Someone in my previous book club offered this book so I chose to read The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner. From the beginning I was hooked by the story of the Mason family. The mother, Elsa, was a good honest law-abiding woman who fell in love with Bo, a man who ran a "blind pig." A blind pig was an illegal saloon. Love must have made her blind because she loved him and married him. With their two sons, Chet and Bruce, they navigated life with the mercurial Bo. Bo was always out to make big money fast. He rarely did honest work although he had great skills as a carpenter and lots of energy. He made most of his money as a bootlegger. This illegal occupation started in 1918 as the flu came to their town in Canada. Bo thought whiskey would be great medicine for the flu. He was right although he contracted the flu on his trip to get the whiskey. I was fascinated by the impact the flu had on the Mason family because of the Corona virus now. Three out of the four Mason family members got the flu. They were hauled to the schoolhouse where all the flu patients went. Chet was left at home alone to guard the house and the whiskey. In ten days they all came home after having recovered from the flu and that was the end of that. I'm pretty sure our Corona virus will have a longer effect on us than ten mere days. Wallace Stegner says this book was semi-autobiographical. If he had a father like Bo, you got to feel for the guy because life would be difficult for any child of Bo Mason.
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