Having read Cynan
Jones’ powerfully brilliant Cove last year I have brought his other
works.
The Long Dry was his
first novel, and the same lightness of touch is present here as in
the Cove, an economy of writing – in just 100 pages he creates a
world complete in itself – with all the intensity of human emotions
and human relationships in the context of the struggles of ordinary
life.
The narrative voice
switches between husband and wife – balancing them skilfully and
pointing to how much goes unsaid between them – and occasionally it
even finds it way to be the voice of the Cow – which adds a
softness, not quiet humour, as moment of relief from what is at times
a fairly bleak tale.
The relationship
with “the land” - the extent of rootedness in it is a key theme –
a tough relationship on a small farm – but compared with the
rootlessness that so many now feel an attractive bondage perhaps?
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