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Den perfekten Kreis. Den könnten wir niemals hinbekommen. Er existiert nicht. Ehrlich gesagt, ich glaube, nichts was von Menschen gemacht wird, kann je perfekt sein.“ (S. 107)
The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers | Waterstones The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers | Waterstones
And what of the crop circles? For Calvert and Redbone, it is their true purpose. The circles themselves part of something more, something hopeful within a warring and dying world. It centres on the creators of the crop circles, quintessential odd couple Redbone and Calvert. Like the characters in the author’s previous work, which spans historical fiction and rural noir, and includes the 2021 short story collection Male Tears, these men are outsiders. While Redbone lives in an old camper van, is immersed in the crust punk scene and prone to visions hallucinogenic and otherwise, Calvert is a solitary SAS veteran, battle scarred inwardly as well as outwardly from his service in the Falklands. Bathed in moonlight, Myers’s land thrums with more ancient reverberations Myers has produced another great novel here to go with The Offing and Cuddy, already two of my favourites of all time. This was is set in the summer of 1989 in rural Wiltshire and centred around crop circles. It was the time of illegal raves and New Age Travellers and the Thatcher era was beginning to wind down with protests about the poll tax.
Reviews
The glue that holds this story together is the relationship and development of our two protagonists. We're treated to a small cast, two ageing men. Calvert, who is a traumatized veteran and Redbone a chaotic, rogue who is troubled in his own way by the visions he has which they transfer to the canvas of the fields in their nightly raids. We get to know these characters over the course of the book, we walk alongside them as they chat the fat. They were strangers at the story's opening and by the conclusion, they have become dear friends and we are completely and utterly invested in their lives. Moving and exhilarating, tender and slyly witty, The Perfect Golden Circle is a captivating novel about the futility of war, the destruction of the English countryside, class inequality – and the power of beauty to heal trauma and fight power.
Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers | Book review The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers | Book review
Even if you are only in Iceland for a day or two, you could also rent a car to explore. Taxis on their own are pretty expensive to and from the airport so by renting a car, you will not only save on taxis but you will be able to go wherever you want at any time.Calvert and Redbone are two friends who make crop circles over the course of the summer of 1989, in the fields of Wiltshire,’ said Benjamin. ‘They kind of exist on the fringes of society and only really feel at peace when they're out in the fields at night. So the novel is set entirely over the course of ten different weekends under the covers of darkness.’
Perfect Golden Circle Iceland Itinerary - TripTins The Perfect Golden Circle Iceland Itinerary - TripTins
An investigation of trauma, class, healing and male friendship * GUARDIAN, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2022 * A thrilling introduction to a British literary star and a moving meditation on history, trauma and the urge to create.. .” — Shelf Awareness
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Slowly, through the routes of thought, dialogue and confrontation, Myers bares the souls of his circle makers. Their motivations are myriad: isolation, a love of nature, separation from the land, the spirit of place, myth-making, anti-capitalist perspectives on the authorship of art, rebellion against the British political class and, most wrenchingly of all, the overwhelming need to soothe broken hearts and shattered lives. Myers’ short story ‘The Folk Song Singer’ was awarded the Tom-Gallon Prize in 2014 by the Society Of Authors and published by Galley Beggar Press. His short stories and poetry have appeared in dozens of anthologies. The human circle maker is a hugely divisive figure. He (that is not to forget his female counterparts) carries the phenomenon on his shoulders; his creations are to be worshipped but his artistry is to be decried by his cultish audience, his person libelled. He is the craftsman who silently works the moon-soaked fields of southern England, one who chooses to remain tight-lipped on his achievements and allow his unclaimed works to shape the faith of others. His actions invite three obvious questions: Who is he, both on the surface and inside? Why does he bother? What does he get from it? Benjamin Myers is not the first fiction writer to try and explore the possible answers, but with The Perfect Golden Circle he is easily the most successful. The pleasures of this bountiful novel are like a glass of cool water on a parched summer day' THE TIMES
Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers Book Review: The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers
Dieser Roman ist eine ruhig erzählte, von Bildern der Natur Englands geprägte Geschichte mit zwei vom Leben gebeutelten Protagonisten und poetischem, atmosphärischem Schreibstil. DNF'd @ 26% - Argh! I'm getting a bit angry lately, but I'm unsure if it's the books I'm angry with, or myself. It seems I've abandoned several books lately. I don't like doing that, but neither do I like to waste time with a book I'm not enjoying! So here I go again.😕Praise for The Offing: 'What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness ... Gorgeous -- MAX PORTER This is the second novel by Benjamin Myers that I have read, Beastings being the first. The Perfect Golden Circle couldn’t be more different to Beastings, which was far darker and written in a completely different style. Yet, the beauty of Benjamin’s writing persists across both novels. I really do need to read more of his work, I love the way he writes. Take this, for example, which is about an eclipse: A draft of cool, clear water, it feels like a cleansing book ... He's such a good and brave writer ... there's a lot of heart in this book ... I was comparing it to some Ted Hughes poetry and it's so much more hopeful than that ... there's light in this landscape ... A very original writer and has pushed the form in all kinds of ways * MONOCLE * Over the course of a burning hot summer, two very different men — Calvert, an ex-soldier traumatized by his experience in the Falklands War, and his affable freind Redbone — set out nightly in a decrepit camper van to undertake an extraordinary project. That melancholy is what makes this book more than just another take on the cultural fights of the ’80s. Calvert is a veteran of the Falklands War, but his mental state is not that of the eternally cursed soldier. He is at times pensive, bitter, laconic and verbose. When we read of how “existence is there until it isn’t”, or summer described as a “cold-blooded lizard beast sitting deep in the ancient dust of an ancient island”, it’s the ambiguity, the deceptive simplicity, that hits home. Most of all, it works, and that’s enough.
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