From Publishers Weekly
Widely praised in his native Scotland, Gunn (1891-1973) has been overlooked in the canon of world literature, an injustice that may be redressed by his American publisher's commendable program of U.S. reprints. His sixth novel to be released in the States by Walker (after Young Art and Old Hector ) sensitively and poetically evokes life in a Scottish fishing village and a closely knit family as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Hugh MacBeth. Like Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner, Gunn is a masterful storyteller who captures the particular ethos of a bygone world in his characters and settings. He mingles sense and sensibility in his descriptions of such key moments as the return of fishing vessels after a violently stormy night and the final supper before Hugh's older brother leaves for Australia; his perceptive portrayal of Hugh's confused feelings of love, anger and fear of his mother's possible death is equally fine. In the hands of this masterful writer, a simple story becomes a flash of poetry, at once violent and gentle, poignant in its tone and unique in its narrative.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The coming of age of a 12-year-old boy in a small fishing village in 1930s Scotland is the central theme of this brief, endearing novel by one of Scotland's most revered writers. Gunn's descriptive, sensual passages describing life near the ocean are haunting, their charming simplicity reminiscent of Steinbeck. Hugh MacBeth, the youngest in a family of two boys and two girls, is wrestling with his emerging manhood. He struggles with himself as well as with the sea, which seems to control all the characters' destinies in some manner. First published in Great Britain, this novel makes its debut on American shores following Gunn's other novels, The Silver Bough ( LJ 8/89), Other Landscape ( LJ 3/15/90), and The Key of the Chest (Walker, 1988). Gunn died at age 82 in 1973, having written more than two dozen novels since 1926. Let's hope that more of them will be published in the United States. Recommended reading for general collections.
- Marlene Lee, Reedsport Branch Lib., Ore.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
