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Originally Posted by Bookpossum
I have mixed feelings about this book also. On the plus side, I was interested to read about the life the farmers in Cumbria lead. Also, some of Rebanks' descriptions of the natural world are lovely:
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Yes, these were definitely some of my favourite parts. It has to include, too, his father catching the leveret (baby hare). They are gorgeous creatures.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
I also enjoyed the sense of a way of life being handed on through the generations:
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I felt as though he laid this on pretty heavily, but then it goes along with thoughts about memory being 3 generations (a conversation with issybird on another thread), and about traditions being quite fluid. So as he speaks of using antibiotics he has on hand (to be misused as antibiotics so often are), and of the quad-bike and more, the idea of carrying on the good old days felt a bit stretched to me.
And I can see that previous paragraph comes over excessively critical. I do like that they are attempting preserve as much of this lifestyle as is feasible, and I do like that he makes connections to the past ... but a little bit acknowledgement of reality would be good too.
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Originally Posted by Bookpossum
As for his behaviour as a boy at what sounds to be a pretty horrendous school, I find more fault with a system that labels children as non-achievers, and apparently turns a blind eye to violent bullying, than with the rebellion of those children to being so labelled. Tell people they are stupid and worthless and should "aim to be more than just farmworkers", and they believe it and behave accordingly.
While I don't condone his bad behaviour, I can understand it.
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The 13yo I can (now that I'm well past school age) forgive. I am much less forgiving of a 40yo trying to blame his behaviour on the teachers. Maybe it was an awful school, but I'm not about to take the word of a 13yo thug, nor a 40yo adult who won't allow that at least some of the teachers might have meant well even if his 13yo self couldn't see it.
James might have been the only son of a generation that left things only to sons, and so his future may have been secure (although he learned later it wasn't), but didn’t he know any kids that were the youngest of many sons? Kids who were always going to have to find a living somewhere outside the shelter of this tiny community? Surely he must have known some. And what if James had had an accident as a young man and could no longer work the farm? (It almost happened to his grandfather.) So his 13yo self was not just selfish, but stupid too. That’s okay, most 13yos are, but how can the 40yo James not look back and see this, and accept that maybe the families of the area should own up to their responsibilities. Generations of ignorance and prejudice is no reason to perpetuate the problem.
In fact he does seem to make it part way there near the end, as he talks about his own children, but if he truly does see this, I wonder why he left the start of the book as it was. There is quite a lot that feels like personal development between the start and tend of the book, which again has me wondering if this was an intentional progression - if so it ran (and hit with me) the risk of alienating the reader from the start.