Rating: 
Summary: A Good Book
Review: I found this book to be extremely clear, relevant, and readable. It is very short, and it drives home some strong, thought-provoking points about relations between whites and American Indians who continue to suffer unjustly to this day. However, as someone who has lived in the west virtually all his life, I did not feel that this work provides any great insight into life in the American west as some have suggested. It is a good book that I enjoyed reading - for the story, and the messages contained therein. There are much better places to go to learn about life in the western part of the US
Rating: 
Summary: Startling and engrossing, insightful and haunting
Review: Watson draws us in with a simple and honest tale of life in rural Montana, then throws a curve which explodes the idyllic myth and draws the reader breathlessly through to its conclusion. Reminiscient of David Guterson or Jane Smiley, Watson reveals the hidden depths under the seemingly simplest lives and the multiples layers flowing through society and history. His voice is clear, his vision haunting even a year after its reading
Rating:
Summary: A touching coming of age novel that ranks with Faulkner and Salinger
Review: A touching, compelling coming of age novel, this ranks with Intruder in the Dust and Catcher in the Rye -- and would fill a nice regional niche in a library on the American experience. The book centers on a teenager's first realizations that things are not always what they seem, and that the world is not always a fair and happy place. The prose is clean, precise, and spare and the story so compelling it needs no varnish. I couldn't put the book down and read it in one swallow. A beautiful piece of work about a beautiful place and a fragile time
Rating:
Summary: A must read for those who love the west!
Review: A wonderful, easily read story that draws you in. Those who travel across the midwest will enjoy being taken through Watson's writing. It typifies life on the plains
Rating:
Summary: A BEAUTIFUL NOVEL-ONE TO THINK ABOUT
Review: I feel that Larry Watson's Cather-esque novel about a prominent small town family and the land they reign is a wonderfully written work. Incredibly readable, this book kept me inside on a sunny Saturday afternoon! The story, told through the eyes of a child, was both moving and complex. I believe this is an important era of our country's recent history, and these are the types of stories that we often never hear. Watson reminds us of the injustices that occurred and probably still happen on occasion, the sometimes vague notion of power and prominence, and the discrepancies between compassion and loyalty. This is one of my favorite books about the American West
Rating: 
Summary: ALA Booklist "Editors' Choice,"1993
Review: A family is torn between justice and loyalty in Larry Watson's stunning novel--Milkweed's best selling title to date."Stunning. . . a kind of thriller and certainly a page-turner, but, moreover, it is a quiet, almost meditative reflection on the hopelessly compex issue of doing the right thing. . . . This spare, poetic novel will be compared with Norman MacLean's A River Runs Through It. . . but Watson deserves his own space under Montana's big sky."--ALA Boolist"My favorite novel of 1993 . . . utterly mesmerizing."--The Nation ALA/YALSA, Best Books for Young Adults, 1994 Mountains & Plains Award, 1994 The New York Public Library "Books for the Teen Age," 1993 Friends of American Writers Award Banta Award 1994 The Critic's Choice 1995-199
Rating:
Summary: A haunting page-turner that will leave you reeling.
Review: At first, I thought Montana, 1948 was going to be some
novel about a bland state at a bland time with bland characters. Much to my delight, I found Montana anything
but bland. It deals with the tender subject of native life
in the United States which, at the time, was an often avoided
topic. The haunting part comes in when we realize that a
white man has been molesting young Indian women. From there,
it is one family dealing with this problem of stature and
reputation. Though it may seem disjointed at the beginning,
keep with it. You'll probably finish it in a day or two, and
the end will leave you salivating and most importantly: thinking. I tried not to give away that much plot so as to allow you to enjoy it for yourself, and I highly recommend that you do. It would definately be a well-spent four or
six hours of your life.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth your time
Review: This book is more complex than it first appears.Highly readable, it tells the story of 12yo David Hayden and his family's Sioux housekeeper, Marie Little Soldier. The relationships between David, his mother, father and the housekeeper are tightly intertwined and David cares for all three of them deeply even though he seems to doubt his father for a short time. David's feelings for his uncle are very mixed and he seems to be the first person to teach David that people are not always what they seem. Unfortunately David learns this in a tragic way. Although the book deals with 'heavy' themes it never becomes heavy to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read, could have used more insight.
Review: Montana 1948 isn't a bad read. Good, clean, crisp prose, interesting plot (although a lot of the plot depended on the "shock and awe" treatment, which, whether done on foreign soil or human mind, is never a great method.) That said, though, neither is it a masterpiece. Which is a pity since the themes are so heavy and relevant to the society we're living in; it's fine for books whose sole aim is entertainment to be "just enough", but themes such as racism, sexual abuse, family loyalty vs. justice, etc., deserve more insight, more thoughtfulness, more deliberateness than Montana 1948 offers.
Some of the reviews here say that the book should have been shorter, some say that it's just the right length. My personal opinion, though, is that Montana 1948 suffers a bit because of it's short length. True, it's a breeze to read, and I suppose that's good for a book that's often assigned as "the book to read" in high school English classes.
Yet, the short span of the book doesn't really leave Watson with the room to explore the characters; they could have been a lot more interesting, but as is I often found myself wondering to myself why these men and women were acting the way they were. And they do act bizarrely; I won't give anything away, but some of these people are strange in a truly evil way. Yes, authors who describe the whys and hows of every single action a character does are boring, but to make the characters plausible, at least some clues as to why they turned out the way they turned out should be dropped. Maybe the author was writing from real life experiences, maybe he had no clue as to why they really acted the way they did, not even in hindsight.
Coming-of-age novels that have grownups relating their experiences as a child often fail when the two voices don't mix well together--when the child sees things as only an adult can see them, and when the adult says things in a contrived, childlike way that is meant to convey innocence but instead sound too pat and cute. Montana 1948 suffers from this particular problem as well. The narrator as a child seems implausible at times, especially in his actions; it is as though the author has forgotten too much about childhood and chose not to fill in the blanks with his imagination. The continual eavesdropping that takes up most of the narrator's time seemed especially trite.
The narrator character is obviously an adult looking back on his experiences as a child, yet I got the feeling that the character hadn't grown up much. He offers no insight as to the background that drove these characters to act the way they did, he just gives us a very spotty, blurry description of the Montana of 1948. It just seemed like decades after the events, the narrator character couldn't make the barest sense out of anything, like they'd happened only a day ago and he hadn't digested the information enough to arrive at some meaningful, personal conclusions.
For people wanting to read on the theme of racism and how it affects all of us, I'd say "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a lot better. It's truly a masterpiece, well-written, powerfully delivered and with actual insight to offer.
Montana 1948 isn't bad--it's just not quite good enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Little plot, no conclusion.
Review: In my opinion, Montana 1948 is a dull book with little to offer a reader.
As 12-year-old David Hayden's father investigates the claims of molestation of young Indian women, he discovers a secret about his uncle that threatens to tear the family apart. Despite the promising story line and the author's wonderful writing style, the book falls to peices.
It had a semi-suspenseful plot that ended in a letdown with no resolution. Nothing gets solved and the events that have occured eat away at the Hayden family until David's father and grandfather die of cancer.
I don't reccomend this book.
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