Genre: Book
Grade: A-
Notable People: Howard Frank Mosher
Title: Northern Borders
Review: this is my second work from Mosher-a legend in Vermont writing. This 1994 novel is the looking back story of six year old Austin Kittredge, who, after his mother’s untimely death comes to live with his aged grandparents in Lost Hollow Nation in Kingdom county- a barely veiled reference to Vermont’s great and wild Northeast Kingdom. Through his childhood in the late 40s and early 5os, Austin recalls a lost way of life in this remote outpost along the Canadian border, with his larger than life grandparents who have been feuding for over fifty years. Grandpa is an old style woodsman who spends most of the time in a hidden camp high up in the woods and pines for his youth as surveyor of the very far northern frontier of North America. Grandma long ago retreated to a parlor (in between fifteen hours a day of farm chores) where she has recreated her shrine to a fanciful Egypt, The characters in the book are mesmerizing and the setting is a paean and wonderful portrait of a lost time in our history. Mosher’s writing is full of dry and ironic wit and the end of the book is transformative. Mosher is really growing no me and is somewhat a revelation. Lots more to read.