John Tallertine traverses the Cumberland country of England, circa
1898 - 1923, always struggling against the stigmatic self-erosion
of being The Hired Man. The novel opens serenely enough, matched as
it is throughout to the tone and pace of the pivotal relationship -
that of John and his wife Emily. Exuberant, proudly responsible,
eighteen-year-old John hikes for the "Hiring" to Cockermouth,
securing work and cottage for his soon to be expanded family.
Driven to assert his independence, he invites, senseless overwork
which ruins his home life. Pristine happiness clouds and congeals
to coexistence, pitching the story into a wintry and unbroken
gloom, appropriate to a succession of misfortunes (children's
deaths, infidelity, sub-poverty), not the least of which is John's
catatonic hopelessness which finds respite finally in the undersea
mines of West Cumberland where he works until the war. Returned
from soldiering, John re-enters the mines until Emily's tubercular
death. The full circle is formed as John then turns once more to
farm and finds himself for hire. Mr. Bragg's novel has Faulknerian
thematic echoes of the heavy triumph of those who endure. Since it
is handled with scrupulous understatement, the narrative develops
with a modest but cumulative verity. The dialogue, while good, is
in dialect and can prove distracting, as are some of the author's
over-verbalized thought processes for his simpler characters. The
peculiar quality of the book, due in part to its time frame and
sometimes densely literary language, may make it difficult to find
the right audience. (Kirkus Reviews)
Set in Cumbria and covering the period from 1898 to the early
twenties, this is the powerful saga of John Tallentire, first farm
labourer, then coal miner, and his wife Emily. John's struggle to
break free from the humiliating status of a 'hired man' is the
theme of a novel which has been hailed as a classic of its kind -
as meticulously detailed as a social document, as evocative as the
writings of Hardy and Lawrence.
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