Notes on Sunset Song
by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
BBBC Meeting on Thursday 7th of December 2017 at
the Hop Pole in the Upper Bristol Rd.
Almost a full house, Richard being the only absentee but he
had sent his notes prior to the meeting which we tried to ignore so as to avoid
undue influence.
This book was chosen by Mark W on the back of a film which
he had enjoyed and therefore investigated the book upon which it was based,
finding the following quote on the Polygon edition: ‘Voted the ‘Best Scottish
Book of All Time’. Interestingly two of the Group watched the film for
differing reasons, one because he liked the book and the other because he
didn’t, but both didn’t enjoy the film, again for different reasons. We will
come back to the film later.
This was one of those books which produced very different
responses which seemed to depend on whether one was prepared to persevere with
the opening 100 pages or so. It is worth saying at the outset that one of the
key characteristics of this book is that it is written with a number of words
which are probably best described as ‘local vernacular’ which at best took some
getting used to and at worst were so off putting that it made the book ‘a bit
of a slog’ for some and ‘unreadable’ for others.
So there were essentially two camps: those who decided to
persevere and those who didn’t. The fact that some versions of the text
included maps, notes and a glossary was a surprise to some and some commented
that this might have made a bit of a difference.
In introducing the book Mark W made comparisons with ‘A
Month in the Country’, the previous month’s book and Thomas Hardy, particularly
‘Far from the Madding Crowd’. In
addition to the use of local dialect, themes picked up in the Group discussion and
by Richard in his notes were :
·
The demise of a rural way of life and gradual
modernisation of farming and rural life as a whole although there were no rose
tinted spectacles here and the poverty and hard work was presented without any affection.
This in contrast to ‘A Month in the Country’ which was a more affectionate look
back at the same period.
·
The strong female protagonist and her journey
from growing up within a highly patriarchal society with a dominating abusive
father to a becoming a married woman and subsequently a widow. The role of
women and how difficult and unfair life was for so many of them.
·
The First World War and its devastating effect
on society which challenged the whole class system, magnified by some of the
events occurring abroad, notably in Russia.
Mark
referred to three particular scenes in the book that he felt were particularly
memorable for him. Firstly the point following the funeral when Chris shed tears
for her father after having been pretty cool and matter of fact about the whole
thing. Secondly Ewan’s sudden change of character after having spent some time
training before being sent to the front (which incidentally was a bone of
contention at the time of writing and Gibbon defended himself saying that it
was based on personal experience). Thirdly the final scene up on the moors with
the memorial and the piper playing Flower of the Forest.
Firstly
turning to the language issue Chris B probably summed up the feelings of most,
finding the book ‘….intensely annoying and feeling pretty frustrated at the
beginning, with the mixture of languages making it hard to understand’ . Two of
the Group, Mark T and Chris W didn’t get past the sense of irritation, Mark T
‘didn’t like it at all, felt irritated, and couldn’t get into the story, and
gave up after about 100 pages’. Similarly Chris W also got to about the same
point of the book and then decided ‘not to force myself to finish’ and ‘then
decided to watch the film with his family who all got bored!
The rest of the Group decided to ‘go with the flow’ and most
found that a) the book got easier to read once they had learnt a dozen or so
frequently used words, e.g. meikle =large and quean =girl, and b) that the book
was actually rather enjoyable.
Chis B surprised us by initially saying that he was about
70% through, then adding that he was 70% through the trilogy! His moment of
change was when the book started to focus on Chris who he found to be a ‘great
character, reflective and forceful, and very well placed in the environment’.
He particularly enjoyed the subtle observations of village life, the gossips,
their enjoyment of being shocked by scandalous events, the metaphor of the war
which had a devastating effect on Ewan and subsequently Chris. He particularly
loved her reflections on life and her relationship with the natural world. He
also enjoyed the political observations and the caricatures of the English.
Steve observed that only when he got to the end did he
discover the map which might have helped him had he discovered it sooner. Steve
was particularly reminded of ‘The Archers’ but nevertheless enjoyed the book,
after having found it difficult to get going like most. He got to a point where
he stopped looking words up and was also able to ‘go with the flow’. He observed that there had obviously been a
lot of analysis and study of the book. He did get interested in the plot but
there were no real surprises. He found Chris to be ‘a fantastic character, but
also very funny, with a sly sense of humour’. He also observed that he felt
that he wasn’t really the target audience for the book, and felt a bit
excluded.
Neil generally found the language ok although it was a bit
hard as first. He felt relieved when the father died. He found it interesting
that a male author could come up with such a strong female character and he
found that the book ‘painted a vivid picture of the farm and the land with
great characters’. He observed that the Great War came along and turned the
people against each other, with particular intolerance against those who
disagreed with the War and didn’t want to fight. There was a lot of drama and
it was vividly portrayed. He did add that he, like Chris B, may well be
inspired to read the trilogy. He also added that he was tempted into watching
the film which he didn’t enjoy at all.
Finally, Richard’s written notes indicated general agreement
with most of those who had ‘gone with the flow’, finding the book ‘interesting
and quite enjoyable’. He found that ‘there was a lot of quite lovely language’
and ‘a number of interesting themes’ but ‘overall it won’t go down as one of
the highlight books of the year’.
Scores as follows: Mark W 8.0, Chris B 7.5, Mark T 3.0,
Steve 7.0, Neil 7.5, Chris W 5.0 and Richard 6.0. So quite a mixture (which is
always tends to result in a lively discussion!)
Mark W December 2017
