[issybird]

I agree with everyone that the relationship between Alan and Davie drove the book. I liked how Stevenson was willing to portray them with all their faults, too; it wasn't an idealized relationship with stock characters. Going into it, I expected Alan Breck to be a figure of high romance; instead he was small, pockmarked (and I learned that "breck" means pockmarked) and vain, while Davie was still a boy, with a boy's rush to judgment. Their relationship served as an allegory, perhaps, for how Highlanders and Lowlanders could and should forge a relationship. I know that Breck's being an easy forgetter had a lot in common with Mr. Rankeillor's ability to lose his spectacles! I also love Stevenson's art in describing a landscape; I'm working my way slowly through his travelogues.

The beginning and end dragged a bit. They almost had to, compared to the excitement of the roundhouse battle and the flight through the heather. If I had read it as a kid, I don't think I would have been so impatient for Davie to get a clue about his wicked Uncle Ebenezer. And the wrap-up dragged as they always do, but I think Stevenson made the best of things as it came before the confrontation with Davie's uncle.

I look forward to moving on to Catriona.