Monday, January 2, 2023

A Month in the Country (J.L. Carr)

Three years after he experienced the horrors of WWI at Passchendaele, Londoner Tom Birkin takes up residence in a small village for a month to recover the church's Medieval wall-painting. Living in the belfry, he finds solace in the beauty of simple things and quaint ways of the townsfolk. But "You can't make it last forever." Like any good thing in life, "You can only have this piece of cake once; you can't keep on munching away at it. Sad, but there it is! You'll find that, once you've dragged yourself off round the corner, there'll be another view; it may even be a better one." Though "for a few of us there will always be a tugging at the heart – knowing a precious moment gone and we not there."

Well-written, short, and poignant, this was a nice reflection on enjoying your work and the 'little' things in life while simultaneously not holding a given time or moment too closely, understanding the transitory nature of this world.

Rating: A

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