Customer Reviews

A Month in the Country

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The main theme of this charming novel is how important it is to understand the irretrievable passage of time and to savor the good times that come along. The narrator tells the story of an enchanted summer he spent in Cornwall uncovering an ancient painting in a country church. He looks back upon this time (1920) as one of the most wonderful, important periods of his life. He meets several villagers who make an indelible impression upon him and pleas with us to appreciate our own little "months in the country"--those days when things are going well. Such a good, kind, fully-alive character. I was moist-eyed by the final pages (it's a very short novel) and didn't want it to end. Sweet, powerful, and as lovely as a summer day in the country.

A Month in the Country is unrelated (as far as I can tell) to the Turgenyev piece of the same name. It is, however, a wonderful book, made into a decent movie about 6 years ago, I believe.

It tells the story of Tom Birkin, recently returned from WW I, who goes to the town of Oxgodby to restore a medieval wall-painting in an old church. Over the course of his time there, he gets absorbed into the life of the town, falls in love, learns (and reveals) something about the nature of art, and the healing power of both art and love.

That makes it sound as if the book's some sort of mushy new-age blather, and it's not at all. It's a short and profoundly entertaining novel. I would have loved to have been assigned this in a high-school english class, because (1) Carr's vocabulary is remarkable, and the occasional strange words he uses are worth looking up (e.g., "sneck"), and (2) it has a lot of the sort of structure that one is forced to write about in English classes ("contrast the relationship between Birkin and his work with that between Moon and his...") but which in this book actually contributed something to the story -- there are multiple parallel threads in the book, and their inteweaving makes it richer. I could've written a decent essay about that...

When I was reading this book I often felt as if i was either there or the author was telling the story directly to me. My only objection is that it was too short!

This is one of those works of art that falls into a category of its own. Carr's writing is impeccable and it took on a magical quality where the past and future were perfectly brought together through the voice of the protagonist Tom Birkin. I'm on my fourth reading of it.

This is a gem - a quiet and realistic recounting of a summer spent uncovering a mural and a life. This is a novel in which nothing extraordinary happens, but full lifes interact moving people closer (or father) from themselves, friendships, loves and human understanding.

The narrator is a disfigured veteran of World War I. His wife has left him; his employer retired making this his first job as a self-employed professional. His life is contrasted with that of another veteran hired to find an ancient grave. The friendship of the veterans is the first step in reconnecting to the world. Along the way, a vicar and his wife, the family of the stationmaster, an organist, a dying girl all make their way into and effect the narrator's life.

The author's writing style fits perfectly with the story, creating a literary gem worthy of your attention.

A month in the country, the movie which starred Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh was shown in 1987, but as usual, the book is better than the movie.

Lovely and beautiful in its simplicity, the tale of two great war survivors healing their battle-scarred minds in the village of Oxgodby is one of my favourite novel.

Watching the tape recently, I was strucked by the difference between the Birkin in the movie and that of the book. The Birkin in the movie is one-dimensional and the people around him, save Alice Keach is unpleasant. To exorcise this image of the Birkin of the movie, I re-read the book again and was immensely pleased at the Birkin of the novel, alive and likeable but certainly not flawless. The Alice Keach of the world would definitely falls head over heel for him.

The beauty of the novel is further enhanced by the portrayal of the healing process in Birkin's nightmarish experiences as a war veteran. He and Moon are not your typical citizens from a nation of victims, where crisis counsellors would intervene and encourage those ceaseless and endless whinings whenever fate deal them a bad hand, instead they resolved the inner demons through themselves, in their own unique way.

This is the only book that I have ever owned which I wore out reading it. I am now on my second edition and each year I read it and I never lose the feeling of that summmer in the English countryside.

Many of the reviews already posted paint an accurate picture of what this beautiful book has to offer. There is little to add save, perhaps, an English perspective. At first glance this book is an exquisite evocation of a lost England, a lost world. But I wouldn't want the presumably mainly American readership of this site to think that it is all Merchant-Ivory daydream material. Read this book and you will breathe in a little of a slow summer evening air in a village where the past is so palpable it almost overpowers the present and yet where life as we know it is lived. I can't describe it with due justice, but this book captures a hint of the multi-layered past and present that makes up rural England, together with the way in which that past sometimes heals the present. I recognise the world this book describes. I grew up there.

"A month in the Country" is a literary gem. A unique book which gathers in its 135 pages a wonderful, well told story full of poetry. A twitchy, unhappy and shellshocked veteran of WW I, Tom Birkin, arrives in Oxgodby, a village in Yorkshire, hired by the Vicar, to restore a mural painting in the local church. In the time it takes him to delicately uncover and shed light on what was the work of a medieval artist, Burkin heals himself, assisted by the discovery of love, friendship and a cast of wonderful but fundamentally flawed characters. He comes to terms with his past and is prepared for what appears to be a bittersweet future. Carr writes with a light touch while not superficial; subtle but clearly not tentative. Included are interesting observations of art, lyric descriptions of a glorious English summer and some hilarious moments in his relations with some of the villagers. He brings us along a story that unfolds like flowers slowly opening to the sun, offering many precious moments which linger in you mind and tug at your heart. Like many, finishing a book always makes me sad but in this particular case, I had not only read some extraordinary literature, I was also being cut me off from a group of people that had become my friends and I wanted to know more about them.

If you have seen the movie you will love the book.If you have read the book then you will love the movie.1920 England has slowly climbed out of the Great War and many are still finding their way in the aftermath of it all.Tom Birkin is an art restorationist who is called to the North English town of Oxgodby in order to uncover a 500 year old painting in the the nave of the village Church.There he is met with the most unusual likeable and unlikeable characters who are there to help,hinder or confuse Birkin during the hot summer months as he tirelessly and obsessively works to reveal a Judgment Scene that will play as the key to unlock his troubled heart and soul.J.L Carr's book is extremely intimate and personal,told more from the thoughts and observations of Birkin than dialogue from supporting characters.The 1987 film version is incredibly accurate and is extremely good in bringing out the subtleties of the book.I highly recommend both.