Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Start discussion here for Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee.

Summary
Cider with Rosie is a wonderfully vivid memoir of childhood in a remote Cotswold village, a village before electricity or cars, a timeless place on the verge of change. Growing up amongst the fields and woods and characters of the place, Laurie Lee depicts a world that is both immediate and real and belongs to a now-distant past.
~Penguin Books

About the Author
Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE, was an English poet, novelist, and screenwriter. His work was retrospective, that of the countryman in exile and in it he was always youthful. He believed that "the only truth is what you remember", although he sometimes worried about what he called "the censorship of self" and "some failure between honesty and nerve". Access to a lyrical language gave him just the right balance he needed to record what had happened to him.
~adapted from The Independent

I read this book and really liked the atmosphere the author creates of a time past.

I am really enjoying this.

I have three other books by this author and enjoyed every one.

I enjoyed this memoir of childhood in a rural English village. The book takes place in Gloucestershire during the time of WWI. It is a time on the brink of change - the last days of a bygone era and more traditional ways of living. Laurie lives in poverty with his mother and 7 siblings (Dad left when the author was very young). He recalls his coming of age through various life events. His childhood was truly rough, but still, he portrays it as a joyful and magical time.

The memoir is beautifully told and very descriptive. The reader is not only reading the passages but experiencing them.

I enjoyed this one, it was very sweet and honest.

I expected to love this, and parts of it were great. But some chapters were kind of boring to me and I skimmed quickly through them. I was surprised at chapters that hardly mentioned Laurie or his family much at all such as the one describing the two old ladies who shared the other part of his house. The ladies were quirky but not what I was interested in reading about. On the other hand, I adored the chapter where he started school. It reminded me that young children can have very funny ideas of what school will be like and not want to return when it doesn't meet their expectations.

I plan to continue with the next book in the trilogy since I seemed to enjoy Laurie's story more as he got older. I found it amazing that he survived his childhood since he was so sickly as a baby. He was terribly lucky to have fairly caring sisters since his mother's care was rather haphazard.