A NetGalley book I fancied the look of when they emailed me about which I didn’t seem to feel the same as other people.
The blurb:
No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it powers: the internet, phone, washing machine, radio or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin, on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce.
In this honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life without modern technology, Mark Boyle, author of THE MONEYLESS MAN, explores the hard won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the stream, foraging and fishing.
What he finds is an elemental life, one governed by the rhythms of the sun and seasons, where life and death dance in a primal landscape of blood, wood, muck, water, and fire – much the same life we have lived for most of our time on earth. Revisiting it brings a deep insight into what it means to be human at a time when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring.”
Mark Boyle – “The Way Home”
(12 March 2019, NetGalley)
I’ve shared the blurb because it is entirely accurate, however I think Boyle must be a “marmite” writer and I didn’t take to him myself, which did colour my reading of it. He decides to give up all technology and live on a smallholding in rural Ireland. I hadn’t realised he’d previously given up money, and written about that, but quickly realised he does go all in on things. I’m not sure what else this book could have been, as you couldn’t survive the modern urban world without tech, whereas you can just about live on a smallholding.
The stories of his current adventure are interspersed with the tale of how he came to this point and details of a visit he makes to the Blasket Islands, a place in Ireland that has moved from being a self-sufficient community to being a tourist location (and he really doesn’t like tourists or tourism, admonishing the reader in the introduction for having a propensity to want to visit the places they’ve read about – this put my back up, even though I understand his intention). This breaks up the hard labour and deer-skinning but there’s always the presence of his, reading between the lines, girlfriend Kirsty, caught between making nettle tea and doing all the plain cooking (he does the exciting bits) and wanting to live the authentic life she wants to have lived, running off with some ponies.
There is lots to value and interest here. The detail is fascinating, not least his agonising over where to draw the line: he eschews time (yet manages to know what day and time to go to the traditional music evenings in the pub) and contemplates making his own mushroom paper and ink for a feather pen, although we don’t get told if that happens. I did like the bits about the oddness of writing with a pencil not a computer. There are plenty of yucky descriptions of respectfully slaughtering fish and eating them raw and dealing with a road-kill deer, so no one looking for the blood and muck of it will be disappointed: there is also information on farming and foraging. No pet that is mentioned meets a sticky end and the musing on the nature of dogs is nicely done. He does also check his privilege, both of birth and of being able to choose to live in this way, but I did find him irritating, I’m afraid. No other reviewer seems to have done that so maybe I’m just struggling with my need for technology and envy of his way of life (he doesn’t have a toilet. So no).
Thank you to NetGalley and Oneworld Publications for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.
Elle
May 10, 2019 @ 09:33:31
I haven’t read this, but my feelings about it changed significantly when I learned he brought his girlfriend along (and that she then left him). Which is probably unfair, but I’ve spent too much time with extremely forceful/”visionary” men to be totally comfortable in their company.
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Liz Dexter
May 10, 2019 @ 09:49:17
There’s a really irritating bit when he says he can see they fell into “traditional” ways but it seemed like she LIKED staying in and cooking nettles while he was out hacking at things. Hm.
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Elle
May 10, 2019 @ 10:05:41
I mean, I guess if I had to choose, I’d rather cook nettles than hack at things. (Actually. On consideration, not so sure. )
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kaggsysbookishramblings
May 10, 2019 @ 14:54:15
I’m with you all on the nettles, of course – no hacking things for me at all. And it’s funny how a book in theory should be ideal, but for some reason we don’t gel with the author. It’s happened to me and you can’t help it – we’re all individual humans! And I would have been irritated about his girlfriend too – no wonder she ran off with ponies….
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Liz Dexter
May 10, 2019 @ 15:08:03
He hacks various items of wood and builds a hot tub (but HAS NO TOILET), not just poor animals. It had its interest and I did finish it, after all. But yes, well done to his girlfriend for escaping!
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heavenali
May 11, 2019 @ 09:09:22
Well I am glad to hear the girlfriend left. It is disappointing when you don’t gel with an author. I can see your frustrations with this one though I am assuming he is undergoing these experiences purely to write books about them?
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Liz Dexter
May 13, 2019 @ 09:11:29
Well for the pure authentic experience to be his real self and commune with the ages, too, I think … Had to write the book in pencil and then started imagining making his own ink and paper. You have to admire his stubbornness, I suppose …
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integratedexpat
May 13, 2019 @ 10:54:50
NO toilet? Not even a composting toilet? Why, the man is a savage! I do hope his books are handprinted on handcrafted paper, though. Probably not.
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Liz Dexter
May 13, 2019 @ 19:46:11
Hehe – I read it on a KINDLE! The scandal!
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Ste J
May 13, 2019 @ 23:18:33
Like Boyle, I admonish people for going to all the same locations of the obligatory Instagram photo, then have to take the wife to all these places and do my photographic duty. The pub time has to be an innate human mechanism, I always know when its pub time!
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Liz Dexter
May 14, 2019 @ 07:24:52
Yes, but you wouldn’t ban all people from visiting you because you’ve posted some nice pics, or run a free hostel but refuse to give out its address, right?
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Ste J
May 14, 2019 @ 22:42:09
That does seem a bit bizarre. Although it is an encouragement to pop over and be annoying. And then writing a book about it.
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Rebecca Foster
May 15, 2019 @ 18:53:42
I submitted my Shiny New Books review of this book earlier today so wanted to pop over and have a look at what you thought. I had some of the same problems as you — this was a very male project (poor Kirsty!), and so many of us couldn’t do anything nearly this extreme because of health problems or family commitments. (Then again, I don’t think he’s inviting imitators.) I thought the Great Blasket Island material was mostly irrelevant, and the writing quality in general wasn’t really there for me. BUT it certainly is a book that makes you think about your reliance on technology and modern conveniences. My husband and I have just given up having a car this month, a decision that was sort of forced upon us, but we’re now trying to make the best of it since we know it is the better lifestyle for the planet.
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Liz Dexter
May 15, 2019 @ 21:22:49
O I’m glad you got that one and I dodged it as I’d have accepted it for review and then found it hard to be that positive about it (obviously!). We have never had a car and thus are able to feel smug – however it’s then impossible to take stuff to the tip for recycling as they won’t let you in on foot. Thank goodness for lovely friends and neighbours – my friend Claire (of running fame) takes my tetrapaks off my hands. It felt ironic to be reading this book on a Kindle! I suppose we need to see the extreme stuff to be able to pick things up to do – the humanure bit didn’t bother me but weeing round the back of the house did, and I did wonder what poor old Kirsty did for periods.
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halfmanhalfbook
May 17, 2019 @ 20:04:42
I am just about to start this one will let you know what I think of it fairly soon.
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Liz Dexter
May 20, 2019 @ 10:08:58
I’ll be very interested to read your review!
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PlanetPatrick
Aug 23, 2020 @ 15:08:52
Thanks for your very honest review. I’ve read the same book and am halfway through The Moneyless Manifesto.
There were parts of it I loved: I am interested in the ideas of New Materialism (I mean the bit that says everything is connected, even if we can’t see it). And Mark does live out this kind of life. I’m astonished by how difficult but freeing it seems to be. Although this book has much more of a confessional honesty than the former manifesto and his vulnerabilities are on show, there is an occasional insufferable tone that I find it hard to shake. It hints at an intolerance: I think I get why, but there’s little room to compromise. On the whole, the positive and communitarian parts are wholesome and inspiring but the anomalies that are embraced to use the wheels of dreadful Mammon to hitch to Galway or the Blaskets are not explained (is tech okay occasionally if it’s shared?). I’d rather that Mark and his approach were in the world and communicated than not, but I think it’s okay to acknowledge that the reason many rural Irish People left the land was the horrific circumstances that scratching a living implied. Too many kids on too poor a soil meant that the idealism of a tech and money-free life couldn’t be lived out quite as neatly as a couple, with friends next door and helpers in a free hostel implies. But these are great questions, reasons to look up and away from our endless screens and pursuit of consumerism. The answer may lie not in shifting back but in using those skills and community ideals to inspire an alternative future.
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Liz Dexter
Aug 24, 2020 @ 08:08:24
Thank you for your comments; I agree with what you say wholeheartedly. I think the failure to acknowledge the difference between his life with its free labour given out of free will and the previous tenants’ struggles was an important point. I don’t think I’m going to read the Moneyless Manifesto but I will follow your blog so I can see your review!
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