The second collection of stories published by George Mackay Brown, this volume includes 12 stories arising from both ancient and modern life on the island of Orkney.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This celebration of his native Orkney Islands ("the islands of the whales") by the Scottish writer George Mackay Brown takes the form of stories characteristic of a Celtic people. The sea is ever-present; the land yields grudgingly to the crofters; yet the beauty of the rhythm of sea and land is reflected with a lyricism derived from tales spun by peat firesides, passed on in the oral tradition of the islanders. Brown's love for the islanders, for the contrariness that sparks some of their ancient narratives, is redolent in the title story, a bleak romance wherein a newly widowed fisherman-father croons to his newborn son, "Fight on the side of life. Be against ministers, lairds, shopkeepers. Be brave always." "A Calendar of Love" amusingly chronicles the vying of a Bible-thumping crofter and a carousing fisherman for the hand of Jean, the tart-tongued pub keeper who is with child. The independence of country people, their legends, rituals and prejudices stir the imagination of a modern writer who, in these 19 stories, allows us to enter the dwellings of the uncelebrated in a most rewarding way.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Released in 1967 and 1969, respectively, these volumes were Brown's first and second short story collections, which, combined, offer 26 portraits of small-town life.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Orcadian Magic,
By Sentinel (Essex) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Time to Keep: And Other Stories (Paperback)
Anyone new to Mackay Brown's work should certainly discover plenty of magic in these wonderfully compassionate tales. Short stories though they may be, they embrace many of life's crucial aspects with a beautifully crafted subtlety. Many of the major themes are here, from love lost, won, or unrequited, lonliness, dependency, fear of the future, the clash of time and generations, all delivered with a delicately crafted prose, and a supremely compassionate and unjudgemental eye.
The Orkney setting adds its own magic, as anyone familiar with these haunting isles will know, as the past breathes on the shoulder of the present, just as a standing stone's elemental presence looms over the new shiny red tractor. There is also an elemental sparseness here, captured in the language, which reflects the stark isolation of the setting: crofts far from neighbours, isolated shelters from the harshness of the wind, weather and pulling power of the sea. The characters, from Celia onwards, are drawn with a compassionate hand, so we identify and suffer with them, and their inner isolation, and struggle for meaning, security and love. Poetic tales, captured by a master craftsman. If you enjoy this, look for A Calendar of Love (Flamingo Modern Classic) or investigate his poetry or novels.
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