Paulsen skillfully keeps Carl Wenstrom at the center of the novel. He is an original, offbeat, and fascinating creation. By using a narrator who is unremarkable—except for the ability to observe and interpret—Paulsen highlights Carl's remarkable individuality.

The novel beautifully balances contrasting worlds in plot and theme as well as character. McKinley is divided into the adult world and the adolescent world, not antagonistic but just different, each with its own passions and interests. In northern Minnesota the year really has only two seasons, soft summer and hard winter. Each season has its activity: soft summer has fishing, hard winter has skating. Skating has two opposite faces, hockey and dance. The first is communal and hectic, the second private and rhythmic.

Minor characters balance major ones.

Cully Fransen and Pisspot Jimmy are drunks who show what Carl is not.

Willy wonders about...