I saw this book mentioned in a list of books set in Scotland which caught my eye because we are planning a trip to Scotland next year. This book was mentioned as the one that was consistently rated the best Scottish book. So, of course, I had to read it. Luckily my public library had one copy in its catalogue.

Grassic Gibbon does a wonderful job of setting the stage for this book by describing the small valley of Kinraddie (which is fictional) and all the people who live there at the beginning of the book. Kinraddie is a little south and west of Aberdeen and quite near the shore of the North Sea. Most of the people in the valley don't own the land they farm so they could be turned out at any time. Chris Guthrie is the central figure of this book. Her father had brought the family to Kinraddie in the early part of the 20th century. The family consisted of 6 children at the time: Will, the oldest, Chris, Dod, Alec and then two twins who were just infants at the time of the move. Chris's mother was worn out with the childbearing and when she became pregnant again she killed herself and the twins. Chris, who was a smart girl and was planning to continue her education, had to leave school. Her father was a strict man with a violent temper. He and Will were always fighting and finally Will couldn't take it any more. He left the farm and Scotland. Chris, who had been very close to Will, was thus left to do even more of the work. Her father had a stroke or a heart attack and was left bedridden. Chris held the farm together but couldn't look after the two small boys so they went to live with a childless aunt. After her father's death she fought to keep the land and she was able to do so with the help of her new husband, Ewan. For a few years they had a happy marriage and a happy life and then the conflict that we know as World War I started. That changed everything but Chris persevered. A son was born and maybe he will continue on farming.

I made liberal use of the glossary at the back of the book as much of the dialect is sprinkled with words that are peculiar to that time and place. I learned, for instance, that bigging is a building and glunch means to mutter half-threatenly. I saw some reviews that complained about the use of this Scots idiom but, for me, it added to the charm of the story-telling. ( )

Funny and sad, caustic and compassionate; the first and best in the Scots Quair trilogy. ( )

Oh, it was fantastic. The cadence lilted and flowed like nothing else I've read in years, and the characters were real and full of life. I fell in love with Chris' life and it tore at me when things began to change and fall apart. I want desperately to read the second and third books.

This is definitely not something to be read on the train to work, though. This is something you'll want to find a comfortable and quiet corner to curl up and and disappear for hours at a time. It's magical. ( )

Grande ritmicità (Sprung Rhythm) della prosodia e una protagonista cui non si può che voler bene. Sentimentalismo. Amor di patria. La Scozia. La Grande Guerra che porta la Modernità e che cambia l'Aberdeenshire per sempre.

(La traduzione deve aver creato non pochi problemi, il ricorso a termini dialettali italiani non rende giustizia all'impasto Scots dell'originale.) ( )

Why did I read it? Sunset Song is supposedly regarded as an important Scottish novel, and is (sometimes) studied in secondary schools, because it touches on important themes from the time period in which it is set. I thought I might enjoy it.

What is it about? Sunset Song follows the life of Chris(tine) Guthrie from arrival in Kinraddie (north-east of Scotland) as a young girl in the early 20th century. The Guthries' lease a croft, and we follow the fortunes of the Guthries, and other families in the rural community through to the end of the first world war.

What did I like? Very little. Kudos to the narrator, Eileen McCallum, for her vocal skills, both as a speaker, and singer when required. Ms McCallum created unique voices for each character, and her Scots accent was such that the dialogue was still intelligible. If there had been a duller narrator, I might not have been able to finish the novel at all. The one star rating is entirely for Eileen McCallum.

The author used some very interesting, and unique similes.

What didn't I like? From the start, this novel strained to keep my attention. It opens with a description of every family within Kinraddie, and tells quite a bit of their history, some of which occurs after the novel's actual end, as I was later to learn. This opening section of the novel felt interminable. I kept waiting for some semblance of a plot, and, after quite some time, began to wonder if there was one, or if this was a collection of short stories.

The descriptions of people, and places seemed to stretch on, and on, too. I like rural settings, I like descriptions of rural places that can evoke a character of the land itself. Other authors manage this beautifully, and elegantly, without devoting paragraph, after paragraph to the description of a single character before relating their part in tale.

The inner thoughts of Chris were far from cheery, which is not a complaint in itself, but Chris's sombre, morbid musings were just too much to bear for this listener. I found myself turning the volume down, waiting a few minutes before turning the volume back up, and then hoping that there was movement in the time line. I don't think I missed much by doing this. I got quite depressed listening to these sections of inner dialogue, and there were too many of them in my opinion.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon constantly jumped forward in time, and then would proceed to reflect on the events between the last point at which he left the tale, and the point to which he had just jumped. Why not just progress in a linear fashion? I am of the opinion that nothing would have been lost in the telling by doing so. I have seen this time jump technique used to great effect in other novels, but, in Sunset Song, it was pointless.

Other thoughts: My sympathies go to any secondary student for whom Sunset Song is required reading.

I get it: There is no such thing as the rural idyll; it's a tough living. It is not necessary to cram your story with as many instances of human defect as you can recall into one novel.

Would I recommend it? No. Nor will I be reading the remaining two books in the trilogy, because I cannot face any more dark, depressing navel-gazing. ( )