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..."

This is a near-perfect little novel. Tranquil, understated, yet one of the most affecting and devastatingly true books I have ever read, it will be imprinted on my brain forever. ( )

A small book, perhaps barely qualifying as a full novel, this story nonetheless delighted for all of its 111 pages. Tom Birkin arrives in the town of Oxgodby immediately after the war, shell-shocked, thrown over for another man by his wife, his life pretty much a shambles, to begin the work of restoring a painting in a church loft which has been hidden behind plaster. As the painting comes to life and light again, so too does Mr. Birkin, engaging in the lives of the Yorkshire inhabitants of the village. A thoroughly satisfying read, one of those books you close with a smile on your face and say “well then!”. ( )

Not to be confused with the Turgenev book of the same name, this is a sweet, lyrical story about a shell-shocked war veteran, employed by a country vicar to restore a mural in the local church. The scene is the remote Yorkshire village of Oxgodby, and the year is 1920. Carr deals with the protagonist’s readjustment and healing in the wake of war.

It is a gem of a book. Carr makes direct reference to the writer Thomas Hardy with obvious admiration, and there is a similar style of character development. There is a poignant, reminiscent and reflective tone, with elements of tragedy and suffering intermingled in the commentary of country life. Carr explores the healing qualities of art and time, and after reading the introduction by Michael Holroyd, there are obvious strong autobiographical undercurrents to the story.

Despite the topics explored, it is an uplifting book. The protagonist, Tom Birkin, arrives at the village in a state of masked despondency – recently deserted by his wife, a victim of WW1, and very short on money. As his relationships develops, his restoration work reveals a medieval mural, and he proceeds to heal and restore his own sense of balance and normalcy. Carr delivers his story in spare prose, using interactions with the country folk and a fellow veteran called Moon, as well as the emerging artistic masterpiece, to reflect on his past sufferings and allow him to come to terms with his memories.

I read this book as a gap between heavier fare, and it was a welcome meditation on the early 20th century adjustments that England faced after WW1, the rise of atheism, codes of Victorian behaviour receding into the past, the healing effect of human interaction. The understated 'Englishness' of the characters was captured perfectly.

Surprisingly haunting for me, I felt it was a deserving candidate for the Booker, although it did not win. It is short, almost a novella at 135 pages, with a poetic quality to the tone and timbre. There is a palpable sense of summer country life, a bright and witty tone to the dialogue, yet the observation of death and marital incongruence, and Tom’s fleeting love interest is explored without loss of this sense of brilliancy and lightness. A very worthwhile read. ( )

A work of quiet genius from a much missed human being! ( )

A classic. Truly. Every time I read it I think it's more technically and artistically perfect. ( )

Short, sweet and unmissable. I loved this pastoral, humane and clever book. ( )

Takes place in 1920 when two men are thrown together by the will request of a lady of the manor. The one to uncover a medieval painting the other to find the grave of an excommunicated medieval ancestor. Both are scarred by the war in different ways but the tasks and the community allow for a healing of sorts. All very English of unstated strong feelings and possibilities unlived as various loves remain unrequited.

Hence why it made a brilliant film...There's no need to rush this movie, it's here to be savoured. If Colin Firth & Kenneth Branagh weren't enough of a temptation (both looking disgracefully young), the colour and pace of this film are delightful. Layers of paint are dabbed away showing a beautiful medieval painting, while layers of emotion are oh-so-subtly revealed too. I loved the understated approach to portraying the trauma of attempting to ease back into a 'normal' life after experiencing the 'hell on earth ' of trench warfare. I now want a month in the country! Enjoy this one with a bowl of fresh braeburn apples... ( )

What a wee gem this book is! Affectionate, but with suppressed anger at all kinds of injustices. Very affecting. ( )

Possibly the second copy that I have of this. Just want to read it because it's meant to be a classic.

signed by the author on title page, with the date 1991 ( )

Short novel about a young man uncovering a fresco in a village church in the summer of 1920.

Tom Birkin, as an old man looks back to the time when he was a WWI survivor with a nervous facial tick and had been deserted by his wife, and when travelled to the village of Oxgodby to uncover a mural found in the local church. There he meets Moon, another WWI veteran, who is supposedly there to find an unmarked grave but is actually using the time to study the remains of an old church. This brings both of them into contact with the Reverend Keach and his wife Alice, whom Birkin falls in love with.
Birkin is also dragged into the life of the Ellerbecks, which leads him into the Wesleyan community, Sunday school and preaching.

It would be easy to dismiss this novel as a piece of nostalgia - the village of Oxgodby is standard creation in English bucolic literature: remote from the trappings of "civilisation", strong sense of community, nestled in beautiful countryside, etc. - but Carr's approach is more interesting than that; if this is nostalgia it is nostalgia for what could have been rather than what was. The villagers are not the collection of eccentrics that so often provide local colour, they are portrayed as real individuals - no more tellingly than in the case of the Reverend Keach, who could so easily have been the pantomime villain but Carr cleverly flips our exceptions to create a sympathetic character, one who is at much at sea as the two veterans.

Carr could just as easily have bathed his characters in bathos, hammering in the tragedy of the Great War. What we get are glimpses, small memories that makes the sense of loss more poignant. We also get honesty - when it is revealed that Moon was dishonourably discharged from the service for immorality, despite being awarded medals for bravery, Birkin is indignant but admits that the relationship between the two of them was never the same again.

The book is beautifully structured; Birkin arriving in the rain, spending a perfect summer in the country, and leaving as the coldness of autumn is in the air. He finishes uncovering the fresco, which is revealed to a be masterpiece; Moon finds the body outside the graveyard and both discoveries are beautifully dovetailed. In the end, the true revelations are one of self.

Subtle and full of grace, Carr's prose is wonderful at revealing the small moments in life that are the really important, that we are often drawn back to the momentary window of opportunity that has disappeared almost before we have acknowledged it's existence.

Like the summer in the novel - gentle, refreshing, beautiful.
( )