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*Editorial Book Review*
One Summer at Helgeveld Farm
By John Blois
By John Blois
Publication Date: 5th September 2025
Publisher: John Blois
Page Length: 324
Genre: Historical Fiction
In 1949, Will Parlor glimpses a woman across a crowded Chicago street and is carried back to the summer that changed him forever. In 1917, at seventeen, he took a job as a worker on an Illinois farm. There, he’s drawn into the Dutch-American Helgeveld family, especially daughters Vlinder and Corrie.
Will also befriends Moses and Isaiah Butler, African American brothers up from Alabama, seeking freedom and opportunity in an America still rumbling after the Civil War. Together they navigate the racial and social tensions of a country on the brink of transformation. Will falls in love with Vlinder, but a sudden tragedy threatens the harvest and the future of the farm. Despite a promise to return the next year, misfortune and family duty keep him home in Pittsburgh.
Thirty-two years later, that chance encounter on a Chicago street rekindles the summer that shaped his life and brings back the love, the loss, and the weight of promises he made in youth.
Set against the backdrop of a changing America during World War I, One Summer at Helgeveld Farm is a coming-of-age historical novel that travels alongside a forgotten piece of early twentieth-century America: a time when automobiles and horse-drawn wagons battled for space on city streets, and where families faced war, grief, and the stirrings of social change.
One Summer at Helgeveld Farm is rich in period detail and told with emotional warmth, humor, and quiet resilience. It invites readers into the rhythms of rural life and into the lives of those searching for purpose in a country edging forward.
This was their home until the crops were harvested and the farm was buttoned down for the season.
In 1949, a brief sighting on a Chicago street pulls Will Parlor back to the summer of 1917—the summer that defined him. At seventeen, he worked on the Helgeveld farm in Illinois, where he was welcomed into the Dutch-American family and fell quietly, deeply in love with Vlinder Helgeveld. There he also befriended Moses and Isaiah Butler, brothers who had journeyed north from Alabama in search of opportunity in a still-divided America.
But as the nation stood on the edge of World War I, the young men faced the weight of change, hardship, and a tragedy that threatened the farm’s future.
“One Summer at Helgeveld Farm” by John Blois is a touching coming-of-age story that is sure to resonate with readers. Engaging with this book feels less like following a straightforward narrative and more like wandering through a vivid memory shared by the characters and anyone who has experienced moments when time seems to pause and change.
From the opening pages, the narrative draws you in with an almost magnetic allure. The protagonist, Will, caught in the grip of a haunting memory, glimpses a familiar figure across the street, and in that instant, it takes him back to the long-ago summer. Blois handles this transition between the present (1949) and the past (1917) with remarkable finesse. Rather than jarring the reader with abrupt shifts, he creates a gentle slide into another era, where the creak of horse-drawn wagons competes with the rumble of early motor cars. This blend of sensory detail conjures a setting both richly nostalgic and remarkably immersive. It is a world poised between tradition and transformation.
What makes this historical environment so compelling is not merely the accuracy of its details but the emotional resonance beneath them. Blois invites the reader to feel the moment when rural life, once predictable and firmly rooted in generational rhythms, begins to tilt toward something new.
The novel’s strength lies not only in its landscape but also in its cast of characters. Each young man—Will, hesitant but eager; Owen, earnest and unworldly; Isaiah and Moses, resourceful siblings from a harsher South; Elmer, whose difference makes him vulnerable; and Roy, fiery and defiant—emerges with clarity. Blois gives them such nuance that they feel real, as if we’ve known them, their voices echoing long after the story ends.
These young men inhabit a period of life where possibility, uncertainty, and intensity collide. Blois captures those in-between years—when friendships can feel like they would last forever, and a single summer can shape the contours of a lifetime—with sensitivity and wisdom. The young men's interactions, whether teasing, competing, or confiding, form a rich emotional truth. Their differences enhance the narrative, but it is their shared longing—for belonging, for understanding, for a place in an often unforgiving world—that gives the story its heartbeat.
And yet it is not the main protagonist, but Moses, who captures the heart most fully. From the moment he appears, Moses exudes a liveliness that radiates across the page. His infectious singing, generous spirit, and uncanny ability to navigate Pastor Jannsen’s long, meandering sermons with humour and grace render him unforgettable.
The dialogue throughout the book shines effortlessly, revealing the voices of youth while hinting at the broader social tensions of a nation on the cusp of profound change. Conflict emerges with understated precision. Rivalries flare; loyalties are tested; the precariousness of farm life reveals itself in unexpected moments. Even a broken wagon wheel becomes a crucible for character, exposing courage, resilience, fear, and the bonds that deepen when hardship is shared. These moments never feel contrived; instead, they arise naturally from the characters’ circumstances, offering insight into the pressures and prejudices that shape their lives.
The Helgeveld farm is beautifully depicted, with its barns, fields, and the majestic sycamore, poplars and white oak trees whose branches stretch over decades of family labour, loss, and renewal. Vlinder Helgeveld’s family history deepens this sense of grounding, linking the personal story of the young men's summer to a larger narrative of immigration, settlement, and perseverance. The land becomes more than a backdrop—it is the connective tissue binding together past and present, memory and experience.
The novel’s greatest accomplishment lies in its ability to balance tenderness with tension. Blois does not shy away from the harsh realities of the era, including racial tension — such as Isaiah and Moses being unable to open a bank account where the other young men have — simply because of the colour of their skin. Despite this, the story maintains a sense of hope that is hard-earned rather than naïve. Moments of laughter, shared work, unexpected heroism, and quiet reflection serve as reminders that even in difficult times, especially grief, human connection can create pockets of grace.
“One Summer at Helgeveld Far,” by John Blois, with its vivid setting, complex characters, and attentive weaving of conflict and tenderness, is a novel that lingers in the mind long after the final page.
I Highly Recommend.
Review by Mary Anne Yarde
The Coffee Pot Book Club
John Blois
John Blois is the author of One Summer at Helgeveld Farm, a coming-of-age historical novel set in 1917 Illinois that explores friendship, family, race, cultural touchstones, and promises made across generations. The novel explores Midwestern history and Dutch-American heritage and gives a picture of the quiet resilience of farm life, the complexities of identity, and the enduring power of love and community.
His work blends historical research and captures the voices of disperse characters in a time of war, loss, and unexpected joy. With a background in storytelling, writing, and personal history projects, John brings a human touch to his fiction.
John lives in Maine, where he has two sons and teaches writing and Comparative Religions at a local community college. He continues writing and researching stories connected to the Helgeveld family and the changing American landscape of the early 20th century. A companion novel regarding the Helgeveld family and characters in the first novel is in the works.
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