Little Oslo

I picked up a copy of this book at Mystery to Me a couple of weeks ago figuring it would be what the back cover promised: a simple mystery set in the 50s, a throwback to a simpler time. It was exactly what the back cover copy promised.

Set in the fictional, south-of-LaCrosse, Mississippi River-based town of Wahissa, Wisconsin, 17-year-old Jake spends the most memorable summer of his life playing baseball, working in a diner, and solving the mystery behind a string of brutal beatings.

Told in a charming, simple prose style that really felt like a 1950s story, the mystery unfolds slowly, filtered through the 17 year old memories of baseball and working at the diner. At times, I wondered if White meant to write a baseball story instead of a mystery, but I realized that when you examine that summer through the eyes of a kid, the baseball is going to be every bit as important as the mystery.

I enjoyed the book very much. It was wholesome and easy-going. White was a pastor for many years, so there is some religion in it, but it's not preachy. The town is very vibrant, made so through the cast of characters Whites illustrates. He makes some unique sentence choices, constructions that someone with more training in modern prose probably wouldn't make, but it does not detract from the story. There are some editorial choices that could have trimmed the book down by 20 or 30 pages, too. Overall, it does not make the book “lesser.”

It's definitely worth a trip down memory lane with this book. Enjoyable and lovely.