[W. O. Mitchell's] first and most famous book, Who Has Seen the Wind, told the story of a sensitive boy growing up in a small Saskatchewan town. Later novels, notably The Kite and The Vanishing Point, explored the larger topics of time and old age. Now, at the age of 67, W. O. Mitchell has returned to the joys and bafflements of childhood, and his admirers will be delighted. A master of prairie fiction is up to his old tricks, and if you have forgotten Holy Rollers, swimming holes in the river or the sweet scent of willow smoke, How I Spent My Summer Holidays will remind you in the happiest possible way. Reading it, you begin to wonder whether this nostalgic string of boyhood escapades deserves to be called a novel. Until the last few chapters, that is, when you understand with a jolt just how shrewd a...