Jim Crace

I listened to this is audiobook format.

This feudal allegory is about a farming village with two sets of unwanted visitors: a poor family seeking refuge and a new lord who wants to modernize the whole village for profit. The narrator is perfectly situated, as a relative newcomer himself, to perceive the situation as it unfolds and relay it to the reader. The story is a thinly veiled tale modern social satire, with themes of xenophobia, capitalist profiteering, NIMBYism, resistance to change, and savior complex. The writing is clever and full of bawdy humor, made all the more funny by the audiobook narrator's deadpan posh British accent.… (plus d'informations)

A well told fable-like tale of an imagined garden of Eden. Jim Crace conjures up a world of order, where everyone knows their place and how the day will go. It is a hierarchical and controlling society where everyone has enough food but not too much and the rules are clear. The angels with brilliant blue wings are in charge but, without hands, they need the humans to do everything for them. The humans are the gardeners and the cooks. There is no death in Eden, there are seasons and every year is the same. The only connection the people of Eden have with the outside world is by the giving of alms every day through a large gate. In the dormitory there are two empty beds for Adam and Eve, who left, and the remaining humans are told about the awful things they will experience if they leave. Of course, this is never enough to put some people off. I presume Jim Crace has a metaphor in mind but I am not clear what it is. The closed society has some reflection in countries today and the desire to escape over a wall is familiar. Nevertheless, even without a clear meaning, this is a great story.… (plus d'informations)