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Showing of 13 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. As an expatriate Briton living in Belgium since I found these sketches of life in a small town in the Ardennes as seen through the eyes of a half-Belgian actually half-Walloon - important! The often poetically worded vignettes of the people and places are full of hidden meanings and significant insights. Even if you have never set foot in the Belgian Ardennes Europe's best-kept secret, according to a British friend of mine who recently chose to retire there after a lifetime in England you will find interesting history, memorable characters, picturesque descriptions and philosophical reflection in these pages.
And if you don't know Bouillon and its surroundings, this book will make you want to go there and see for yourself. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. This is a wonderful piece of literature. A beautifully written, poetic, poignant, funny, and often melancholic exploration of memory. Thoughtful, intelligent, unexpected memoir. Warmly personal but also casts a cool eye on history, geography, politics of this region of the Ardennes.
A Journey into Memory – Poeti inglesi contemporanei /4
The author has a poet's eye and ear for metaphor and a touch of the philosopher in his musings on memory. There is also a playful sense of paradox and fun with the etymology of place names and nicknames. Any fans of his novel, The Last Hundred Days, or his two poetry collections will love this book. Perhaps a better idea to invest in paper rather than digital version in order to enjoy the artfully meditative photographs. This book is a magical gem, so beautifully written with lovely black and white photographs.
Small but perfect, and I will treasure it. One person found this helpful. Brilliant book - my book of the year so far. Well written with language to savour.
Other People's Countries: A Journey into Memory – review | Books | The Guardian
If you like words and books about the spirit of place this is for you. Hundred Days by the same author - what an excellent book - well written with very interesting subject. I'm reading The Last Hundred Days by the same author - what an excellent book - well written with very interesting subject. I'm looking forward to starting Other People's Countries. I've just read this through a second time and it is a book that grows with re-reading.
Meditative, evocative, poignant and uplifting in equal measure.
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Quietly brilliant and highly recommended. I sleep, and in the morning I have another consignment ready for distribution: Feb 05, Shullie rated it really liked it. McGuinness takes the reader, and according to the preface, his two sons, for a wander through, what he wants us to believe, are his own childhood memories. The book opens Tolkien like, with a map of the village of Bouillon, a small town on the border of Belgium and France.
One can posit that if the use of such a map is not only to give direction, but a way of setting up the whole ' mise-en- scene' of the book. There are the great grandparents 'from different branches of the family. Old ladies in colourful dresses All fragile, slightly broken and of course himself, or himself as he wants to be remembered.
Other People's Countries: A Journey into Memory
He consistently uses rooms as a 'mnemonic', telling the reader about the house they all lived in; ever changing, ever growing, fluid and full of inconsistencies. These fragments of memory line the book much like Lucie lined his clothes. Just as the Moirai of old, she cuts and sews his past, his present and his future; She is ever existent and she moves before and between each fragment, each page, and white space. McGuinness, together with his memories wanders down a hall of liminality; in between truth and fiction, past and present.
He gives the reader photographs as an aide memoir, looking as they must through a dark glass, he encourages them to trying to work out the shade and the light, and to fill in the gaps. He then cleverly invites the reader to open doors on not only his inner self but on their own. So as you read his memories, you are also transported back into your own hidden lining, filling his blank spaces with your own.
It's a truly memorable read and journey, one which is worth taking, It's a lovely exploration of the historic town and its people, and the author's own background, through very short snippets of narrative, occasional poetry, and the auithor's own photographs.
Other People’s Countries: A Journey into Memory
Jun 14, Simon Thirsk rated it really liked it. A beautifully written book, with many insights. It is in the form of recollections with the feel of short stories, often ending in a twist, though these are, in fact, the author's recollections of childhood and contemporary visits to the town where he grew up. Aug 09, Shawn rated it really liked it. I think of times as places, with walls and windows and doors.
Most of my childhood feels more real to me now than it did then. So the house of memory becomes a house in which all the rooms that have survived demolition have been arranged. The house has been flattened but somehow the rooms are all intact. The wearer might project the outer garment, but really their relationship was with the doublure. An interesting and unusual approach to memoir.
McGuinness took us in and out of a certain section of his family history, weaving together anecdotes, memories and research. His relatives came to life like characters from a well-written novel. I also liked the way he was unafraid to stake his own place within the story. Nov 28, Julia Forster rated it it was amazing. My favourite read of Feb 08, Paul Taylor rated it it was amazing.
What a way to leave your story to your children and descendants. The Old Country however does leave you , she evolves and changes, and because you don't spend much time there, you don't change and evolve with her: This short book is a bittersweet treat, a little gem of enchanting nostalgia. Apr 14, Toto rated it it was amazing. A wonderful reading experience. Rememberences of things past? Mxiture of apparent facts with memories, alive with feeling and sincerity. Could not put it down.
Oct 07, Eric Randolph rated it really liked it. The author feels like he's trying just a little too hard at times, but there are great insights particularly about how we construct and retain memories of ourselves and our cultures, while writers of fiction would kill for a cast of characters as absurd and varied as those in his little Belgian town. This book is really quite lovely. I feel as though I know intimately a town I've never visited, a strange place brought alive through memories of people long-dead.
I can't wait to visit and feel those places and their people for myself. Jul 26, Alan Twiddy rated it really liked it. Interesting,poetic account of growing up in Boullion. Elena rated it really liked it May 29, Sonia Mainstone-Cotton rated it really liked it Apr 28, David rated it it was amazing Feb 07, P E Carpenter rated it really liked it Jan 04, Ann rated it it was amazing Jan 02, Clare Young rated it really liked it Nov 22, Austin rated it it was amazing Jan 20, Jordana rated it really liked it Jun 17, Penny rated it really liked it Jun 08,