The Dig

Sometimes you have such a pronounced anti reaction to a book you wonder if you read the same novel as everyone else. I hugely disliked this novella, and only stuck with it for the small mercy that it was short.

The Dig has a solid 4 star average on LT and 4.5 on Amazon, and this blurb (from the jacket) made it sound an attractive read:

Deep in rural Wales, a farmer is struggling through lambing season when he becomes aware that his land is being stalked by a badger-baiter who brings with him the stark threat of violence. Built of the interlocking fates of these two solitary men, this is a searing story of isolation and loss, from a writer of uncommon gifts.

Nowhere does it warn you that despite its brevity Jones manages to squeeze in a show more horrifying amount of in-depth descriptions of animal cruelty and general animal horrors. The scene on badger baiting felt like it would never end - pages and pages of minute detail on torture that was simply unbearable, followed soon after by a grizzly scene of the farmer's ewe struggling to birth a deformed lamb with two heads, one of which comes off during the birth (at least I think it was during the birth - I simply had to skip over those paragraphs in the end as it was too unbearable to read).

Cynan Jones can write, I'll give him that, and certainly in vivid technicolour, but dear goodness - who on earth wants to read such graphic descriptions of cruelty? I honestly can't remember reading a book before which has made me feel so stressed - relaxed leisure time this was not.

1 star - Cynan Jones is definitely a writing talent, so I'll give him his due and a star for that, but otherwise horrifying. I could have read this in a night but I could only bear to read a few pages at a time once the badger baiting got going. show less

Ferocious and tender without sentimentality, Cynan Jones has a gift for telling stories that give us a sense of earth-bound, hard scrabble rural lives without a hint of cliché. In The Dig, we follow a badger hunter — who knew this was a thing?, and a farmer in lambing season who has recently lost his wife and wrestles with her absence. And as always, we follow this corner of Wales, which could be anywhere, and everything that grows from it and walks upon it.

This story is in line with my limited vision of Wales as a place of rugged individualism, stark beauty, and a universal longing for contentment, only here it’s sought from quiet, persistent lives that stain the land with their blood, sweat, and tears.

I love Jones’ gritty, show more clever, unadorned prose. He builds his stories with a sparse originality that is unlike anything I’ve ever read. His similes are utterly unique. In the process, he allows us to relate to the subtle, persistent emotions of characters whose lives are, externally, nothing like our own. There is a brutalism in his work, as here, but his characters are relatable, which is paramount to me.

I’m going to read everything he has written. I’m glad I found him. show less

An unusual prose style, pared right back to the essential, and quite a disturbing novel with horrendous descriptions of animal cruelty. But that said, the author’s writing is distinctly other, and the narrative is compelling even if I wanted to scream at times. Perhaps not for the sensitive type this nevertheless is a solid 5 stars from me. I’ve had such great results from Welsh writers recently (Caradog Pritchard, Caryl Lewis) I am now completely sold on finding more. Suggestions welcome!

A stark, uncompromising and poetic novella which documents the hard lives of two solitary men in Welsh sheep country.

Daniel is a sheep farmer, coping alone with lambing after his wife has been killed in an accident. His story is interwoven with that of "the big man", who operates beyond the law as a badger baiter. Both of these stories are told in simple and unsentimental language that retains a beauty and a poetic precision. The two men's paths eventually collide in a brutal conclusion the precise nature of which is left unsaid.

Jones is clearly a very promising writer, and this book promises to remain in the mind. I knew nothing of his work before picking up this book, but I am very glad I did.

When I think I've been thoroughly disgusted with the humans, I find another example of their vileness and violence. This story is about one gentle man who loses his wife and a cruel man who makes his living finding Animals for humans to be cruel to. Beautifully and sparsely written.

A deep sadness at the heart of this novel. The writer knows about grief and loss and writes about it very well. The two men are both like badgers deep in their holes. The big man is almost like Daniel's badger and vice versa. The cruelty is shocking and sad too. Powerfully written.

A short book. Weaving two stories or is it three? Of life and death. The death of a badger and the new life of lambs. A farmer and a badger baiter whose paths inevitably cross. Neatly enough done even if there is a righteous inevitability about the ending. Too many jarringly inapt adjectives scattered around in an attempt to find a different style of writing about nature. Once the book has settled down and the narrative takes over from the description it gets better.