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tucholsky's review against another edition
3.0
I vaguely knew the general story. The book is more about highland life in general through the experience of one island. You can romanticise the highlands, the life of self sufficiency, the gaelic language but there is a stark fact, and one that the protagonist stubbornly misses: almost nobody wants to live like that any more. There was perhaps a reason Calum had to build the road himself (and with the minor but neccessary help of the Royal Engineers, the Scottish Agricultural Board and his neighbour). There were more pressing things needing the money. The message subliminally given is that if more attention, help and cash had been spent on Raasay, Rona, Fladda then the depopulation of the island wouldnt have been so stark. No hint that the world moves on and when empirical facts dont back up your hereditarily learned practices or better is available then more often it is because you are stubborn rather than the modern world being licentious. Calum wrote and spoke of choice in gaelic. There is no recognition that the dying of the language is in any way due to the apalling unattractiveness of a life of poverty and drudgery in the places it is primarily spoken rather than the more interesting and open minded world elsewhere. How irronic that the main areas of growth for the language are now the cities and the incomes with a romantic view of it, making it a middle class hobby forced on children in gaelicschools that the parents would never have wanted to be in themselves. No hint of recognition that economic prosperity has any connection with the growth or decline of populations and language
mmparker's review against another edition
3.0
More about the history of Raasay than the road itself. When the book veered to the historical and anthropological, I liked it; but it never turned a critical eye on the road or Calum, which made me uneasy.
chandraisenberg's review against another edition
4.0
This is a beautiful, true story about Calum MacLeod, a resident of Raasay, Scotland, who, at the age of 56, set out to build a 1 3/4 mile long road, connecting Arnish (his home) to Brochel and the rest of the world. He set out and single-handedly began the arduous task of constructing a road, in hopes of preserving and revitalizing his beloved home. This man's integrity and fortitude were truly inspiring. Loved this book and the breathtaking Scottish scenery it depicted!
mickbordet's review against another edition
4.0
This story of one man's determination to connect his small and shrinking community to the rest of the world by hand-building a road through the hills of Raasay shows both the best of the human spirit and the frustrations of dealing with a combination of petty politics and bureaucracy. The book contains a potted history of several significant population shifts on the small Hebridean island as its people deal with greedy landlords, ridiculous quantities of red tape and the often hostile environment itself. We see the huge impact of the infamous clearances on a thriving and happy community, but the lure of the modern world and a series of authoritarian changes to the structure of rural education also have a substantial role to play. Against this background, lone crofter, lighthouse keeper and postman Calum Macleod sticks to his belief in the traditional way of life and takes matters into his own hand: planning, digging, hauling and constructing a stretch of road that would take at least ten years to complete.
It is a fascinating read, only missing out on more information about Calum and the whole road-building process, though to be fair, that would probably only have been possible had he kept a diary. I just feel that there must have been more to tell about the actual construction and what life was like for him and his family when the road was complete (other than a paragraph or two). Books of this nature often have a few photographic panels in the middle; there are a couple of places where photographs are described when it would have been nice to see them - before and after images of the road, etc.
It is a fascinating read, only missing out on more information about Calum and the whole road-building process, though to be fair, that would probably only have been possible had he kept a diary. I just feel that there must have been more to tell about the actual construction and what life was like for him and his family when the road was complete (other than a paragraph or two). Books of this nature often have a few photographic panels in the middle; there are a couple of places where photographs are described when it would have been nice to see them - before and after images of the road, etc.
oldestcharm's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
brokenbaroque's review
5.0
I will forever thank Portree's main bookshop employee for recommending this volume to me.
This book will give you feelings if you, like me, are anyhow charmed by the lost culture of people that live on the edge of the world.
I have been in the area and I have seen the island of Raasay, but I would have never dreamt of it being the scenery of a late counter strike of a dying community, embodied by one, extraordinary man.
Read it not as a biography of a man -or a road- but as the tale of a lost world and its last traces. It is written beautifully and easily, it also has the charm of real life stories.
I absolutely recommend it.
This book will give you feelings if you, like me, are anyhow charmed by the lost culture of people that live on the edge of the world.
I have been in the area and I have seen the island of Raasay, but I would have never dreamt of it being the scenery of a late counter strike of a dying community, embodied by one, extraordinary man.
Read it not as a biography of a man -or a road- but as the tale of a lost world and its last traces. It is written beautifully and easily, it also has the charm of real life stories.
I absolutely recommend it.
fivetilnoon's review
5.0
I picked up this book at a bookstore in Aviemore Scotland and read it after getting back from our trip. We drove Calum's Road and explored Southern Raasay on our trip so the book was especially meaningful. The struggles of the crofters in Northern Raasay were extreme compared to the rural depopulation of small town mid-America that we see today. The book is sad but hopeful. I don't know that it would resonate as much without the trip to Raasay but would recommend it to anyone interested in small-town stubbornness and hard work. There's a lot of similarity's between Calum and our Greatest Generation here in the US.