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A review by andrew61
At Hawthorn Time by Melissa Harrison
4.0
A very engaging story of rural life in modern Britain which pulls out the pressures that are fracturing village life in the countryside.
The opening chapter presents the reader with the final scene of the book, a car accident involving two vehicles and a body, the reader is an onlooker who is confronted by the scene. One car is a souped up car suggestive of a boy racer, the other has a CD spilling from the glove compartment.
We then meet the characters, Jamie a 19 year old boy who is local to the village, he works in an amazon type storage facility but loves modifying his car, his mother is reclusive and his grandfather is developing dementia a veteran of the Japanese prison camps.
Howard and Kitty have retired to the village, and the relocation is destroying their long marriage, Howard has a drink issue, Kitty has a secret, as Howrad drives off to pick his daughter up from the airport their marriage is at breaking point.
Lastly Jack is a traveller who is avoiding society and arrests for trespassing, he is viewed suspiciously by the new incumbents to the village but is in tune with the countryside and nature.
The books strength for myself was the contradictions in the character's lives ,they were very well drawn and how it mirrored the tensions in rural society, but most of all the wonderful descriptions of the very unique English countryside .
It was certainly a really good read that I enjoyed very much both for the tension of the individual lives and the clear love of the English countryside that the book was full off and had me itching to grab my walking boots.
The opening chapter presents the reader with the final scene of the book, a car accident involving two vehicles and a body, the reader is an onlooker who is confronted by the scene. One car is a souped up car suggestive of a boy racer, the other has a CD spilling from the glove compartment.
We then meet the characters, Jamie a 19 year old boy who is local to the village, he works in an amazon type storage facility but loves modifying his car, his mother is reclusive and his grandfather is developing dementia a veteran of the Japanese prison camps.
Howard and Kitty have retired to the village, and the relocation is destroying their long marriage, Howard has a drink issue, Kitty has a secret, as Howrad drives off to pick his daughter up from the airport their marriage is at breaking point.
Lastly Jack is a traveller who is avoiding society and arrests for trespassing, he is viewed suspiciously by the new incumbents to the village but is in tune with the countryside and nature.
The books strength for myself was the contradictions in the character's lives ,they were very well drawn and how it mirrored the tensions in rural society, but most of all the wonderful descriptions of the very unique English countryside .
It was certainly a really good read that I enjoyed very much both for the tension of the individual lives and the clear love of the English countryside that the book was full off and had me itching to grab my walking boots.