sarahmatthews, 7 months ago to bookstodon

#BookReview A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
Read in Braille
Penguin
Pub. 1980, 104pp

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This is a novella I’ve been meaning to read for years and it’s delightful.

Tom Birkin’s a Londoner who’s returned from war with shellshock and he takes a commission to restore a medieval church wall painting in a Yorkshire village. The warm summer days are glorious as he gets to work, with high hopes for the project:
“I willed it to be something good, really splendid, truly astonishing… something to wring a mention from The Times and a detailed account (with pictures) in the Illustrated London News.”

To his relief he’s quickly welcomed into the community:
“In the first few minutes of my first morning, I felt that this alien northern countryside - friendly, that I’d turned a corner and that this summer of 1920, was to smoulder on until the first leaves fell, was to be a propitious season of living”

For a book of just over 100 pages it’s full of fully realised characters; from his neighbour Moon (a fellow veteran who’s also on a contract from the vicarage) to the stationmaster’s daughter Kathy and the vicar’s wife Alice - they all visit him often, interested in him and his work. The vicar’s a miserly character and there’re some very uncomfortable conversations between him and Birkin.

And the description of landscape is evocative throughout:
“For me that will always be the summer day of summer days – a cloudless sky, ditches and roadside deep in grass, poppies, cuckoo pint, trees heavy with leaf, orchards bulging over hedge briars.”
This is a beautifully written story of someone looking back fondly on a restorative period in their youth, with the gradual unveiling of the painting mirroring his own feelings of rediscovering himself. The conversational tone, a hint of romance and poignant moments of reflection on religion and war make it easy to relate to this character from another time.

Thanks to #NovNov23 for nudging me to read it!
#Bookstodon @bookstodon

sarahmatthews, 8 months ago to bookstodon

This is a great read about the excellent Look At Me by Anita Brookner, published in 1983, for all #backlisted podcast fans #bookstodon @bookstodon | “To Face the Enemy”: Anita Brookner, Look At Me – Novel Readings https://rohanmaitzen.com/2023/10/08/to-face-the-enemy-anita-brookner-look-at-me/