The story is about a big family. We start reading about the
Whitshanks in the present time, and then reading their parents', and
finally their grand parents' stories. Yet with all the background
information, which I should say the author has done a pretty good job of
keeping concise, by the end of the book, the reason for the characters'
behaviors and actions is somewhat left to personal interpretation.Of all the characters in the book, I found Denny's, the son of Red Whitshanks, the most interesting. The book starts and ends with him, so I thought of him as the book's protagonist. His rebellious streak, despite all the attention he received from almost every member of his family, especially his mother, perplexed me. And it looked like he was the most angry with his mother. I kept thinking why? None of the events, not even, his mother lying to him to get him see a counselor justified his anger towards her. We see youth that turn out bad, despite their parents hard work to provide, educate, and guide. So, I guess I wanted to see the author's point of view of why Denny turned out to be so angry in spite of all he had going for him.
