![]() ![]() The book is filled with humorous moments. The author's through-a-boy's-eyes view of his observations during expeditions in and around his home town, contrasted with his father's reminiscences of the time "when Wisconsin was still half wilderness, when panthers sometimes looked in through the windows, and the whippoorwills called all night long", provide a glimpse of the past, as the original subtitle suggests. The story is also a personal chronicle of the era of change between the (nearly) untouched forest wilderness and agriculture between the days of the pioneers and the rise of towns and between horse-drawn transportation and automobiles, among other transitions. ![]() The book begins with the capture of the baby raccoon, and follows his growth to a yearling. The boy reconnects with society through the unlikely intervention of his pet raccoon, a "ringtailed wonder" charmer that dominates almost every page. (The book also touches on young Sterling's concerns for his older brother Herschel, who is in Europe fighting in World War One). Rascal chronicles young Sterling's loving yet distant relationship with his father, dreamer David Willard North, and the aching loss represented by the death of his mother, Elizabeth Nelson North. ![]() ![]() Subtitled "a memoir of a better era," North's book is a prose poem to adolescent angst. ![]()
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