Scan barcode
A review by rachelgertrude
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
5.0
I can't help but think of this line by GK Chesterton after reading this book:
“The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce variety and uncompromising divergences of men…In a large community, we can choose our companions. In a small community, our companions are chosen for us. Thus in all extensive and highly civilized society groups come into existence founded upon sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique.” - Heretics
What I love so much about South Riding is that it is a story about a community. It is about people as individuals, but more, it is a story about the effect all of these individuals have on each other. There are socialists, conservatives, gentleman farmers, slum dwellers, hypocrites, long-sufferers, misers, and seekers. These people hurt each other, love each other, argue with each other, change their minds because of each other, ask deeper questions because of each other.
The characters felt real - their dislikes or likes of each other felt real as well. What I received in reading this book was a deeper sympathy with the human condition and our collective struggles. It helped me to see that, however passionately we might view things politically, there is always something to learn from the person holding the opposing flag. There is a good reason for us to be jumbled together to round each other out, to polish each other's rough edges. I learned that community (but particularly small communities, the ones we don't choose) give us the ability to grow, the ability to know ourselves better, the capacity for change.
“The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce variety and uncompromising divergences of men…In a large community, we can choose our companions. In a small community, our companions are chosen for us. Thus in all extensive and highly civilized society groups come into existence founded upon sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique.” - Heretics
What I love so much about South Riding is that it is a story about a community. It is about people as individuals, but more, it is a story about the effect all of these individuals have on each other. There are socialists, conservatives, gentleman farmers, slum dwellers, hypocrites, long-sufferers, misers, and seekers. These people hurt each other, love each other, argue with each other, change their minds because of each other, ask deeper questions because of each other.
The characters felt real - their dislikes or likes of each other felt real as well. What I received in reading this book was a deeper sympathy with the human condition and our collective struggles. It helped me to see that, however passionately we might view things politically, there is always something to learn from the person holding the opposing flag. There is a good reason for us to be jumbled together to round each other out, to polish each other's rough edges. I learned that community (but particularly small communities, the ones we don't choose) give us the ability to grow, the ability to know ourselves better, the capacity for change.