balancinghistorybooks's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
lyonnishizawa's review against another edition
3.0
Nice to enjoy a good war story every now and then.. :))
skigirl1689's review against another edition
1.0
I slogged through this book. I found it to be rambling, and half of the time I did not know what was going on. I have never read Samuel Beckett's work (the main character), so perhaps that would have helped me understand this.
melle's review against another edition
3.0
Her language is still gorgeous, and she weaves scenes that make you go, "Ahh, that's totally where Waiting for Godot could have come from!" (The book's name is the first words in the play, establishing setting. And the brevity and simplicity of those words belies the gravitas and importance of the scene in the book.)
That said, it didn't grab me the way Longbourne did. I mostly blame it on never really being a big fan of Beckett, or Joyce (also in the book), or absurdism, etc. Worth the read, though, for the aforementioned crafting of language, and for the devastating humanity she imbues into the war and its survivors and victims.
That said, it didn't grab me the way Longbourne did. I mostly blame it on never really being a big fan of Beckett, or Joyce (also in the book), or absurdism, etc. Worth the read, though, for the aforementioned crafting of language, and for the devastating humanity she imbues into the war and its survivors and victims.
bgg616's review against another edition
5.0
A gorgeous book, splendid prose, and one I didn't want to put down. This novel tells the story of the Irish writer, Samuel Beckett, trapped in France during World War II. As the novel opens in 1939, James Joyce is still alive and living in Paris. Joyce obstinately refuses to acknowledge the war and acts as blind to it as he is in real life. Beckett worked for Joyce for a time as secretary and translator. Imagine trying to translate Ulysses or Finegan's Wake. Yet the windows of Sweney's Pharmacy in Dublin hosts groups reading Ulysses in French, Italian and even Portuguese. This leads me to believe that Beckett's efforts were appreciated by some [ I had no luck trying to embed photos so am resorting to hyperlinks]
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bdegar/28813565983/in/dateposted-public
During the years from 1939-1944, Beckett shares his life with Suzanne. Suzanne observes his distractable nature, and his failure to be productive. It is Suzanne who provides an anchor for him after Joyce leaves Paris, someone who requires him to occasionally remember to be responsible to another person. When the Nazis occupy Paris, Beckett fears arrest as he has no papers. Eventually he resolves that problem, and he becomes part of the French Resistance.
Working with the Resistance, he recognizes how little worth his life as a writer has for society. Beckett's writing was continuously rejected, and for a time, he hides his inability to produce anything from Suzanne. As Baker describes here :
He stares now at the three words he has written.They are ridiculous. Writing is ridiculous. A sentence, any sentence, is absurd. Just the idea of it; jam one word up against another, shoulder-to-shoulder, jaw-to-jaw; hem them in with punctuation so they can't move an inch. And then hand that over to someone else to peer at, and expect something to be communicated, something understood. It's not just pointless. It is ethically suspect.
Here is another reference to his self-questioning about writing:
And when he surfaces to a cramped hand, a crick in the neck, the sunlight shifted across the floor, a sore blink, he knows that even to have written this little is an excess, it is an overflowing, an excretion. Too many words. There are just too many words. Nobody wants them; nobody needs them. And still they keep on, keep on, keep on coming..
This is a book for those who love literary fiction, gorgeous writing, Paris, Beckett, and even Joyce. An interest in Beckett is in no ways essential, but reading this novel helped me appreciate his writing even more. Baker believes that Beckett's war time experiences transformed his writing into the sparse style we associate with Beckett. The scenes in the book when Beckett is waiting to make contact with other Resistance fighters are very redolent of scenes in Waiting for Godot. I am itching now to watch the film version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXmdTUfsfmI
and can only imagine how stunning the premier in January 1969 at the Abbey Theater with Peter O'Toole, Eamon Kelly and Donal McCann must have been:
https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/110moments/waiting-for-godot/
I probably would have remained unaware of this book if the author, Jo Baker, hadn't read at the 2016 John Hewitt Summer School in Armagh, Northern Ireland in July. When she read from this new novel about Samuel Beckett, I had assumed the topic explained her presence. It wasn't until looking at the Author's Note at the end of the book, I discovered Baker had gotten her MA in Irish Writing at Queen's University Belfast.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bdegar/29146885260/in/dateposted-public
Thursday of that week, the reading by Ciaran Carson of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in the School of English at Queens, marked the last public appearance of a writer associated with the School before its official demise. The School of English no longer exists as of the end of July, but has been disassembled with various pieces being merged into other schools at the university. To mark the (sad)occasion, all former students of the School or its summer school were invited to stand with Carson while a uilleann piper from the band Lunasa (Cillian Vallely, who is from Armagh) played a lament (it may have been this tune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEWFwBpMH38&list=PLUS0VLwMCFsQkvyyBfGoSe2GDG7PnDQ6O&index=2) . Having attended a summer school at the Heaney Centre in 2009, I was able to stand with the group. There were few dry eyes in the house.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bdegar/28813565983/in/dateposted-public
During the years from 1939-1944, Beckett shares his life with Suzanne. Suzanne observes his distractable nature, and his failure to be productive. It is Suzanne who provides an anchor for him after Joyce leaves Paris, someone who requires him to occasionally remember to be responsible to another person. When the Nazis occupy Paris, Beckett fears arrest as he has no papers. Eventually he resolves that problem, and he becomes part of the French Resistance.
Working with the Resistance, he recognizes how little worth his life as a writer has for society. Beckett's writing was continuously rejected, and for a time, he hides his inability to produce anything from Suzanne. As Baker describes here :
He stares now at the three words he has written.They are ridiculous. Writing is ridiculous. A sentence, any sentence, is absurd. Just the idea of it; jam one word up against another, shoulder-to-shoulder, jaw-to-jaw; hem them in with punctuation so they can't move an inch. And then hand that over to someone else to peer at, and expect something to be communicated, something understood. It's not just pointless. It is ethically suspect.
Here is another reference to his self-questioning about writing:
And when he surfaces to a cramped hand, a crick in the neck, the sunlight shifted across the floor, a sore blink, he knows that even to have written this little is an excess, it is an overflowing, an excretion. Too many words. There are just too many words. Nobody wants them; nobody needs them. And still they keep on, keep on, keep on coming..
This is a book for those who love literary fiction, gorgeous writing, Paris, Beckett, and even Joyce. An interest in Beckett is in no ways essential, but reading this novel helped me appreciate his writing even more. Baker believes that Beckett's war time experiences transformed his writing into the sparse style we associate with Beckett. The scenes in the book when Beckett is waiting to make contact with other Resistance fighters are very redolent of scenes in Waiting for Godot. I am itching now to watch the film version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXmdTUfsfmI
and can only imagine how stunning the premier in January 1969 at the Abbey Theater with Peter O'Toole, Eamon Kelly and Donal McCann must have been:
https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/110moments/waiting-for-godot/
I probably would have remained unaware of this book if the author, Jo Baker, hadn't read at the 2016 John Hewitt Summer School in Armagh, Northern Ireland in July. When she read from this new novel about Samuel Beckett, I had assumed the topic explained her presence. It wasn't until looking at the Author's Note at the end of the book, I discovered Baker had gotten her MA in Irish Writing at Queen's University Belfast.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bdegar/29146885260/in/dateposted-public
Thursday of that week, the reading by Ciaran Carson of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in the School of English at Queens, marked the last public appearance of a writer associated with the School before its official demise. The School of English no longer exists as of the end of July, but has been disassembled with various pieces being merged into other schools at the university. To mark the (sad)occasion, all former students of the School or its summer school were invited to stand with Carson while a uilleann piper from the band Lunasa (Cillian Vallely, who is from Armagh) played a lament (it may have been this tune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEWFwBpMH38&list=PLUS0VLwMCFsQkvyyBfGoSe2GDG7PnDQ6O&index=2) . Having attended a summer school at the Heaney Centre in 2009, I was able to stand with the group. There were few dry eyes in the house.
vgk's review against another edition
5.0
"This is what the world is liable to do nowadays - collapse in ruins - and people go on behaving as though it were nothing very much at all"
Yes, this is a book about Samuel Beckett, but it is much more than that. This is a book about war, about refugees, about how ordinary people struggle, are damaged, eek out ways to survive in the face of horrendous political events foisted upon them. That makes this book very timely. The war in Syria, the rise of the racist Right in Europe and the USA, these events are not to be turned away from, they are events to be watched and resisted. This book will tell you why.
Yes, this is a book about Samuel Beckett, but it is much more than that. This is a book about war, about refugees, about how ordinary people struggle, are damaged, eek out ways to survive in the face of horrendous political events foisted upon them. That makes this book very timely. The war in Syria, the rise of the racist Right in Europe and the USA, these events are not to be turned away from, they are events to be watched and resisted. This book will tell you why.
mamasquirrel's review against another edition
3.0
Sparse. Bland. Grey. Far from the vibrant and rich story of Longbourn, so don't expect a similar style. I don't know anything about Samuel Beckett, which perhaps made the book less approachable yet for me, but I had a difficult time connecting with the few lean characters of the novel. It's not a difficult read in terms of content or vocabulary, however.
steph1rothwell's review against another edition
4.0
A Country Road, A Tree is one of the most convincing novels that I have read that shows the suffering experienced during WW2. It takes place in France and is based on the life of Samuel Beckett. At no point in the novel is the main character named although other characters are.
I knew nothing at all about Samuel Beckett and I had no idea when I started reading that the novel was based on him. I noticed a couple of reviews that mentioned it was in the Author’s note which my proof copy did not have. So for me the novel was just about people struggling to survive the war years experiencing hunger, danger, loss and betrayal alongside devotion and lifelong friendship.
At times it was difficult to read, there is no glamorizing of events here. You read about overcrowded railway stations with not enough trains. People moving across France with the possessions that they can carry. They are hungry, dreaming about what they would like to eat most whilst others who aren’t as worried are feeding their dogs black market ham. When friends are taken away by police they decide that they have to do more to help and get involved with the resistance.
It wasn’t all gloom. The relationship between the characters in the novel, especially Samuel and Suzanne was lovely to read. I felt that they were devoted to each other but at times she felt frustrated by him especially when he gave away much needed items or placed them in danger.
Completely different to Longbourn, the previous novel but one that I enjoyed a lot more and I would like to thank Alison Barrow for my proof copy received.
I knew nothing at all about Samuel Beckett and I had no idea when I started reading that the novel was based on him. I noticed a couple of reviews that mentioned it was in the Author’s note which my proof copy did not have. So for me the novel was just about people struggling to survive the war years experiencing hunger, danger, loss and betrayal alongside devotion and lifelong friendship.
At times it was difficult to read, there is no glamorizing of events here. You read about overcrowded railway stations with not enough trains. People moving across France with the possessions that they can carry. They are hungry, dreaming about what they would like to eat most whilst others who aren’t as worried are feeding their dogs black market ham. When friends are taken away by police they decide that they have to do more to help and get involved with the resistance.
It wasn’t all gloom. The relationship between the characters in the novel, especially Samuel and Suzanne was lovely to read. I felt that they were devoted to each other but at times she felt frustrated by him especially when he gave away much needed items or placed them in danger.
Completely different to Longbourn, the previous novel but one that I enjoyed a lot more and I would like to thank Alison Barrow for my proof copy received.
prof_shoff's review against another edition
4.0
A compelling, though narratively spare, account of one man's search for purpose and connection in occupied France.
I found this book in Shakespeare & Company; with its focus on Paris in WWII, it seemed a suitable choice to join me during my ramblings in the city. Perhaps the location worked its magic, since Baker's writing - by turns abrupt and expansive, moving between sharp narrative and rambling stream-of-consciousness - managed to draw me in rather than turn me off.
I found this book in Shakespeare & Company; with its focus on Paris in WWII, it seemed a suitable choice to join me during my ramblings in the city. Perhaps the location worked its magic, since Baker's writing - by turns abrupt and expansive, moving between sharp narrative and rambling stream-of-consciousness - managed to draw me in rather than turn me off.
pnwlisa's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75