Play Book Tag discussion

Clear by Carys Davies is set in 19th century Scotland on a remote island during the time of the Scots Highland Clearances when residents were removed from their homes to make way for sheep in their place.

John Ferguson, an impoverished minister leaves his wife, Mary and travels to an island to do the bidding of his employer and removed the one lone resident from the island, Ivar.

This is a spare short book and it is written beautifully. Of Ivar it says:
He’d spent most of his time knitting, mainly sitting in his great chair next to the hearth but also sometimes on the stool in the byre with Pegi, occasionally talking to her but mostly
just sitting in her company with a sock or a cap or whatever else he was making. Walking along the bank between the two low waters in the lightly moving wind, he thought about that, the pleasure of it—sitting with Pegi and quietly knitting; Pegi very still, his hands barely moving as they worked the needles; the only other motion a cobweb quivering in the atmosphere near the ground."
Pegi is his horse, of course.

I seem to love books set on remote and lonely islands and I did this one. However the ending did throw me for a bit of a loop. Me- "Really? Hmm...let me think about it. Hence the notch down, but in the end, I may decide otherwise.

I haven't read the book, so I can't comment on it. I enjoyed the writing in the quote that you shared - so spare and beautiful.

What intrigued me is what you said about being thrown by the ending. I find that endings sometimes pose a small problem for me. Mostly, I tend to overlook them if I've really enjoyed the book. However, I know that this isn't really the author's intent. I think this would make a good question for Jason's Sunday conversation thread.

I really disliked the ending and it brought the whole thing down to 3 stars for me. Endings are important and this one just lacked believability IMO.

I agree, Holly, "endings" is a good topic. I sometimes can ignore the ending if I loved the rest, but sometimes the ending is so bad it ruins the whole experience for me.

I decided not to write a review for Clear because I am not in the LGBT community, and I was thinking perhaps I just misunderstood the point (and I didn't want to offend anyone).

Joy D wrote: "I really disliked the ending and it brought the whole thing down to 3 stars for me. Endings are important and this one just lacked believability IMO.

I agree, Holly, "endings" is a good topic. I s..."

I didn't see it going there. Usually, one gets a bit more foreshadowing and looking back there was some. But adding to that the final resolution, which just was a bit of a stretch & it all happened so suddenly, when all the other action was slowly evolving.

This was great on audio. I agree, the ending seemed too upbeat for the period of time, but I still liked it.

If you like stories on isolated islands, I recommend Whale Fall.

Thanks for the nice review! I just finished this myself and I agree about the beautiful writing. It also inspired me to read a little history about the way the crofters were displaced. I didn't rate is as highly because the ending left me feeling cheated.

Susan wrote: "Thanks for the nice review! I just finished this myself and I agree about the beautiful writing. It also inspired me to read a little history about the way the crofters were displaced. I didn't rat..."

That ending through us all off.