Book Review: The Offing by Benjamin Myers
Pieces of work like this keep me going.
Sometimes I feel dull. As though I am inside a cloud. I fumble around, forcefully trying to remind myself of good things, and times when I felt lively.
I wish I could reach into every moment like that and hand myself something to read.
Even on the first page of The Offing, I felt comforted and welcomed. As though my mind was an old house being spring cleaned after the sunlight revealed the dust.
The prose is vibrant and sensual. Every sentence feels polished but flows naturally. And the story is so beautiful! It’s a celebration of solitude and silence as well as connection and conversation. The unconventional friendship at the centre of the story, reminds us that we have so much we can learn from each other, regardless of age, regardless of ANYTHING and that when we practice kindness, we spark enormous good.
Dulcie’s character encourages us to live life by our own rules. If something doesn’t feel right, we should question it. If something works for us, we should go with it. But never alone. When we talk, we can help (and make sure we’re not hurting) each other. She shares her wisdom in a way that is both soothing and intense which I think is perfect.
The Offing is also an ode to nature. I loved The Gallows Pole for the rich descriptions of the Yorkshire landscape. When I read Under the Rock I felt enchanted and almost physically pulled into the woods. This book is no different in that sense. You feel and delight in every step (and every pause) along with Robert. But this book is gentle and simple. At first, something in my brain was trying to suggest that I was disappointed. It’s not as exhilarating as its predecessors. But I shook those thoughts soon after they arose and as the book got going, it turned into perhaps my favourite yet. The most important and radical expressions are often the simplest and most accessible.
Below are two of my favourite passages that help to sum up the way this book made me feel (sorry if I copied anything down wrong — please tell me!).
“Trust me when I say that everything you’ve ever felt has been experienced by another human being before you. You may not think so, but it’s true. That is what poetry is. It exists to remind us of this very fact. Poetry is mankind’s way of saying that we are not entirely alone in the world; it offers a voice of comfort to resonate through the ages like a lone foghorn’s mournful call unto the nautical night. Poetry is a stepladder between the centuries, from Ancient Greece to tomorrow afternoon.” — Benjamin Myers
“At times like this, or when hoeing soil or sanding wood, or just sitting on a bench with my face turned to the sun, I appeared to slip out of the moment so entirely — or, conversely, perhaps was so deeply immersed in the here and now — that I forgot who I was. The slate of self was wiped. Gone were all thoughts of past and present, of the stale air of classrooms and of looming exam results, coal boards and pitheads and pension plans, as all worries and concerns were diluted away to nothingness and I drifted in and out of the day, brought back into being only when either the sky or my stomach rumbled, or birdsong broke the silence.
These were the lingering states in which I was happy to revel, as night replaced day and day replaced night, and time became not a linear thing but something more elastic, stretching and contracting at will, one minute expanding into a day, one week gone in the blink of an eye. Petals unfolded, willow blossom took to the breeze and hogweed stems grew towering in the shaded dell at the bottom of the meadow, and time itself was measured only by the clock of green growth, and marked out by the simple routine of working, eating, swimming, sleeping.” — Benjamin Myers
I encourage you to read this book. I know I could happily read it again, any time I need bringing back to life and reminding of what actually matters.
