- Hardcover: 576 pages
- Publisher: Viking; 1st ed 1st printg edition (3 Aug 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670865060
- ISBN-13: 978-0670865062
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 5.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 682,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Set in Scotland at the turn of the century, this story revolves around Watchie Leckie, obsessed with the craft of watchmaking. He is commissioned to restore time to Aberlevin by repairing the village clock, destroyed a century before. This book was shortlisted for the Dillons First Fiction Award.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is truely a great novel full of characters you can warm to and events you can believe. Although the use of strong Scottish dialect make it difficult to follow it is well worth sticking with and hey you mae well ken fits said to you next time your North of the border. The plot and narrative style are refreshingly strong and straight forward and the optimism and faith in the humanity of the characters tends to leave you with a warm glow and a feeling that all in this novel at least things tend to work to a fitting conclusion.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I cannot believe that nobody has reviewed this book before. It has the lot - believable characters, great plot, historical authenticity and interesting information about clocks (!) The author maintains superb narrative tension and the whole forms a hugely satisfying read that is far removed from the average British middle-class "ideas" novel. The book was underrated on its release and, judging by the fact that no one has reviewed Alex Benzie's latest effort, the same goes for that one too. I have just ordered it and hope for more of the same from a very promising author. Incidentally, I bought it for a friend for Christmas and she loved it too, so it's not just me!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fine debut novel from a Scottish writer who has a lot more to say than many bigger, showier names I could mention. Perhaps the fact that it is historical and set in a country town (rather than the usual contemporary Urban Grimm school of Scottish fiction) has something to do with its relative neglect; but that's a poor excuse.
Benzie obviously knows his literature, and the opening historical pre-amble leading up to a hanging for sheep-stealing and the destruction of the town clock, owes something to the openings of Grassic Gibbon's "Sunset Song" and Halldor Laxness' "Independent People"; but it's still marvellous stuff in a thrillingly dark voice.
Thereafter, we get a touching and humane story featuring some very well realised characters - Watchie himself is a particularly likeable creation. The theme of clocks and the passage of time which runs through the book is skilfully handled. My only quibble (and it's a relatively minor one) is that the book, although actually fairly long on a straight page count, somehow feels too short on coming to the end - some loose ends have been left untied, and the novel's darker undercurrents could have been taken further. All the same, I'd recommend this to anyone.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Loved it.
I loved this book . It was a bit tricky initially getting into the scottish dialect but once you had got the jist of the main word differences you hardly noticed it and it added to... Read more
Published on 30 May 2010 by john mckenzie
A wonderful book
You should never read any book twice - but this is one of the few exceptions. Believable characters (you really want to know what happened to them), a clever plot and beautifully... Read more
Published on 14 Nov 2008 by David Boddy
over-rated and contrived
I have to agree with the one other reviewer here who has given the book 2 stars. I'm all for beautiful descriptive prose, but Benzie's is way over the top, and often feels very... Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2006 by Dentarthurdent
More description than story...
An interesting novel to be sure but wordy in the extreme as well as very difficult to understand. An heroic effort written in the vernacular of rural Scotland a century or two... Read more
Published on 24 July 2001
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