skygiants

J.L. Carr's A Month in the Country is a short, lovely little book that I am finding/have found quite difficult to write about -- one of those books in which not very much happens except a person briefly living a life in a particular place at a particular time, and then leaving it again.

WWI veteran Tom Birkin arrives in a small English village, where his job is to restore a medieval mural, as part of the bequest left by an eccentric local notable: she's provided money to restore the mural, and money to locate the lost grave of one of her ancestors buried outside the churchyard, and so the local victor grimly arranges for this to happen despite his profound lack of enthusiasm for the inconvenience of it all.

On arrival Tom has little money and no connections, sleeping in the church belfry to save money. Over the course of his month in the country, he makes little of the former but much of the latter: with the fellow veteran who is working on the lost grave problem; with a local teenager who is fascinated by his work, and her friendly family; with the vicar's lonely wife; and with the medieval painter of the mural that he is uncovering. There's a lot of secondhand pleasure, for me, both in the specificities of Tom's voice and in the small, careful, detailed work that he's doing -- the day-to-day routine of the village, the particularities of the materials used to make the paint in the mural. It's a charming book, a bit wistful, often quite funny. It's a beautiful English summer. Tom is having a good time. Occasionally one can glimpse the world-devastating event that was WWI through the cracks in his narration. He daydreams about staying in the village, but he won't.

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sovay

It's a beautiful English summer. Tom is having a good time. Occasionally one can glimpse the world-devastating event that was WWI through the cracks in his narration. He daydreams about staying in the village, but he won't.

I love this novel and I also love the film, which if you have not seen it is handily on Tubi right now.

skygiants

EXCELLENT, I'd been wondering about it but had no idea it was so easily available! (I was also wondering if you'd read the book and I'm very glad you have.)

EXCELLENT, I'd been wondering about it but had no idea it was so easily available!

It seems to have turned up this month and I rewatched it instanter!

(I was also wondering if you'd read the book and I'm very glad you have.)

I wrote minimally about it when I read it in 2010 and more more extensively about the film in 2022!

rachelmanija

This sounds lovely and maybe a bit Tove Janssen-esque in her non-Moomin mode.

Oh, yes, I'd not thought of that before you said it but it really is a perfect comparison!

lirazel

This sounds lovely!

It really was!

regshoe

It's a book that's really stayed with me, but I agree it's not the easiest one to write about. The specificity of setting, detail and character is one of my favourite things about it.

Seconding

sovay's rec of the film, also!

Yes, that's really it -- it's so good at noticing and telling you about a hundred different tiny details, and in such a warm and distinctive voice that not a single detail is ever dull.