Synopses & Reviews
Ken is a scientist, with a scientist's dispassionate eye for the material world, as he reviews his life from the difficult 1930s, through the slaughter of World War I, back to an idyllic boyhood in the Highlands. When the mature man finally reaches the source of the river that has haunted his imagination for so many years, he finds that the wellsprings of magic and delight were always there, in the world all around him at the time, inexhaustible and irreverent. Awarded the James Tait Memorial Prize 1937, Highland River is written in prose as cool and clear as the water it describes, and is the simplest, most poetic, and perhaps the greatest of Neil Gunn's novels.
Synopsis
A scientist with a dispassionate eye for the material world, Kenn reviews his life from the desolate 1930s, through the slaughter of World War I, and back to an idyllic boyhood in the Highlands. He soon discovers that the magic and delight he remembers were always there in the world around him.
Synopsis
Written in prose as cool and clear as the water it describes, Highland River is one of Neil Gunn's most lyrical and popular novels. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial prize when first published in 1937, it has over the years become established as one of the greatest pieces of twentieth century Scottish fiction.
The 'northern river' of the title is the physical and spiritual focus of the novel and the source to which Kenn, the central character returns. Looking back over his life from the disillusioned thirties, the river becomes symbolic of both what has been lost and what has endured. From an idyllic childhood spent in the Highlands through the terrible slaughter of the First World War, Kenn's reminiscences eventually lead him back to the river that has haunted his imagination for so many years. Its effect on him is profound and the culmination of this poetic masterpiece.
Synopsis
The 'northern river' of the title is the physical and spiritual focus of the novel and the source to which Kenn, the central character returns. Looking back over his life from the disillusioned thirties, the river becomes symbolic of both what has been lost and what has endured.
About the Author
Neil Gunn (18911973) was recognized as one of the leaders of the Scottish Renaissance. His books with their timeless themes of alienation and conformity, of loss and acceptance, have found a new audience in the present generation.