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leerazer's review against another edition
3.0
Hard English prose on a Welsh farm. The Long Dry might refer to: a drought afflicting the land; the daylong thirsty wandering of a lost cow about to calve; the sexual and emotional difficulties of Gareth and his wife Kate. Set during the Cow's Day of Wandering, with peeks forward and back.
Jones beats the reader over the head with Death. Of a calf, cows, parent, rabbit, dog, child. Of romantic desire, intimacy, the ideal self. At the last he tries to make up for it, fresh rain and rekindled vision. Nope, I'm not having it. An unhappy sketch of life, well written, particularly a scene of two brothers and a dying rabbit.
Jones beats the reader over the head with Death. Of a calf, cows, parent, rabbit, dog, child. Of romantic desire, intimacy, the ideal self. At the last he tries to make up for it, fresh rain and rekindled vision. Nope, I'm not having it. An unhappy sketch of life, well written, particularly a scene of two brothers and a dying rabbit.
levineaviya's review against another edition
3.0
Oh, de kwetsbaarheid van dit boekje. Ik was een beetje bang dat ik teleurgesteld zou worden na 'Inham', maar ook hier zijn alle details en onopmerkzaamheden (is dat een woord?) juist zo overbelicht dat het die kwetsbaarheid zo mooi weergeeft. De manier waarop Cynan die terugkerende herinneringen in de gedachten van de boer naar voren laat komen paste in het concept en maakte het einde adembenemend. Toch vond ik soms dat er iets te veel werd gedacht en kon ik even niet meegaan. Dat is misschien ook wel het risico van zo'n kleine, poëtische roman.
shimmer's review against another edition
5.0
Simply, this is a magnificent novel. It's a gem of compression and poetic focus, cramming so much life — family life, human life, animal life, plant life, the life of an abandoned car in a field and a rickety van still on the road — into barely over one hundred pages. More astounding is the deep care and respect paid to each of those lives: nothing is slighted, however slight it might seem beside the "big" events of the novel, and nothing is shied away from either in the birth and death and blood of farm life. It is big-hearted and clear-eyed, and risky that way because (and I won't spoil anything) there are moments and details dropped casually into the flow of the novel that in any other book would have been the book, and it's easy to imagine a reader so unsettled by those moments that Jones might not win them back from that jolt as they want instead to follow that cast aside story. It's such a brave move, to unsettle our expectations of what "matters" most but it's all of a piece with a novel that treats all life — and all death — so equitably.
lee_reads's review against another edition
5.0
119 pages about a welsh farmer looking for one of his cows in a heatwave are actually 119 beautifully written pages about life, memories, love, marriage, nature and yes, cows.
The descriptions are so beautiful I felt as though I was walking with Gareth as he looked for his cow.
A poetic, sad and wonderful read.
Very moving.
The descriptions are so beautiful I felt as though I was walking with Gareth as he looked for his cow.
A poetic, sad and wonderful read.
Very moving.
bartvanovermeire's review against another edition
5.0
Cynan Jones, 'The long dry': 105 pages of distilled language, not a single excessive word and still so much life in this book. A real gem. Book of the year? Could very well be.
adiamond's review
5.0
In this extraordinarily beautiful and deep short novel, author Cynan Jones follows four characters through a summer day on a draught-stricken farm in Wales. Gareth begins his day by checking on two cows that are due to give birth. He finds the first one in the barn, kneeling beside her stillborn calf, "lowing sadly and gently."
The second has disappeared, wandered off in the night to god knows where. Gareth sets out to find her, but first:
As we follow Gareth on his search for the second the cow, we get a tour of the farm, the neighboring properties, and the bog. We also meet his wife Kate, his son Dylan, and his daughter Emmy. Every inch of this world is teeming with life, death, and memory, and the extraordinary power of this book comes from the author's use of simple, direct language that is always tied to objects and creatures in the physical world, to natural processes and elemental needs that affect every living thing.
The farmer and his family--especially his daughter Emmy--are deeply aware of and viscerally rooted to the physical world around them. Even the insects can't go unnoticed, from the cuckoo bee who invades the bumblebee's nest to the flies that torment both the cow and its owner, to the lacewings that Emmy distinguishes from fairies. The lives of every being in the story are deeply intertwined, and like the thirsty pregnant cow wandering lost through the bog, most are driven by forces they feel but cannot fully understand. The dynamics between Gareth, his wife Kate, and their daughter Emmy are particularly complex, based in part on secrets, lack of communication, and misunderstood desire.
As Gareth searches the bog for his missing cow, he notes the skeletons of other animals who have perished there. The ones who wandered in during the wetter seasons got stuck and died, years or decades ago, and only now, in the drought, does the earth yield up evidence of their being. In reading his father's handwritten memories, Gareth notes the old man followed a similar process as he tried to recall the important events of his life: it was as if he had drained the water from the landscape of his memory and let the earth reveal what was below the surface.
This book will linger in your mind long after you've finished it. The vivid imagery, the depth and simplicity of the prose, and the richness of the world the author creates are like magic.
The second has disappeared, wandered off in the night to god knows where. Gareth sets out to find her, but first:
He took the dead calf by its ankles and lifted it from the straw that was bloodied by birth, not by the calf's death. It was strange because the mother had licked the calf clean. He thought of the mother cow licking her calf and not understanding why it would not stand clumsily to its feet, its legs out of proportion, its eyes wide. Why the incredible tottering new life did not come.
As we follow Gareth on his search for the second the cow, we get a tour of the farm, the neighboring properties, and the bog. We also meet his wife Kate, his son Dylan, and his daughter Emmy. Every inch of this world is teeming with life, death, and memory, and the extraordinary power of this book comes from the author's use of simple, direct language that is always tied to objects and creatures in the physical world, to natural processes and elemental needs that affect every living thing.
The farmer and his family--especially his daughter Emmy--are deeply aware of and viscerally rooted to the physical world around them. Even the insects can't go unnoticed, from the cuckoo bee who invades the bumblebee's nest to the flies that torment both the cow and its owner, to the lacewings that Emmy distinguishes from fairies. The lives of every being in the story are deeply intertwined, and like the thirsty pregnant cow wandering lost through the bog, most are driven by forces they feel but cannot fully understand. The dynamics between Gareth, his wife Kate, and their daughter Emmy are particularly complex, based in part on secrets, lack of communication, and misunderstood desire.
As Gareth searches the bog for his missing cow, he notes the skeletons of other animals who have perished there. The ones who wandered in during the wetter seasons got stuck and died, years or decades ago, and only now, in the drought, does the earth yield up evidence of their being. In reading his father's handwritten memories, Gareth notes the old man followed a similar process as he tried to recall the important events of his life: it was as if he had drained the water from the landscape of his memory and let the earth reveal what was below the surface.
Memory and real care sit under the surface, like still reservoirs waiting to be drawn from.
It's easy, he knows, to take from the surface of things, like dipping a bucket into water self-consciously: you can call up these things. But when it comes up unbeckoned, without self-control, set off by some scent in the air, or fear, you can be shocked by its depth, which you hold in yourself all the time.
This book will linger in your mind long after you've finished it. The vivid imagery, the depth and simplicity of the prose, and the richness of the world the author creates are like magic.
judibud's review
5.0
When I started this book I thought at first it was based somewhere foreign, what with the drought and the heat I didn't think it would be a local book. Also, the style of writing came across to me as a little stunted as if English wasn't the first language of the character who was narrating it. As it turned out the book is set in Wales many years ago!
I loved this book and the style in which it is written, I can't exactly put a finger on a specific word or phrase to describe it but it just works. The story follows a family through their day to day family life on the farm. So many little, mundane everyday things happen but the author manages to make each one into something big and meaningful. For example, after an argument the first person a husband thinks of when he sees something nice is to fetch his wife so he can share the moment with her.
I am really struggling to describe this book and why I liked it as much as I did, all I can say is read it and find out for yourself just how great it is.
I loved this book and the style in which it is written, I can't exactly put a finger on a specific word or phrase to describe it but it just works. The story follows a family through their day to day family life on the farm. So many little, mundane everyday things happen but the author manages to make each one into something big and meaningful. For example, after an argument the first person a husband thinks of when he sees something nice is to fetch his wife so he can share the moment with her.
I am really struggling to describe this book and why I liked it as much as I did, all I can say is read it and find out for yourself just how great it is.
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