world literature

A month in the country, the movie which starred Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh was shown in 1987, but as usual, the book is better than the movie.

Lovely and beautiful in its simplicity, the tale of two great war survivors healing their battle-scarred minds in the village of Oxgodby is one of my favourite novel.

Watching the tape recently, I was strucked by the difference between the Birkin in the movie and that of the book. The Birkin in the movie is one-dimensional and the people around him, save Alice Keach is unpleasant. To exorcise this image of the Birkin of the movie, I re-read the book again and was immensely pleased at the Birkin of the novel, alive and likeable but certainly not flawless. The Alice Keach of the world would definitely falls head over heel for him.

The beauty of the novel is further enhanced by the portrayal of the healing process in Birkin's nightmarish experiences as a war veteran. He and Moon are not your typical citizens from a nation of victims, where crisis counsellors would intervene and encourage those ceaseless and endless whinings whenever fate deal them a bad hand, instead they resolved the inner demons through themselves, in their own unique way.

A Month in the Country is unrelated (as far as I can tell) to the Turgenyev piece of the same name. It is, however, a wonderful book, made into a decent movie about 6 years ago, I believe.

It tells the story of Tom Birkin, recently returned from WW I, who goes to the town of Oxgodby to restore a medieval wall-painting in an old church. Over the course of his time there, he gets absorbed into the life of the town, falls in love, learns (and reveals) something about the nature of art, and the healing power of both art and love.

That makes it sound as if the book's some sort of mushy new-age blather, and it's not at all. It's a short and profoundly entertaining novel. I would have loved to have been assigned this in a high-school english class, because (1) Carr's vocabulary is remarkable, and the occasional strange words he uses are worth looking up (e.g., "sneck"), and (2) it has a lot of the sort of structure that one is forced to write about in English classes ("contrast the relationship between Birkin and his work with that between Moon and his...") but which in this book actually contributed something to the story -- there are multiple parallel threads in the book, and their inteweaving makes it richer. I could've written a decent essay about that...

In "A Month in the Country", Tom Birkin arrives in the remote country village of Oxgodby to restore a medieval mural that has been discovered in a local church. Birkin is still recovering from WWI and suffers from nightmares about the trenches. He bears a permanent, hideous facial disfigurement, but his wounds are far deeper than this. Coming to Oxgodby is really a chance for Birkin to recoup some peace of mind. He also has domestic troubles in his past, and so the solitary workday spent restoring the mural becomes a healing process for Birkin. His intention is to work on the mural, maintain a solitary existence, and eek out the pittance he is paid for several months. And in one glorious summer, Birkin comes to terms with the horrors of his past.

The curiosity of the villagers soon pulls Birkin into the quaintness of village family life. Male companionship, in the form of the archeologist, Moon--a fellow WWI survivor offers a rare chance for Birkin to enjoy an equal intellect, but the company of the vicar's wife, Alice Keach proves to be at once the greatest distraction and the sweetest consolation. Mrs Keach is the second surprising treasure Birkin uncovers in Oxgodby.

The book is full of marvelous characters. I particularly enjoyed the precocious, wise-beyond-her-years, Kathy Ellerbeck. Even the sour Vicar, Keach, who appears dull at first, becomes interesting after Birkin visits the vicar and his wife at their bleak, vast dwelling (it doesn't qualify as a home). I enjoyed this book immensely--it's one of the very best books I've read this year and one I shall most definitely reread. "A Month in the Country" is a bittersweet tale of compromise, regret, acceptance, and the consolations that are necessary for survival. Above all, Birkin understands that "the bright belief that there will be another marvelous thing around the corner fades. It is now or never; we must snatch at happiness as it flies."--displacedhuman.