Peter Loon

by Van Reid

Book Overview

Deep in the woods of Maine, the Revolutionary War is still fresh in settlers' minds as a young man named Peter Loon sets off to find a mysterious person. Peter quickly falls into a series of startling... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067003052X
• ISBN13: 9780670030521
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 299 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Magical Maine tale

This book is in the best traditions of the great storytelling - it could have been written by Robert Louis Stevenson. A lyrical tale of the Maine woods with a page turning plot and whimsical and almost magical encounters between homespun characters. A recommended read for anyone who enjoys good writing and a good old-fashioned yarn; and eminently suitable for intelligent younger readers.

peter loon by van reid

I have enjoyed all the books by Van Reid. Its very much like a flash back to a simpler time, when the right thing was the right thing...

Beautiful, old fashioned storytelling

After the success of his "Moosepath League" trilogy, Reid turns his unjaundiced eye on a little-known aspect of an earlier period in Maine history - the struggle in the early 1800s between homesteading, hardscrabble farmers and the rich absentee owners, who had been granted huge tracts of wilderness by the English. Peter Loon is 17 when his father, Silas, is felled by a tree while helping Peter clear land for a farm of his own. The night before Silas' funeral, Peter's otherworldly mother, the beautiful and "touched" Rosemund, wakes him to demands he go on a search for an uncle he has never heard of, Obed Winslow. As the reader knows and Peter does not, Obed was Silas' best friend, who left after he lost the contest (literally) for Rosemund's hand. Peter has never been further than a few miles from the little settlement carved out of the forest and at his lyrical, easygoing pace, Reid explores young man's welter of feelings, embodied in his familiar forest surroundings. "Peter heard the breent of a nightjar nearby and thought he caught the glimpse of something wing past a fleeting pool of open sky. He had no idea what he was about, walking the woods in the middle of the night, but he did not find them unpleasant, at first, these immediate sensations. "It was not long, however, before another reality of life, as he understood it, imposed itself - and that was the fact of uncanny things in the forest, the knowledge of curious and perhaps malicious disembodied minds lurking in the darkness between the trees." Fretting about the family left behind, curious about the unknown world ahead, Peter's agitation is reflected in his surroundings until he lays down to sleep at the foot of a tree. Awakened by a dead deer, he appears, to the hunters, to spring from the belly of the beast, and thus begins an odyssey which opens his eyes to a greater section of humanity than he ever expected to encounter. Taken up by an itinerant and well-read preacher, a wise man, Peter crosses paths with zealots using religion to further evil intentions, fair maidens in need of rescuing, angry farmers fomenting rebellion, rich landowners oozing contempt, liquored-up rabble rousers, coquettish girls with not enough to do and one fiery girl who does exactly as she pleases. He discovers class and the huge gulf between rich and poor - his perplexity at the notion of a picnic is particularly funny - and learns that good or evil resides with the individual and not his place in society. He discovers romance, and discovers it again. He has his eyes opened and retains his innocence. Although more archetype than individual, Peter is an endearing character, who learns to rely on the core of integrity within him - along with his handsome looks and quick, if naïve, mind. As seen through his fresh eyes, the world is a chaotic, beautiful, violent, new place. Beautifully written, this is a humorous, graceful, old-fashioned novel with a touch of Tom Jones and a whisper of Huck Finn. A fi

A wonderful surprise - A great novel

What a shame that the Publisher's Weekly review quoted on this page was so wrongheaded. And what a shame that I allowed it to keep me from reading this book for more than a year! It is almost as if the reviewer expected a romance novel and when it turned out to be something different the reviewer couldn't shift gears. What a shame!"Peter Loon" is romantic, but in the old fashioned sense, that of an adventure. What hints of romance there are in the book are realistic and touching.But it is the adventure that carries this book! It reminded me of something by Robert Louis Stevenson and that is no exageration. In particular "Peter Loon" reminded me of "Kidnapped." There is the beginning of the book, where the young man is looking for an uncle. There is the similarity in that both young protaganists come under the mentorship of an older wiser man. In Peter's case it is the extraordinary Parson Leach, who is one of the most fascinating charcters I have encountered in fiction lately. Also linking this book with "Kidnapped" in my mind is that both find their young wanderers stumbling into a civil rebellion. I loved "Kidnapped" and must go back and reread it after all these years. I loved "Peter Loon" too.Made to choose, I would pick Mr. Reid's Moosepath series as my favorites, but this slice of eighteenth century adventure is exciting, evocative, and uplifting. The mistical scene when Peter is traveling the northern by forest and finds himself in the middle of a herd of dear is worth the price of the book. More people should read it and learn from Parson Leach about how to confront a dangerous situation with true Christian principle. Not to worry, the book is not preachy, only powerful.It will be a long time before I let a bad review keep me away from one of my favorite authors. Sorry Mr. Reid. And thank you. My faith in your skills is unshaken. Beautiful cover, too.

Every bit as good as the previous three.

Another Van Reid masterpiece. Although this book is more linear in storyline than the Marvelous Moosepath adventures it still has every bit of charm and whimsically drawn characters as they do. I found it very interesting in my own reading experience that upon completion of the book I found that only several days had passed in the life of Peter Loon. So many experiences in such a short time! Once again Mr. Reid delivers a fine story with absolutely no objectionable (mature themes and language) material and goodness knows that is rare these days. Buy it and let's all put Van Reid on the New York Times bestseller list in place of the dreck that usually winds up there... Maybe that's not a good idea as that appears to be the bottom of the cesspool of the literary world. Ah well...