I was surprised while reading that this has attained 'classic' status - I thought it was a little clumsy.

The ending, by which I mean the last 5 pages, is very satisfying however: moving, true to what has gone before and just the right mix of romanticism and regret, and how life steers the course between them. ( )

Not as good as I had hoped, but still a fairly enjoyable read. Birkin, a somewhat shell-shocked World War I vet, is sent to a remote English town to restore a mural in the local church. Thanks to the receptiveness of the locals, he almost feels a part of life again--and then it is time for him to move along. ( )

The edition I read is a beautiful copy from the Folio Society. The cover art and the illustrations inside are absolutely gorgeous. This is a short little book (my edition came in at 121 pages), which on the surface seems to be about nothing much at all. However, this initial impression is quite deceptive. My favorite thing about the book hands-down is the setting. Carr does a wonderful job of evoking a sense of time and place. The book is set in the small village of Oxgodby, a rural area of Yorkshire just after the end of WWI. Tom Birkin has come to Oxgodby to rescue an old mural in the local church, much to the dismay of the Vicar. When he arrives, Tom is still trying to cope with everything he experienced during the war, as well as the fact that his wife ran off. Tom begins the slow process of healing as he slowly immerses himself in the slow paced village life in Oxgodby. In addition to the beautiful setting, the quirky characters and some tough subject matter, there is also humor in this tiny little book. Reading this book made me want to slow down, which is definitely a good thing for me. Go on over to Cornflower Books and you can read what everyone else thought about the book. Most everyone liked it; though, there were a couple people who felt it lacked enough action for their tastes. For me, that is precisely what made this book enjoyable. For me, characters, setting and language always win out over plot any day. ( )

A Month in the Country is J. L. Carr's love letter to Yorkshire. Tom Birkin, fresh from the abandonment of his wife for another man and still wounded from the First World War, spends one glorious summer in the village of Oxgodby, restoring a medieval wall painting in its church. It soon becomes apparent that this is going to be the happiest summer of his life. He gets recruited to the local chapel by the boisterous stationmaster, becomes the companion of an archeologist secretly mapping out an Anglo-Saxon chapel while pretending to look for the medieval grave of an old benefactress' excommunicated ancestor, and carries out a chaste, but impossible, love affair with the vicar's beautiful wife. The village characters are so complex and interesting that it makes you wish that you could live in Oxgodby and mingle with them, if only for a short time, as Birken did. The novel's best point, however, is the poetic sense of longing which tinges the novel. Because the narrator is an older Birken, writing years after he has left Oxgodby, you are able to feel the same feeling of halcyon days and the longing for the return of a lost time. You feel Birken allow himself to open up and live again, as the summer goes on. This is one of those books that you are sorry to leave but at the same time feel a sense of contentment at a story well-told, so I shall leave this review as Laeticia's husband did her: "Ah, amantissima et delectissima. Vale..." ( )

THE most beautiful book that I have ever read. A physically and emotionally marred WWI veteran spends a summer restoring a Medieval church in the English countryside. Contains my favourite line from a book:
"We can ask and ask, but we can never have again what we once thought ours forever..."