- Paperback: 218 pages
- Publisher: Ronsdale Press; 1 edition (Jan 16 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 092187023X
- ISBN-13: 978-0921870234
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 14.7 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #971,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
GROWING UP on a farm is not always the pastoral experience we see on "Road to Avonlea." Sometimes it's more like combat against the forces of nature, which is the impression left by Harold Rhenisch's Out of the Interior.
This book is a form of autobiography; partly a memoir of growing up in the Similkameen Valley in British Columbia, and partly a chronicle of agricultural life. And as one who is unfamiliar with the territory, I was impressed by Rhenisch's evocation of that huge, unruly landscape. Yet, as the author admits in his prologue, it's the figure of his father who dominates the text. Rhenisch senior is a compelling character; he lived through the war in Germany and came to Canada to farm, although his personality -- nervous, impatient, and angry --would not seem to be well suited to that life.
The sections in which Rhenisch's father talks about his life during the war have a directness andforce often lacking elsewhere. Rhenisch tends to interpolate philosophic rambles, even when he's writing about spraying trees or keeping sheep, and sentences and sometimes entire paragraphs are overloaded with metaphors. Some of the metaphoric expressions are effective, but others don't hold up under close scrutiny. Consider this description of an eccentric neighbour: "He had become a night lake that you walk into in August, but neither see nor feel on your skin -- it is as thin as the air, a caught wind."
Maybe this could work in a briefer form such as poetry, but Out of the Interior has too many long stretches of prose filled with expansive description. As a result, the narrative has no clear destination, and by the end of the book I felt as though I'd just staggered through 40 acres of Nova Scotia scrub pines.
Virginia Beaton (Books in Canada) -- Books in Canada
This book is a form of autobiography; partly a memoir of growing up in the Similkameen Valley in British Columbia, and partly a chronicle of agricultural life. And as one who is unfamiliar with the territory, I was impressed by Rhenisch's evocation of that huge, unruly landscape. Yet, as the author admits in his prologue, it's the figure of his father who dominates the text. Rhenisch senior is a compelling character; he lived through the war in Germany and came to Canada to farm, although his personality -- nervous, impatient, and angry --would not seem to be well suited to that life.
The sections in which Rhenisch's father talks about his life during the war have a directness andforce often lacking elsewhere. Rhenisch tends to interpolate philosophic rambles, even when he's writing about spraying trees or keeping sheep, and sentences and sometimes entire paragraphs are overloaded with metaphors. Some of the metaphoric expressions are effective, but others don't hold up under close scrutiny. Consider this description of an eccentric neighbour: "He had become a night lake that you walk into in August, but neither see nor feel on your skin -- it is as thin as the air, a caught wind."
Maybe this could work in a briefer form such as poetry, but Out of the Interior has too many long stretches of prose filled with expansive description. As a result, the narrative has no clear destination, and by the end of the book I felt as though I'd just staggered through 40 acres of Nova Scotia scrub pines.
Virginia Beaton (Books in Canada) -- Books in Canada
Book Description
Extending the forms of autobiography, Rhenisch explores the immigrant experience in the orchard gardens of the Okanogan. The search for paradise in the new land, its discovery and loss, are portrayed through the experiences of a young boy struggling against the authoritarianism of patriarchy. This prose memoir of unrivalled intensity and beauty helps to fill a gap in the history of twentieth-century Canada.
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