Auntie Terror reviewed Mein Leben als Schäfer by James Rebanks
Review of 'Mein Leben als Schäfer' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
This is a beautiful narration of a kind of life which, as the author puts it, seems almost fallen out of time, compared to the modern world. It is the story of his finding his own way in this traditional world, but just as much the story of his whole family, and the story of how shepherds as such have grown to be a part of and shape the Fells as a landscape for poets to dream and fanatsize about. Also, of course, it's a story about the life of the sheep there.
The author is almost cruelly open in his self-reflection which makes him very approachable as a narrator, even for someone like me who has never been in contact with such a rural life other than in form of childhood holidays and a lingering feeling of comfort at the smell of sheep. He also is very unromantic about …
This is a beautiful narration of a kind of life which, as the author puts it, seems almost fallen out of time, compared to the modern world. It is the story of his finding his own way in this traditional world, but just as much the story of his whole family, and the story of how shepherds as such have grown to be a part of and shape the Fells as a landscape for poets to dream and fanatsize about. Also, of course, it's a story about the life of the sheep there.
The author is almost cruelly open in his self-reflection which makes him very approachable as a narrator, even for someone like me who has never been in contact with such a rural life other than in form of childhood holidays and a lingering feeling of comfort at the smell of sheep. He also is very unromantic about his life, discarding the pastoral idyll of authors who only have had an external view about the life of shepherds. The book could have been quite bleak because of all the troubles and hard times this way of living has faced and is still facing in this day. But this effect is lifted by glimpses of the tight social net which the author describes to knit neighbours together there, as well as by the fierce love with which his family and those of his friends and neighbours fight to preserve their historical way and important task to keep the Fells as they are.
I had a vague sense about the importance of keeping up such traditional professions. But I wasn't aware of the impact shepherding has on keeping mountainous regions in a contidtion that allows people to enjoy them by way of hiking etc.
In my next lief, I intend to become a shepherd. ;-)
