Thursbitch

by Alan Garner | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 1843430878 Global Overview for this book
Registered by shovelmonkey1 of Crystal Palace, Greater London United Kingdom on 12/26/2010
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by shovelmonkey1 from Crystal Palace, Greater London United Kingdom on Sunday, December 26, 2010
Another christmas book for the 1001 books pile! Thanks Dad.

Journal Entry 2 by shovelmonkey1 at Liverpool, Merseyside United Kingdom on Monday, April 11, 2011
I was very unsure about this book when I first started reading it however, once I'd reconciled myself to the two very different styles of narrative I found this book to be absolutely brilliant. Ironically it was the local Derbyshire dialect narrative that I started off liking the least but this was the one I came to enjoy the most as the story progressed.

This is a story of two seperate events (neither of which are ever clearly explained) taking place in the same landscape but the sheer power of the land blurs the boundaries between the past and the present and effectively forms a bridge that only two of the characters are certain they are experiencing. Sal can see people moving through the landscape but what she is seeing is a past echo (or a hallucination brought on by her terminal illness?), similarly her counterparts can see her moving through the same landscape but fail to realise that she is moving across the same place 250 years hence.

The descriptions of the landscape are fantastic and the powerful; they invoke the land as a place perceived by people who know it so well that every hollow way, nook, gully, stream and brow have their own names and represent elements of old times, old gods and older beliefs which makes the story very compelling. The spiritual and physical connection to the land is something that we have lost today. We can no longer read or understand our landscape in the same way, we move through it but we do not feel it or listen to what the land is telling us. This book is a reminder that everything that happens in a place leaves an indelible mark, like a finger print in the physicality. It is also a reminder of pagan gods and old ways which existed before the Christian church cleaned and homogenised local beliefs and traditions. This book did also remind me in some places of Peter Ackroyd's work as he also likes to have two parallel times existing in the same place with little haemoraghes where one bit of time bleeds into another allowing people to see each other across the void.

Journal Entry 3 by shovelmonkey1 at Crystal Palace, Greater London United Kingdom on Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Released 3 yrs ago (6/3/2020 UTC) at Crystal Palace, Greater London United Kingdom

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent by post to my friend and colleague who is a Cheshire gent born and bred and who i think will appreciate this combination of local dialect, archaeology and the plague references which seem strangely appropriate during the coronavirus lock down! Enjoy!

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