Review: The Land as Viewed from the Sea by Richard Collins

 

 The Land as Viewed from the Sea is a book by Richard Collins, first published in 2004.

John is a city dweller and countryside lover. He travels to the countryside to work for his friend as a farm laborer for the summer. While he is there, he writes a novel. His friend and employer reads this novel, The Land as Viewed from the Sea. John continually claims his work his completely fiction...

...But is it possible for fiction to mix with reality? 

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He waits for her to look back and wave but she goes with the men up to the fire. He watches for a while expecting her to take photographs. He can see figures around a fire, the glow of cigarettes, and two tents. And perhaps her profile, head tilted back, drinking from a wine bottle. 

She doesn't come back to the flat until the early hours of the morning and sets the dogs barking. He hasn't slept. He wants to hear some words of apology, something like, "I'm sorry if I worried you. Thank you for letting me be me."

But she collapses onto the other bed in silence. She smells strongly of drink. Later he awakes to the sound of her throwing up in the wash-basin. 

Julian and I are hoeing weeds out of a crop of leeks on a long slope up the curve of the hill. The rows stretch up the slope and disappear over the near horizon. He works faster than I do and we only speak momentarily when he comes down the hill to start on a new row. 

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This book is probably one of the most unpopular I've read, which actually made me want to read it even more. And the beautiful cover just lured me in, along with the fact that it's set in rural Wales, near where I am currently staying. 

But, I have to say, I was disappointed with this one. I don't know if I'm just criticizing books more than I used to, or it's just me being a sucker for happy endings and romances working out in the end, but I just...really didn't like the ending. 

Also, I just found it all pretty confusing. It's hard to explain, but this book is about a book inside a book. The current day is intertwined with the novel the main character is writing, and it can actually be really hard to read sometimes. I think it would have made a lot more sense to put the novel John is writing in italics, to separate the text a bit more. 

But I found the end of the book quite hard to follow too. Maybe it's just me, but I just didn't enjoy the ending. It really ruined the book for me.

To end this review on a good note, I really like the idea of the story (it was actually really clever), just maybe not the way it was carried out. Also, I loved the writing. Richard Collins is an amazing author, and he actually writes really well, and poetically. 

-Beth

Happy Reading!♥