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A review by thegrimhobbyist
Pastoral Song: A Farmer's Journey by James Rebanks
5.0
"Our little farm is part of a very big world." - James Rebanks
James runs a family farm in England, and this book is part memoir as well as part letter to encourage all of us to reintroduce ourselves to nature.
The prose parts of this book are beautifully written, almost like poetry. He details life on the farm - from when he was first a boy learning from his grandfather and father on to present day as a farmer teaching his own kids. It felt like I was on the farm with him, seeing the same early mornings and long winters. We experience the ups and downs of life on a farm, especially a multi-generational one.
The letter part addressed to all of us, including himself, left me melancholy as my eyes opened to problems I was not aware were a problem. How the industrialization of farming, the over production of crops and livestock, was killing the soil and nature. It makes sense, now that my eyes are opened, and I'm thankful to be now made aware of this problem by reading this book. (Note: I was vaguely aware but turning a blind eye to it before reading this.)
Thankfully the last part of the book lifts readers back up with a bit of hope, after the crushing weight of truths thrown at us in the middle. We see the struggling family farm start to wake up and thrive, we are told the steps he's taken to revive the land and bring back the wildlife that he once saw as a boy, and the steps he hopes to take in the future.
I'm glad this book was recommended to me, and I highly recommend it to others to give it a read. The message can get a bit repetitive at times, given it's a singular message in a 300 page book only rewritten and reiterated many times over, but it is a message well worth repeating until it makes its home in our heads.
James runs a family farm in England, and this book is part memoir as well as part letter to encourage all of us to reintroduce ourselves to nature.
The prose parts of this book are beautifully written, almost like poetry. He details life on the farm - from when he was first a boy learning from his grandfather and father on to present day as a farmer teaching his own kids. It felt like I was on the farm with him, seeing the same early mornings and long winters. We experience the ups and downs of life on a farm, especially a multi-generational one.
The letter part addressed to all of us, including himself, left me melancholy as my eyes opened to problems I was not aware were a problem. How the industrialization of farming, the over production of crops and livestock, was killing the soil and nature. It makes sense, now that my eyes are opened, and I'm thankful to be now made aware of this problem by reading this book. (Note: I was vaguely aware but turning a blind eye to it before reading this.)
Thankfully the last part of the book lifts readers back up with a bit of hope, after the crushing weight of truths thrown at us in the middle. We see the struggling family farm start to wake up and thrive, we are told the steps he's taken to revive the land and bring back the wildlife that he once saw as a boy, and the steps he hopes to take in the future.
I'm glad this book was recommended to me, and I highly recommend it to others to give it a read. The message can get a bit repetitive at times, given it's a singular message in a 300 page book only rewritten and reiterated many times over, but it is a message well worth repeating until it makes its home in our heads.