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A review by byrdnash
All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot
4.0
I'm continuing my quest to read all the James Herriot books back to back. I picked up the first book when I was 9 and I don't believe I read this one in the series during my childhood. Probably because by the time this one was issued in 1977, my family was going through a major upheaval.
Chapters begin with a paragraph or two of James (aka James Alfred Wight) beginning his WWII service. Most of the chapters quickly segue into an animal case that he remembers so for those who worry this will be a WWII fighting memoir, never fear. Alf never sees active service due to a medical condition.
Instead, the bits and pieces he gives here is about his RAF training, and the war seems quite distant from what he is doing. This is quite in keeping with some fiction at the time - it either delved into all the realness of WWII service, or it practically ignored the war (see PG Wodehouse, and his Jeeves and Wooster, an author that Wight admired).
Wight couldn't avoid discussing the war if he was going to continue the books on the timeline but as he states in the first book: "this won't be about wartime experiences" and it isn't.
While there are plenty of cases of both small and large animals to get stuck in, Herriot gives us more information about his relationship with Helen (who he misses dreadfully), the birth of his son (who later becomes a DVM), and the various people he meets in the RAF, along (naturally) the animal owners he comes into contact with.
This volume actually makes a nice break (but not a major one) and brings some freshness to a series that was growing a slightly stale by book two. While the events aren't strictly biographical (names and dates were changed to protect identities as a vet could not 'advertise' themselves), there are a few cases that don't go well.
This trend continues in the next book, The Lord God Made Them All. Perhaps Wight was growing more comfortable in discussing his character of James Herriot on a more personal level? Or maybe fans wanted this? Regardless, it gives us more of an idea of who Herriot is, his people, and how he feels about them.
By this time in the narrative, it is also becoming clear that James has an inferiority complex and anxiety that produces a lot of self-doubt. While this could be excused in the first, maybe the second book, because he was in the beginning of his practice, by this time we still don't see a man totally secure in is profession. The author was later treated for depression, and an astute reader can see between the lines the insecurity, that perhaps others perceived as modesty, that James feels.
Overall, I found this one more compelling than book two. A must read for those those interested in animal care, the changes happening around the farms in Britain through WWII, and those who love the James Herriot series.
Chapters begin with a paragraph or two of James (aka James Alfred Wight) beginning his WWII service. Most of the chapters quickly segue into an animal case that he remembers so for those who worry this will be a WWII fighting memoir, never fear. Alf never sees active service due to a medical condition.
Instead, the bits and pieces he gives here is about his RAF training, and the war seems quite distant from what he is doing. This is quite in keeping with some fiction at the time - it either delved into all the realness of WWII service, or it practically ignored the war (see PG Wodehouse, and his Jeeves and Wooster, an author that Wight admired).
Wight couldn't avoid discussing the war if he was going to continue the books on the timeline but as he states in the first book: "this won't be about wartime experiences" and it isn't.
While there are plenty of cases of both small and large animals to get stuck in, Herriot gives us more information about his relationship with Helen (who he misses dreadfully), the birth of his son (who later becomes a DVM), and the various people he meets in the RAF, along (naturally) the animal owners he comes into contact with.
This volume actually makes a nice break (but not a major one) and brings some freshness to a series that was growing a slightly stale by book two. While the events aren't strictly biographical (names and dates were changed to protect identities as a vet could not 'advertise' themselves), there are a few cases that don't go well.
This trend continues in the next book, The Lord God Made Them All. Perhaps Wight was growing more comfortable in discussing his character of James Herriot on a more personal level? Or maybe fans wanted this? Regardless, it gives us more of an idea of who Herriot is, his people, and how he feels about them.
By this time in the narrative, it is also becoming clear that James has an inferiority complex and anxiety that produces a lot of self-doubt. While this could be excused in the first, maybe the second book, because he was in the beginning of his practice, by this time we still don't see a man totally secure in is profession. The author was later treated for depression, and an astute reader can see between the lines the insecurity, that perhaps others perceived as modesty, that James feels.
Overall, I found this one more compelling than book two. A must read for those those interested in animal care, the changes happening around the farms in Britain through WWII, and those who love the James Herriot series.