Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
For me, the down side of the book was Rebanks' writing style, which should have been sorted out, at least to some extent, in the editing process.
For example, he writes of pulling W H Hudson's book A Shepherd's Life out of the bookcase "like it was a piece of junk". He several times uses the word "disinterested" when he means "uninterested".
Perhaps this is deliberate, with Rebanks wanting to emphasise to the reader that he is a shepherd, not one of those patronising people who write books and fuss about grammar. I think it is a pity if that is the case, because it jarred and spoilt some of my enjoyment of the book.
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Well said! A lot of energy in the book seems tied up in demonstrating he’s still a shepherd, and not a person who writes books.
I wonder if writing the book when his father was ill and dying influenced the tone. It may have brought up old issues of loyalty/disloyalty to his family, etc. Losing a parent can be so momentous. It’s hard to recognize and have perspective on how you’ve been affected until later.
I read an interesting interview with him, published a year or so after the book was published. He was more self-reflective and mentioned feedback from some of the online reviews from Amazon. I’ll post the web address if I can find the site again.