I read this book for my village Book Group January choice. There is no doubt that Chris Stewart writes very well. He has great powers of description and I was
able to visualise much of the landscape and setting of the derelict farm that
he bought, probably in the '70s. His
prose flowed really well although sometimes I felt he was a bit
pretentious in his turns of phrase… why refer to someone’s organs of perception
when the use of the word 'eyes' would serve very well? But that’s a quibble and maybe I picked up on
that because by that stage in the book I was feeling really irritated with this
man.
OK, he made an error of judgement
with Pedro, buying the farm at a so-called bargain price, allowing him to
continue to perch in the house even when Ana arrived to join her husband. He seemed to be reluctant to allow Pedro to
return to town life. How could he
imagine his wife would enjoy having a rather ignorant local under their
roof? He seemed very phlegmatic when he
discovered Pedro had been loud-mouthing him all about town. Then you had Arsenio, not a bad name, for a
man who steadfastly refused to understand anything Stewart said in Spanish. And talking of names I thought the
self-fulfilling name that the so-called terminally ill woman called Expira had, was
amusing. Only in Domingo did you meet a
character who seemed to have integrity, loyalty and respect for his
neighbour. It didn’t paint a
particularly good picture of Andalucians.
There was little mention of the good qualities they might have as a
people. Their purpose in life seemed to
be to pull one over on foreigners brave enough to venture onto their
territory. Then you had the series of
events in which Stewart came out the worse for the experience. His forays into the keeping of poultry, the
selling of lambs, the acquisition of dogs who might have actually brought
something positive to the farmstead. I
found it hard to credit that someone could continue to fail to learn, and take
pleasure in giving the reader chapter and verse
on his failures. He painted a
picture of a rather gullible and hapless character to whom life’s vicissitudes and
misfortunes just happen. I did not think
the description of the pig slaughter sat very comfortably in the book, I
struggled with the savaging of the sheep, feeling this might have been
avoidable. Stewart couldn’t even point a wall
without realising that no amount of cement will fix a wobbly one.
In writing this review I do
recognise that I have had a complete failure of sense of humour. But I don’t think that is all my fault. It is partly the job of the author to engage
his reader. He had a book in him and it
was up to him to sell it to the reading public.
I think if I had understood Stewart’s remit - to give the reader laughs
at his expense - I would have approached the book differently. As it is I see that the author has made a career out
of his role as a sometimes misguided optimist (I noticed he had had a spell as a
clown in a circus so the clues were there early on) and he is the author of
further travel memoirs notably Three
Ways to Capsize a Boat described as a charming and lyrical read, awash with the joy of discovery, from an immensely likeable narrator. People like Stewart will certainly keep the RNLI on their toes. Don't put me down for that sequel.
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