AT HAWTHORN TIME by MELISSA HARRISON.
Howard and Kitty have recently moved to Lodeshill after a life spent in London; now, their marriage is wordlessly falling apart. Custom car enthusiast Jamie has lived in the village for all of his nineteen years and dreams only of leaving it behind. Into their world walks Jack, itinerant landworker, vagrant and seer, whose flight back to the land he loves brings change for everyone he meets.
- Back Cover Blurb
Here's where it all ends: a long, straight road between fields.
- First Sentence; Prologue
'Hello,' he whispered, pouring the warm milk carefully into a plastic bottle he took from his pack. 'It's me Jack.' The collie regarded him. After a moment he returned a little to the bucket and tilted it for the dog. It slunk forward, belly low, and drank. Jack gave it his hand to sniff before he left, and hoped for a welcome if he came that way again.
- Memorable Moment; Page 49
SOURCE ... A Reading Group Read.
READ FOR A CHALLENGE? ... No.
MY THOUGHTS ... Overshadowed by disaster, 'book-ended' by an event, the scene set with a car crash; the story comes full circle, gradually backtracking to reveal the events leading up to this horrific climax. Alternating chapter by chapter, At Hawthorn Time is narrated by four protagonists;
unrelated characters with stories that cross and converge.
A social commentary of sorts; a protest against the onslaught of the countryside, a elegy to a fast disappearing way of life as man becomes ever more disconnected with nature. Born and bred 'local lad' Jamie; discontent with his job working in a distribution centre, frustrated by the lack of options this holds, desperate to get away, a nod to the reality of country living in the modern age. Howard and Kitty symbolic of the middle-class retirement-age city dwellers who decide to 'up sticks' and move to the countryside in search of their idyll.
Deep rooted in the in the natural world; the movements of the seasons, the 'turning of the wheel'. By far my favourite character and, for me, the saving grace in what was otherwise an OK read, there was Jack. Versed in the 'old ways'; one of an almost dead breed of man jobbing the English byways in search of seasonal work. I'd have been more than happy if the whole book had concentrated and perhaps expanded upon his story and his story alone.
Summed up as essentially a read that can safely be filed away as being not one for me. Yes, I adored Jack as a character and, yes, I appreciated the beauty of the prose but I felt the constant descriptions of what the characters were thinking and feeling detracted from the story. That the countryside itself took precedent over and above the characters. Not something that was ever going to work for someone like myself who is more about the characters and less about world building. And as for the ending? Well, lets just leave it at I felt the book promised so much more than it actually delivered.
WWW OR for those in the know Wondrous Words Wednesday is a meme hosted by Kathy over at BermudaOnion's Weblog the aim of which is to encourage us to share, well, Wondrous Words on .... (yeah!, you guessed) ... a Wednesday.
