GF Book Club - Book 3 (November 2010)

[Guido]

RiS - Enlighten us with your November pick of the pops.

 

Admin types - please sticky this in furtherance of greatness. And decision-making.

[RedinSweden]

The book is none less than God's Own Country by Ross Raisin.

 

I apologise for any disconvenience due to the delayerage of this announcementerism. I have been holidayerdising for the past week and away from my computerumbustlator.

[RedinSweden]

I am alos wassocked and thjat fecking post took me a hood half hour to post. Wankers.

Edited November 5, 2010 by RedinSweden
founf a påroblem

[RedinSweden]

TRhat last post was a an unedited version of waht coimes when i typr.

[Guido]

Ace. Another i've been meaning to read in the near future. Ordered. Will crack on with it next week. Only a short book again (224 pages) so hopefully people will get on this too. Should be the best of the 3 so far i reckon.

[rubble-rouser]

In

[L19red]

never heard of it, but I'm guessing from the title its either going to be a stereotypical self agrandising Yorkshireman who has never actually been ouside the three ridings talking about how bloody great Yorkshire or its going to be a Yorkshireman who has crossed the border and now realises that Yorkshire is in fact a shithole. Hopefully the later.

[Paul]

Just bought one second hand off Amazon for £2.76.

[BatChainPuller]

I'm in - loving that Amazon one-click purchasing experience.

 

When's kickoff ? - will try and avoid distractions this time.

[Guido]

When's kickoff ? - will try and avoid distractions this time.

 

We agreed that discussion can begin whenever. Silly to be hanging around for weeks when you've read it. Thought it would encourage people to contribute as they read as well as when they've finished.

 

And yeh, the Amazon £2.76 jobs in 30 seconds flat are very brill.

[piscinin]

Anyone know any good sites for this kind of thing? PM appreciated.

[Guido]

Book arrived yesterday and i read the first 30 pages or so this morning. This is definitely going to be a great book. The main character has me gripped already - makes me think that half the lads i went to school with would be exactly like this if they grew up on a farm! I toyed with the idea of pulling a sickie as i don't want to put it down. Think i appreciate the impact of the dialect from having grown up in Wigan (with all the oddball words they seem to invent just to be difficult) though it probably doesn't matter. Reluctant to talk about the story yet as i don't know if anyone else has had their book through but it can wait a while. Couple of interviews on Youtube with Ross Raisin too if anyone's interested, though not much else online as he's a new writer. Seems a nice bloke.

 

Anyone know any good sites for this kind of thing? PM appreciated.

 

Not sure what you're referring to there mate so please enlighten me and i'll see if i can help.

[RedinSweden]

i have read it now, but I don't want to be the first to comment on it. I think Guido will be done soon and I get the feeling his opinions will be different to mine.

[Guido]

Come on RiS, i'm intrigued now. Just read The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy in 2 days for the other book club i'm with and that went downhill after a great start. If this does the same i'll shit!

[RedinSweden]

Come on RiS, i'm intrigued now. Just read The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy in 2 days for the other book club i'm with and that went downhill after a great start. If this does the same i'll shit!

 

Well, OK then. Firstly I think it is a really good book, and an excellent début. If he had managed to keep the tight, enclosed feel all the way through the book then I would have been delighted. Up until about the final third, it was excellent, but for me it comes apart at that point. In order to pull off a stream of consciousness style I think you have to be very careful. For me, the slow pace and slow build up was ruined by a rushed ending. Maybe this has been edited badly or maybe it is intentional, but it felt out of character with the feel of the book. It reminded me a little of Butcher Boy, but that was far darker and more shocking (although it was quite a while ago that I read it, so that may not be entirely accurate). All in all it left me feeling a little disappointed.

 

You may well not agree, but that was my take on it.

[Guido]

Yeh, the stream of consciousness has kicked in in the last 30 pages. However, I've greatly enjoyed most other novels that use the device - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Butcher Boy, Naked Lunch, The Fall, Hunger, Wide Sargasso Sea, To The Lighthouse, The Catcher In The Rye etc., so i'm hoping the narative doesn't fall apart quite as quickly as you suggested! So far it's added an extra dimension and it's introduction to the novel was well-timed to counter the potential for the mere descriptions of everyday life to become too boring on their own. Still loving it so far (at p.63).

 

Anybody else started/read it yet?

[RedinSweden]

Yeh, the stream of consciousness has kicked in in the last 30 pages. However, I've greatly enjoyed most other novels that use the device - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Butcher Boy, Naked Lunch, The Fall, Hunger, Wide Sargasso Sea, To The Lighthouse, The Catcher In The Rye etc., so i'm hoping the narative doesn't fall apart quite as quickly as you suggested! So far it's added an extra dimension and it's introduction to the novel was well-timed to counter the potential for the mere descriptions of everyday life to become too boring on their own. Still loving it so far (at p.63).

 

Anybody else started/read it yet?

 

It doesn't so much fall apart as lose shape and become hurried.

[Guido]

Finished it last night but didn't feel that the ending was that hurried, as you thought RiS. The pace increased slightly when she was running off back over the moors but was then reigned back in during the scenes on the coast. I particularly liked his conversations with the hobbly bird, sharing chips out of the bin. The stream of consciousness aspect was also steady throughout so that wasn't a let down. The only part i'm not sure about is the final few pages as it diluted the memory of the earlier adventure, which i would happily have carried on reading for a thousand pages i was that absorbed.

 

So many original scenes and vivid locations, particularly during the initial 'escape'. I felt many characters weren't that well-rounded, but i guess something has to give if you need to focus attention on the protagonist. Plus the moors also became a character with which Sam would converse, through a kind of shared loneliness and dependency. At least that's what i felt.

 

The dialect also infiltrated my everyday speech, which shows it's impact! Had that happen when reading A Clockwork Orange and Riddley Walker to, amongst others, so Sam Marsdyke is in esteemed company there. Overall it was very funny and gripping and disturbing at once, so i'll be recommending it to lots of people. Thanks for the great recommendation RiS.

[RedinSweden]

Finished it last night but didn't feel that the ending was that hurried, as you thought RiS. The pace increased slightly when she was running off back over the moors but was then reigned back in during the scenes on the coast. I particularly liked his conversations with the hobbly bird, sharing chips out of the bin. The stream of consciousness aspect was also steady throughout so that wasn't a let down. The only part i'm not sure about is the final few pages as it diluted the memory of the earlier adventure, which i would happily have carried on reading for a thousand pages i was that absorbed.

 

So many original scenes and vivid locations, particularly during the initial 'escape'. I felt many characters weren't that well-rounded, but i guess something has to give if you need to focus attention on the protagonist. Plus the moors also became a character with which Sam would converse, through a kind of shared loneliness and dependency. At least that's what i felt.

 

The dialect also infiltrated my everyday speech, which shows it's impact! Had that happen when reading A Clockwork Orange and Riddley Walker to, amongst others, so Sam Marsdyke is in esteemed company there. Overall it was very funny and gripping and disturbing at once, so i'll be recommending it to lots of people. Thanks for the great recommendation RiS.

 

I thought you might see it differently. As i said, i enjoyed it, and it was a great debut, but I just felt that it needed to be longer. It wasn't like it was very long at all, so it certainly wouldn't have harmed the book at all.

[L19red]

50 pages in. so far so good.

[L19red]

finished it and mostly I agreed with the comments of RiS, I really enjoyed the early and middle part of the book but it faded for me in the third part. As soon as he hurt the girls wrist I pretty much guessed the rest of the plot. Up to that point I felt Sam was a oddball and maybe slightly sinister but he's generally portrayed as a simple lad and a bit of a dreamer and the school incident seems like a burden he is carrying but it was a one-off from a time when he was much younger and he's aware now that it was probably wrong although he rationalises it that people made a big deal of not much. That semi sympathetic picture of Sam that Raisin built up was destroyed in an instant for me and instead of a sense of dread as the situation deteriorates I knew immediately how it would end so there was no tension. Ok I know it didn't actually end on his capture and there was the prison chapter but that just felt tagged on and redundant.

 

Certainly an author to watch in future, he put me in mind of Niall Griffiths and thats no bad thing.

[Paul]

Only picked this up the other day, hence I'm behind the rest of you. Quite enjoying it, early on. Certainly, I like the internal dialogue in the Yorkshire voice. My grandma was a Yorkshire woman and I find it very easy to hear him in my head. It's a style that can work really well to evoke character; I'm thinking especially of Trainspotting and Porno by Irvine Welsh.

[razor]

I know I am weeks behind everyone else. I am not attention-seeking (well that's what I think some may possibly think about someone being so far behind), just a slow reader.

 

I'll miss a book out to catch up.

 

Before reading others' input:

 

I enjoyed God's Own Country. I love the fact that Sam was so poor at reading situations and his view of things around him were so out of step with reality. This was done well. I know people like this.

 

I also liked the idea of Jo. A girl who is "rebellious" but doesn't know what rebellion is - a typically molly-coddled middle class teenage girl. You really feel for her when she gets so far out of her depth so early.

 

I loved the Yorkshire dialect too. And the descriptions of the Moors: I've been there a few times, I think, but never really absorbed it like Sam describes it.

 

It was an easy read, though I suppose it could have been a tad deeper considering the subject matter.

 

I reckon someone will pick up a film option for it soon. It is a good narrative, though perhaps the final "chase" could have been more climactic (seeing as the narrative was building towards this).

 

Couple of other thoughts:

 

I thought the woman in the jewellers had recognised him, but I don't think she had, had she?

 

The tin of beans is the real turning point. I liked this because as a reader you kind of turn against him too.

 

The ambiguity of the ripped-out picture near the end is interesting. Has he been institutionalised by his experience inside, or was this part of his latent deviancy? Was he a sex case all along? I kind of felt sorry for him for the first accusation; clearly, however, he had intended to attack Jo the day following his undressing of her.

 

Overall, an enjoyable read.