Highland River (Canongate Classics)
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Having reviewed his life, including fighting in World War I, a mature Scottish man reaches the source of the river he had grown up near in the Highlands. He realizes that the magic he had experienced there as a child was in fact always present in his erstwhile nihilistic life.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a novel to read slowly and reflectively. There are always questions to be asked: Why is Gunn telling us this? What is the deeper significance of the river and the salmon? What is really the nature of Kenn's quest? -Surely more than tracing a river to its source.
To compare this with his earlier "Morning Tide" is to move from straightforward narrative to a far more complex structure, and from a simple enjoyment of times past to a brooding quest for the real nature of the principal character.
There is still the same delightful evocation of landscape and the unique atmosphere of the Highlands; there is still a wealth of acute observation and understanding of childhood, but here, the middle-aged man is hovering like a bird over his younger self, re-living with sharp awareness some of the most telling episodes, always seeking a deeper understanding of himself.
In much of Gunn's writing, the salmon symbolizes knowledge, which suggests a reason for the vivid opening description of young Kenn wrestling with the huge salmon and valiantly attempting to take it home to help feed his family, a theme re-echoed later on as he struggles against the odds to gain his Leaving Certificate.
Like the salmon driven by a mysterious inner force to seek the upper reaches of the river, so Kenn is driven to seek an ever-deeper awareness of his roots among Scotland's people and a glimpse of what ultimately awaits the human spirit.
As I said, a novel for careful reading and thoughtful enjoyment.
To compare this with his earlier "Morning Tide" is to move from straightforward narrative to a far more complex structure, and from a simple enjoyment of times past to a brooding quest for the real nature of the principal character.
There is still the same delightful evocation of landscape and the unique atmosphere of the Highlands; there is still a wealth of acute observation and understanding of childhood, but here, the middle-aged man is hovering like a bird over his younger self, re-living with sharp awareness some of the most telling episodes, always seeking a deeper understanding of himself.
In much of Gunn's writing, the salmon symbolizes knowledge, which suggests a reason for the vivid opening description of young Kenn wrestling with the huge salmon and valiantly attempting to take it home to help feed his family, a theme re-echoed later on as he struggles against the odds to gain his Leaving Certificate.
Like the salmon driven by a mysterious inner force to seek the upper reaches of the river, so Kenn is driven to seek an ever-deeper awareness of his roots among Scotland's people and a glimpse of what ultimately awaits the human spirit.
As I said, a novel for careful reading and thoughtful enjoyment.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Never had I expected to read a book about a boy wrestling with a fish. So great was this story that a statue to the boy Kenn, is displayed on the docks in Dunbeath. Excellent reading. I loved this book!
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Book was exactly as described and delivered very quickly that despite the snow and ice all over the country 10 out of 10
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