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| Saturday, June 02, 2007 |
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Members Review
By @ 3:52 PM :: 1725 Views ::
2 Comments ::  :: Recommended Publications
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"BENEATH THE BLUE
SKY"
Dominic Reeve, like a favourite, cantankerous uncle, sits by a
smoking fire in a muddy field, relating stories from the past, in a narrative
filled with repetitions, digressions, contradictions, prejudices and political
asides. With irony and charm, he complains about noisy neighbours, unfriendly
pub landlords, Irish Travellers, Gaudji academics, Born Again Christians, and
New Age Travellers with their "trinketty colourful and casual living
conditions." Characters like Old Louie and Mosey, red-faced Cockeyed Jim, the
extraordinary retired surgeon who buys twenty bags of compost, and the brothers
Do-shit and Don't-shit spring into life. And there's the tale of Lily who almost
drowned in manure, and the Gypsy who carried tarmac in the boot of his brand-new
Rolls Royce. Reeve vividly depicts the Fairs which mark the Travellers'
calendar, beginning with Derby Week at Epsom in the 1960s with its gambling,
bare knuckle fights, step dancing and singing. Romani women in long skirts carry
baskets of lace and trinkets round town, while men in red or yellow boots and
old-fashioned jackets and trousers admire each other's lorries. With customary
wit he describes the red carpet in a trailer as of "a lively design, which would
not have looked out of place in the foyer of any suburban Odeon Cinema." He also
mocks the academics who have since moved onto Traveller territory with their
stalls of books boasting titles like,"The Origins of Roms in Southern Bulgaria."
One of the highlights of the book shows the solidarity of the encampment, when
rich and poor, Irish Traveller and British Gypsy, faced with eviction, take
desperate methods to stop their trailers being towed away. He notes that many of
the "poorer classes of travellers" have allowed themselves to be manipulated
into council-houses, falling into a world that is neither Traveller or Gaujo. As
one unwillingly settled Romani lady tells him, "You'm like the birds in the sky,
young man. You goes where you likes, but we're stuck here ... an' cain't go
nowheres." "The traveller's life-style has fulfilled my social, theatrical and
material needs," writes Reeve, mourning the way things have changed in the last
forty years, "to an astonishing degree as travellers sacrificed their horses in
breathtaking number; within just a few years a whole way of life virtually
disappeared." Yet he also rejoices in the resilience and adaptability of British
Gypsies, a group who have survived and evolved, despite rules and regulations
and attempts to drive them off the road. In this fascinating and valuable book,
Dominic Reeve once more offers an insight into the world of Travellers. A silent
shadow sits by his shoulder, puffing on a swigler - the ghost of the past. It's
perhaps inevitable that the shadowy echo of SMOKE IN THE LANES, Reeve's most
acclaimed book, resonates through his latest, long-awaited work.
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| Comments |
 By
nomadbill @
Monday, July 02, 2007 4:37 PM
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sounds like it's definitely worth a read!!
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By
trailerman @
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 2:09 PM
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Janna, what an excellent review. I love this book.
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