A Scots Quair: The Mearns Trilogy

A Scots Quair is a classic story of life in rural Scotland. I fear that not too many readers today will have the stamina to stay with the tale through to the end. It is a complex story and the introduction of local dialect can further complicate things. This is by no means a quick read, but it makes a significant contribution by taking an in depth look at the life and times of local people facing world changing events. If you have ever visited the coast south of Aberdeen, you will recognize the settings immediately. This is not a book to read straight through, but it is well worth working on over time.

Brilliant, evocative, emotional -transported back to pre-WW1 N-E Scotland in an instant. The use of words vaguely understood in definition; but with clearly imparted meaning, is absorbing, as is the storyline. The characters are complete, the events iĺllustrated by a masterly use of language, and the relaying of the character of the land, the geography, and the era is stunning.

Very good read for glimpses of the changing life in Scotland circa WW1. Interesting characters and situations.

I like the glossary for the unfamiliar words, but it makes for slow going. However, I think it is going to be a book I keep...too soon to tell!

A grand look, through 3 connected long novels, of the movement from the little rented Scots farms to the towns and then to the cities. Following one character through all the changes works well as the socio-economic and religious changes register clearly in her life. He's a writer of dozens of books about Scotland.

Challenging to read

I read it fifty years ago and loved it then and I am thrilled to revisit the trilogy and perhaps learn more from a different perspective. A deep history and understanding of the changing landscape in Scotland between the world wars...

This is a beautiful book and also a must for writers. Each chapter succeeds as a stand-alone story, yet those stories are woven skillfully into an even more meaningful whole. It's not a book I pick up often, but I do come back to it again and again over time.

Read this book some years ago. It is an excellent account of a way of life which has changed for ever. There is much social history re the growing conflicts of the levels is society's struggles. It is well written and a classic in its own right. The accounts of the First World War effects on society are well described. The struggles between the classes are well illustrated. This book is a classic and an accolade to Lewis Grassic Gibbons. It is really three books Subset Song about the farming aspect and effects of war, Cloud Howe where Chris Guthrie marries a minister and has to put up with gossip and some thinking she is above her station in life and the third book The Granite City involves a move to town and much hard work

I've just re-ordered this to replace my current copy, which has fallen to bits. I hadn't read this trilogy for years and had forgotten how very good it is - and also how good the writing is.The story begins before WW1 and ends in the '30s depression, and takes place in Aberdeenshire, an area LGG knew well. Hard times and lives and brutal too; but the story is balanced by humour (especially a sly appreciation of the dirty-minded gossip and hypocrisy that goes on beneath a veneer of respectability) and kindness and wit. It's hard to write dialogue in dialect, but LGG's treatment of this isn't intrusive; it captures the cadence without being laboured, although you may find it handy to have the DSL (online Dictionary of Scottish Language) permanently open so as to look up dialect words.The power of LGG's writing is never better than when describing the beauty of the landscape, without detracting from how harsh it could be to live there.If I've got any criticism it's that the motivation and actions of two of the key characters towards the end seem sacrificed to plot and structure; they don't seem to have been thought through and I can't find them convincing (but this is just a personal observation.) Also physical and personal descriptions can be a little repetitive.But again that's a quibble; this is a superb read and a bonny eident piece of work (look that up.)

Sunset Song is elegaic, describing a way of farming life soon to disappear with the outbreak of the first world war. The characters are vivid and real, no whimsy here - life is hard, but hopeful and sometimes happy and the people are tough and worthy of respect. Chris is the main character and she and Long Rob were my favourites, but its an ensemble piece. Thomas Hardy's "In Time of the Breaking of Nations" kept coming to mind because of the contrast between great events and perpetual cycles, although the continuity that Hardy predicts turns out not to be true.Cloud Howe and Grey Granite continue to follow Chris' life and that of her son Ewan and I found them equally as good. I don't want to give further details of what happens for fear of spoiling the story, but I felt compelled to find out what happened to the characters and read straight on from Sunset Song. Gibbons is a wonderful writer, both in his characterisation and descriptions. I felt as a 1960s Southerner that the author had conveyed to me a real feeling of what it was like to live in the (fictional) Mearns in the early 20th century.This trilogy is not an "easy" read, but amply repays any initial effort of becoming familiar with the dialect words (there aren't that many and it impressed my Scottish friends that I knew them:-)I love these books and highly recommend them.

One of the greatest set of novels in English (the language), as well as Scottish (the place), literature. Gripping, emotional, and with a heavy dose of political realism, from beginning to end; just utterly wonderful. (Even after reading it several times, it still amazes me that a young man could portray a woman’s feelings and perspective so well, that you begin to question what sex the author really is….)

I only disliked how the English aristocracy banished good hardworking gentlefolk out of their homes, that was brutal