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james1star's review
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
This little book is made up of passages from Laurie Lee’s first autobiographical work Cider with Rosie selected for their focus on summer. It can work as a short story but there is no plot, it’s more about nothing in particular except the author’s childhood and life growing up in a small Gloucestershire village. There are some nice passages with Lee painting his past in a pleasant light despite some challenges and this is why I didn’t entirely dislike the book. I guess my main issue was how I just couldn’t connect to the ‘characters’ (real life people) much at all and despite sounding strange… I didn’t like young Laurie all that much or his attitudes, sort of. There are parts where he talks about pretending to be ‘savages’ and makes other racist remarks which I know was more common in the time it was set and written (late 50s) which I couldn’t jam with. Overall, I think the lack of any real story and it being rather dull made this slim book quite difficult to get through, I wish I had DNFd it earlier but as I went on I just thought ‘why not finish it’ and I did. I doubt I’ll read anything else by Lee, possibly some of his poetry or prose but I’m definitely not interested in any more autobiographical works.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Animal death, Death, Racial slurs, and Religious bigotry
buddhafish's review
I'm reviewing this purely to pour scorn on it. Though, understandably nice for a taster into a writer, these books are simply extracts taken from actual books and sold at £3.50. This contains snippets from Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie; you are paying for nothing new or unseen, simply another book hammed in and renamed. The worst in the series is the "Psychedelics" by Huxley, which is simply his Doors of Perception essay renamed.
If you have read anything by the writer of the book, check what the book really is before purchasing, chances are you've already read everything it has to offer.
If you have read anything by the writer of the book, check what the book really is before purchasing, chances are you've already read everything it has to offer.
aniahollinshead's review
4.0
I love Laurie Lee. another lovely little collection of memories from 1910's cotswolds. a little repetitive, however, and I did notice stolen passages from [b: Village Christmas And Other Notes on the English Year|27427857|Village Christmas And Other Notes on the English Year|Laurie Lee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1446673773s/27427857.jpg|47479448].
amalia1985's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Τhe haunting…
‘’Radiating from that house, with its crumbling walls, its thumps and shadows, its fancied foxes under the floor, I moved along paths that lengthened inch by inch with my mounting strength of days. From stone to stone in the trackless yard I sent forth my acorn shell of senses, moving through unfathomable oceans like a South Sea savage island-hopping across the Pacific. Antennae of eyes and nose and grubbing fingers captured a new tuft of grass, a new fern, a slug, the skull of a bird, a grotto of bright snails. Through the long summer ages of those first few days I enlarged my world and mapped it in my mind, its secure havens, its dust - deserts and puddles, its peaks of dirt and flag-flying bushes. Returning too, dry-throated, over and over again, to its several well-prodded horrors: the bird’s gaping bones in its cage of old sticks; the black flies in the corner, slimy dead; dry rags of snakes; and the crowded, rotting, silent-roaring city of a cat’s grub- captured carcass.’’
‘’What dread power one’s penny purchased - the painted gallows, the nodding priest, the felon with his face of doom. At a touch, they jerked through their ghastly dance, the priest, hangman, and the convict, joined together by rods and each one condemned as it were to perpetual torment. Their ritual motions led to the jerk of the corpse; the figures froze and the lights went out. Another penny restored the lights, brought back life to the cataleptic trip, and dragged the poor felon once more to the gallows to be strangled all over again.’’
And the serene…
‘’Summer, June summer, with the green back on earth and the whole world unlocked and seething - like winter, it came suddenly and one knew it in bed, almost before waking up; with cuckoos and pigeons hollowing the woods since day - light and the chipping of tits in the pear-blossom.’’
‘’Outdoors, one scarcely knew what had happened or remembered any other time. There had never been rain, or frost, or cloud; it had always been like this. The heat from the ground climbed up one’s legs and smote one under the chin. the garden, dizzy with scent and bees, burned all over with hot white flowers, each one so blinding an incandescence that it hurt the eyes to look at them.’’
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oliviasbookshop's review
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0