Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Notes on Sunset Song  by Lewis Grassic Gibbon

BBBC Meeting on Thursday 7^th 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