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Dancing at the Rascal Fair  By  cover art

Dancing at the Rascal Fair

By: Ivan Doig
Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie
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Publisher's summary

Dancing at the Rascal Fair by National Book Award nominee Ivan Doig, captures the passion and tenacity of turn-of-the-century immigrants struggling to build new lives amidst Montana’s windswept Rockies. The tale unfolds into a contest of the heart between Anna Ramsay and Angus McCaskill—kept apart by obligations—as they and their stormy kin vie to tame the brutal land.

©1987 Ivan Doig (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Magnificent… Dancing at the Rascal Fair establishes its author in the front ranks of contemporary American writers.” ( Seattle Times)
"The settlement of Montana between 1890 and 1919 is recounted through the quiet but compelling life of Angus McCaskill, a young Scotsman who travels with his friend Rob Barclay to Montana's Two Medicine Country to homestead. Doig writes fervently of the voyage from Scotland and the lean first years, as the two share the work and hardship of establishing claims and building up flocks of sheep. He tells of their separate marriages, the severing of their friendship, and the final resolution of their conflict through death. Doig successfully recaptures the violence of the Montana elements and the staunch heritage of the Scottish settlers." ( Library Journal)

What listeners say about Dancing at the Rascal Fair

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Superior book and narrator

Engrossing story with fully formed characters you want to spend time with.
Terrific narration.
Doig allows reader to inhabit the time and place as readily as his characters do. Beautiful, witty prose.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good Story, Needs to be Read by a American

Loved the Idea of the Storyline and really wanted to listen to this Book but couldn't stand the Narrator, I just can't listen to a Book in a Western Setting read by a European. It's ok if the Character has an accent or something like that, but the Narrator should be able to turn that on and off.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great characters, story and imagery

I look for great stories and this is a winner. The characters are well developed. My only criticism is that a couple parts seem a little long on the detail. I recommend it.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Very well written. Very frustrating story.

Almost every sentence is interesting, with unique wording or turns of phrases throughout. One of the opening scenes of a cart horse falling into a Scottish bay and drowning was horrifying, colorful, and even morbidly humorous in the way onlookers joke about it. I was hooked from the beginning, ready for a rollicking story of Angus's journey and creating a new life in rugged Montana with his BFF Rob.
But the story doesn't deliver. Too much of the tale is told from inside Angus's head - his feelings, his memories, snippets of remembered poems and songs. By the second half of the novel we are even treated to Angus's remembered dialogue from the first half of the novel (really). Eventually much needed tension is introduced to the story when Anna (Angus's fiancé) tells him she has been horsing around with Isaac the horse trader, and that they will soon be hitched. But now Angus mopes and yearns for Anna the rest of the novel. And the reader is treated to even more of Angus's remembered dialogue with Anna from earlier parts of the story (yawn). Since he can't have Anna, Angus marries Adair (Rob's little sister who has since immigrated to Montana). As Adair is painfully aware, she is not Angus's first choice. Don't feel bad for her though, she has the annoying habit of referring to herself in the third person.
Ironically, the story ends with another drowning horse, this time taking Rob down with it. Don't feel bad for Rob though, by the end of the novel he has turned into a complete ass. The horse seemed decent enough.
Shout out to to some memorable characters: Ninian Duff (not affiliated with Duff Beer), Lucas, the hands-off bartender, and Toussaint, the half breed bar hand.
I'm partial to historical fiction, and I enjoyed the parts having to do with Scottish immigration to the US, sheep farming, the advent of the US Park Service, and the impact WW1 had on US soldiers and their families.
Overall though, this was a very unsatisfying story, but well told, if that makes sense.




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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I’m still living in the Montana world of this novel a full day later.!

What a wonderful combination of long examined relationships and historical glimpse of the settling of early Montana by Scots immigrants. The narration in accent is a whole delightful bonus. Reminds me of Angle of Repose but a good bit jollier. Wonderful read.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Scotland, Montana & Homesteaders

I enjoyed this book loving history as I do as well as any story written by Ivan Doug. His words put you right into the scenes he describes so that you feel the emotions of the characters, their lives and the times. Robert Ian MacKenzie is the best of the best narrators!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Setting, time, and characterization

Writer is a poet filling this Montana story with amazing metaphors and simile. Narrator is talented bringing characters even more to life. History is interjected through the years up through WWI and the Spanish Flu.
Love story and primary friendship seem both unlikely and quite familiar. Bitter-sweet relationships and happenings in minute detail created a page-turner but I am grateful I heard this book in mostly Scottish accents.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A masterpiece

Dancing at the Rascal Fair is one of the finest novels in the American canon. And this reader is perfect for it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

If you have ever been in Montana...

As others mentioned, this book has a bit of a slow start, but is so evocative of Northern Montana. Wonderful descriptions, interesting history. The underlying "love story" is somewhat irritating, but the relationships among the other characters are complex and keep the story alive

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing compared to Doig’s better books.

Repetitive and often boring, Doig recycles the same characters (with different names) and events from his other books, several of which I loved. But what really turned me off in this book was Angus’s obsession with Anna. Almost every scene has him pining away for her at the emotional expense of every other character. Really over the top and tedious, especially since it was she who betrayed Angus, not his friend Rob.

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