Henk's Reviews > Clear
Clear
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by
RSL Ondaatje winner 2025!
A small gem, which brings not just an island community of one come alive, but makes characters removed over a century from us both real and complex.
If it was comfortable once, it wasn’t anymore.
In an understated fashion Clear brings to life 19th century Scotland, where mass-evictions of peasants from land took place to enable more modern, efficient farms, powered by hardy and self-sufficient sheep. How landowners talk about their redundant peasants is probably similar to how our Silicon Valley overlords think of workers who can be replaced by AI or robots. In the midst of this societal change, John is a minister of a newly split of church who needs a job. He is send to an island somewhere halfway between Norway and Scotland to evict Ivar, the last resident of the island. John his wife Mary has a bad feeling about all of this, which feels warranted after a nasty fall of John.
I was reminded in ways of Claire Keegan her work, in how in a slim work Carys Davies manages to make a whole world come alive. Also Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor, similar in length and dealing with island communities coming into contact with modernity came back to me while reading this book.
What Clear manages to do however, and why I think this would make for a great arthouse movie if someone ever would pick it up, is that it in a completely convincing way makes the relations between Ivar and John come alive. Even though Ivar speaks no English, and is in a micro language of himself which is closest to dialects spoken in the Orkneys, human connection ensues, cumulating in (view spoiler).
The tenderness in how this book is written in 40+ short chapters is just phenomenal, for instance read this meditation by Ivar having his world disrupted by the turning up of John:
“I have the cliffs and the skerries and the birds. I have the white bill and the round bill and the peaked hill. I have the clear spring water and the rich good pasture that covers the tilted top of the island like a blanket. I have the old black cow and the sweet grass that grows between the rocks, I have my great chair and my sturdy house. I have my spinning wheel and I have the teapot and I have Pegi, and now, amazingly, I have John Ferguson too.”
Meanwhile Mary is arguably the most interesting character of the book, being all forceful with her rubber and porcelain fake teeth. Is it all completely realistic for a 19th century setting?
Maybe not, but Davies pulls it off and I’d be keen to read more by her and I hope this book finds broad recognition!
A small gem, which brings not just an island community of one come alive, but makes characters removed over a century from us both real and complex.
If it was comfortable once, it wasn’t anymore.
In an understated fashion Clear brings to life 19th century Scotland, where mass-evictions of peasants from land took place to enable more modern, efficient farms, powered by hardy and self-sufficient sheep. How landowners talk about their redundant peasants is probably similar to how our Silicon Valley overlords think of workers who can be replaced by AI or robots. In the midst of this societal change, John is a minister of a newly split of church who needs a job. He is send to an island somewhere halfway between Norway and Scotland to evict Ivar, the last resident of the island. John his wife Mary has a bad feeling about all of this, which feels warranted after a nasty fall of John.
I was reminded in ways of Claire Keegan her work, in how in a slim work Carys Davies manages to make a whole world come alive. Also Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor, similar in length and dealing with island communities coming into contact with modernity came back to me while reading this book.
What Clear manages to do however, and why I think this would make for a great arthouse movie if someone ever would pick it up, is that it in a completely convincing way makes the relations between Ivar and John come alive. Even though Ivar speaks no English, and is in a micro language of himself which is closest to dialects spoken in the Orkneys, human connection ensues, cumulating in (view spoiler).
The tenderness in how this book is written in 40+ short chapters is just phenomenal, for instance read this meditation by Ivar having his world disrupted by the turning up of John:
“I have the cliffs and the skerries and the birds. I have the white bill and the round bill and the peaked hill. I have the clear spring water and the rich good pasture that covers the tilted top of the island like a blanket. I have the old black cow and the sweet grass that grows between the rocks, I have my great chair and my sturdy house. I have my spinning wheel and I have the teapot and I have Pegi, and now, amazingly, I have John Ferguson too.”
Meanwhile Mary is arguably the most interesting character of the book, being all forceful with her rubber and porcelain fake teeth. Is it all completely realistic for a 19th century setting?
Maybe not, but Davies pulls it off and I’d be keen to read more by her and I hope this book finds broad recognition!
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Reading Progress
October 19, 2024
– Shelved
October 19, 2024
– Shelved as:
to-read
October 27, 2024
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Started Reading
October 27, 2024
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Finished Reading
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Nataliya
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rated it 3 stars
Oct 27, 2024 09:40AM
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