A Month in the Country (Penguin Modern Classics)

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But oddly, what happened 'outside' was like a dream. It was inside the still church, before its reappearing picture, that was 'real'. I drifted across the rest. As I have said – like a dream. For a time. This story brought out a mixture of feelings for me …. I was expecting to read about a guy who was gloomy and very lonely — Pat O’Connor’s unjustly neglected 1987 film is a fine example of British pastoral cinema, boasting two engaging early film roles from future greats Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh. A captivating adaptation of J L Carr’s much-loved novel, A Month in the Country tells the story of a traumatised First World War veteran Tom Birkin (compellingly portrayed by Colin Firth) who, in the summer of 1920, travels to the beautiful Yorkshire village of Oxgodby to uncover a medieval wall painting in the local church. This will likely enter the list of my all-time favorite books. I found myself saying "glorious" several times and then stopping to thank my parents for instilling in me their love of reading. That brought me so belatedly to this treasure of a book.

A literary holiday – JL Carr’s A Month in the Country A literary holiday – JL Carr’s A Month in the Country

Tom tells us, but the memories sufficed. Much like Lucy Gault in William Trevor's novel, Tom realized that neither good times nor bad times last forever. Happiness is fleeting, but the contentment one once felt can be enough. He has no idea what is behind the whitewash, but it isn't long before he knows he is working on a masterpiece. "So, each day, I released a few more inches of a seething cascade of bones, joints and worm-riddled vitals frothing over the fiery weir. It was breathtaking. A tremendous waterfall of color, the blues of the apex falling, then seething into a turbulence of red; like all truly great works of art, hammering you with its whole before beguiling you with its parts."An extraordinary, heart-rending novel, written as a sort of twilight benediction to a pastoral place and its people.

Penelope Fitzgerald on A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr Penelope Fitzgerald on A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr

The film was originally intended for television, but its producer Kenith Trodd upgraded his original plan to a cinema feature. [6] The original working title for the film was "Falling Man". Playwright Simon Gray was commissioned to write the screenplay, and Pat O'Connor chosen to direct. In contrast to the book, which is narrated as a recollection by Birkin as an old man, the film is set entirely in the 1920s, except for a brief moment towards the end. In initial drafts of the screenplay, Gray had included a narrator, but O'Connor felt this was not the correct way to present the story: Simply put, this book has given me all I look for: a cascade of words that ring so true and are beautifully written; wonderfully realised characters even though we know them so briefly; a perfect setting (especially for an Anglophile who loves art and archaeology); and a simple story about complex people. Birkin considers odd couples more than once, especially Keach and Alice, and how utterly different they are at home, compared with elsewhere. Or is it a condition we only perceive in retrospection remembering the past through the rose-tinted glasses of memory?There is a full cast of local characters; the local vicar and his beautiful wife and the rival Wesleyan Methodists. Carr, being brought up in the Wesleyan tradition captures the chapel rituals and attendees very well. Carr said he wanted the effect to be something like Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree in relation to the local characters. Carr was born in Thirsk Junction, Carlton Miniott, Yorkshire, into a Wesleyan Methodist family. His father Joseph, the eleventh son of a farmer, went to work for the railways, eventually becoming a station master for the North Eastern Railway. Carr was given the same Christian name as his father and the middle name Lloyd, after David Lloyd George, the Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer. He adopted the names Jim and James in adulthood. His brother Raymond, who was also a station master, called him Lloyd. Birkin is not the only outsider. There’s the grumpy vicar, Keach (who resents the disruption caused by the restoration), his very young and beautiful wife, Alice, and finally, Charles Moon. All four are 30 or younger, though Keach in particular seems older. Netflix has yet again let me down. There is a movie from 1987 starring Kenneth Branagh and Colin Firth, but Netflix does not have it. At this point it appears I will have to buy it to see it. I can only hope that they do the book justice. That description reminded me of some of the grisly medieval Romanesque religious art in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, including these I photographed a few years ago:

J.L. Carr (Author of A Month in the Country) - Goodreads J.L. Carr (Author of A Month in the Country) - Goodreads

That 1920 summer in the village of Oxgodby is remembered many decades later by Tom as a season of uncharacteristic warmth and brightness, more luminous than ever because of the contrast with the Hell he has experienced before it, a moment of 'splendor in the grass' that would last him a lifetime. The story of the little church in Oxgodby is his gift to us, the way he wants to be remembered as a man and an artist. Like a greedy child [who] hoards the best chocolates in the box. Each day I used to avoid taking in the whole by giving exaggerate attention to the particular”. Don't miss this one, a more than pleasant diversion for a Sunday afternoon. You will be right there in Oxgodby falling in love, gnashing your teeth over the absurdity of it all,enjoying the peacefulness of knowing, really knowing you are happy, and you too might discover the importance of lingering over a moment, a glorious moment when life seems to be working for you and not against you. If you are like me you might even find yourself yelling "for godsakes take her in your arms and kiss her." Highly Recommended! In particular, he forms a close friendship with archaeologist James Moon, another war veteran, who like Birkin has been emotionally scarred. Moon is employed in the village under the same bequest, working to uncover a mysterious lost grave, but is more interested in discovering the remains of an earlier Saxon church building in the field next to the churchyard. The masked handprint left by an anonymous individual on a wall may invite from its hidden place for its uncovering and thereby regenerate another, unrelated, individual. A mouth of Hell depicted, beautifully, may summon up the will to live after walking through a war of hell.

Drama

Denis Gifford (editor) British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film, Volume 2, 1895-1994, p. 960, at Google Books Birkin, a Londoner, discovers a visceral empathy with and appreciation of nature and the countryside from his very first morning.