't particularly care to read about people abusing and killing animals (killing a mother cow because she wants to keep her calf, and shooting 13 puppies because "they are ugly"), and basically that is what a lot of this book is about. Not a very good or interesting read, author is whiney and self-absorbed - don't waste your time with this garbage.
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