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Machine Without Horses
What is an ordinary life worth?
A seasoned writer stumbles across an obituary and imagination is sparked. The brief words of memoriam describe a woman who was both extraordinary—eccentric, revered in her field, a renowned expert—but also utterly ordinary. How does a writer, intrigued by all that isn’t said, create a story? Capture an unknowable woman and all the secret passions, choices and compromises that make up a life?
In Machine Without Horses, Helen Humphreys explores the real life and the imagined internal life of the famous and famously private salmon-fly dresser, Megan Boyd, a craftswoman who worked for sixty years out of a bare-bones cottage in a small village in the north of Scotland. Humphreys, both present in the story and its architect, reveals with her inimitable style the complicated emotional landscape that can exist under even the most constant surface.
A seasoned writer stumbles across an obituary and imagination is sparked. The brief words of memoriam describe a woman who was both extraordinary—eccentric, revered in her field, a renowned expert—but also utterly ordinary. How does a writer, intrigued by all that isn’t said, create a story? Capture an unknowable woman and all the secret passions, choices and compromises that make up a life?
In Machine Without Horses, Helen Humphreys explores the real life and the imagined internal life of the famous and famously private salmon-fly dresser, Megan Boyd, a craftswoman who worked for sixty years out of a bare-bones cottage in a small village in the north of Scotland. Humphreys, both present in the story and its architect, reveals with her inimitable style the complicated emotional landscape that can exist under even the most constant surface.
Kindle Edition
First published September 4, 2018
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406 people want to read
About the author
Helen Humphreys
31 books421 followersHelen Humphreys is the author of five books of poetry, eleven novels, and three works of non-fiction. She was born in Kingston-on-Thames, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Her first novel, Leaving Earth (1997), won the 1998 City of Toronto Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her second novel, Afterimage (2000), won the 2000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her third novel, The Lost Garden (2002), was a 2003 Canada Reads selection, a national bestseller, and was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Wild Dogs (2004) won the 2005 Lambda Prize for fiction, has been optioned for film, and was produced as a stage play at CanStage in Toronto in the fall of 2008. Coventry (2008) was a #1 national bestseller, was chosen as one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe & Mail, and was chosen one of the top ten books of the year by both the Ottawa Citizen and NOW Magazine.
Humphreys's work of creative non-fiction, The Frozen Thames (2007), was a #1 national bestseller. Her collections of poetry include Gods and Other Mortals (1986); Nuns Looking Anxious, Listening to Radios (1990); and, The Perils of Geography (1995). Her latest collection, Anthem (1999), won the 2000 Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry.
Helen Humphreys's fiction is published in Canada by HarperCollins, and in the U.S. by W.W. Norton. The Frozen Thames was published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada, and by Bantam in the U.S. Her work has been translated into many languages.
Her first novel, Leaving Earth (1997), won the 1998 City of Toronto Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her second novel, Afterimage (2000), won the 2000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her third novel, The Lost Garden (2002), was a 2003 Canada Reads selection, a national bestseller, and was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Wild Dogs (2004) won the 2005 Lambda Prize for fiction, has been optioned for film, and was produced as a stage play at CanStage in Toronto in the fall of 2008. Coventry (2008) was a #1 national bestseller, was chosen as one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe & Mail, and was chosen one of the top ten books of the year by both the Ottawa Citizen and NOW Magazine.
Humphreys's work of creative non-fiction, The Frozen Thames (2007), was a #1 national bestseller. Her collections of poetry include Gods and Other Mortals (1986); Nuns Looking Anxious, Listening to Radios (1990); and, The Perils of Geography (1995). Her latest collection, Anthem (1999), won the 2000 Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry.
Helen Humphreys's fiction is published in Canada by HarperCollins, and in the U.S. by W.W. Norton. The Frozen Thames was published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada, and by Bantam in the U.S. Her work has been translated into many languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
March 21, 2021
Having been brought to this novel by a Canadian radio program feature on “North by Northwest”, with recommendations from private bookstores (a surfeit of these in my area), I was happy to give it a try. I found it to be a bit like a matryoshka doll - the outer story nesting inner ones, the dynamic of movement caught in unveiling the layers written by the very talented Helen Humphreys.
A combination of memoir, on Humphrey’s part, and biographical fiction written about Scottish craftswoman Megan Boyd, the novel is essentially structured in two parts. The author discovers an old clipping with Megan’s obituary in her files during an overheated summer. At loose ends and recovering from five deaths in six years, she sets out to discover what she can,in order to write about Megan- and finds little. But what she does try to learn is the skill for which Meagan was world renowned: fly tying. She treats the reader to her writing process, the means by which she inhabits the book she will write - layer upon layer, en route to the novel about Megan.
“There are three main questions to consider when beginning a novel: What is the story; whose story is it, and how are you going to tell that story? Of these questions, the third one is the most interesting and deserves the greatest amount of thought.”
This book is pensive. Humphreys articulates, so very well, why readers gravitate to fiction - the contrast between the harshness of life’s unpredictability and an author’s choice to make decisions in story.
“Life is so different from fiction...Good people can have bad deaths, because death, ultimately, is not within our control, and this is the most frightening aspect of it....
But fiction isn’t like that. Once you have created someone, you must lean the way they lean... You cannot just kill them off with no warning.
Fiction is measured and reassuring in a way that life isn’t, and perhaps that’s why we read it, and also why I write.”
We learn about the “eccentric” Megan Boyd, her sparse written history and the reasons that Humphrey has for writing about her- and finally, move to the last layer.
“To avoid upsetting any of her relatives or friends who might still be alive, I will change Megan’s name.”
Pure storytelling concludes the narrative, embellished by the possibilities which Humphreys has flexed for her imaginary “Megan”, now named Ruth. Facts are incorporated with emotion, and we can envision this Ruth, in the author’s hands, as flesh and blood.
Lush, gorgeous prose... an introspective offering which I’m very glad that I took the opportunity to read.
A combination of memoir, on Humphrey’s part, and biographical fiction written about Scottish craftswoman Megan Boyd, the novel is essentially structured in two parts. The author discovers an old clipping with Megan’s obituary in her files during an overheated summer. At loose ends and recovering from five deaths in six years, she sets out to discover what she can,in order to write about Megan- and finds little. But what she does try to learn is the skill for which Meagan was world renowned: fly tying. She treats the reader to her writing process, the means by which she inhabits the book she will write - layer upon layer, en route to the novel about Megan.
“There are three main questions to consider when beginning a novel: What is the story; whose story is it, and how are you going to tell that story? Of these questions, the third one is the most interesting and deserves the greatest amount of thought.”
This book is pensive. Humphreys articulates, so very well, why readers gravitate to fiction - the contrast between the harshness of life’s unpredictability and an author’s choice to make decisions in story.
“Life is so different from fiction...Good people can have bad deaths, because death, ultimately, is not within our control, and this is the most frightening aspect of it....
But fiction isn’t like that. Once you have created someone, you must lean the way they lean... You cannot just kill them off with no warning.
Fiction is measured and reassuring in a way that life isn’t, and perhaps that’s why we read it, and also why I write.”
We learn about the “eccentric” Megan Boyd, her sparse written history and the reasons that Humphrey has for writing about her- and finally, move to the last layer.
“To avoid upsetting any of her relatives or friends who might still be alive, I will change Megan’s name.”
Pure storytelling concludes the narrative, embellished by the possibilities which Humphreys has flexed for her imaginary “Megan”, now named Ruth. Facts are incorporated with emotion, and we can envision this Ruth, in the author’s hands, as flesh and blood.
Lush, gorgeous prose... an introspective offering which I’m very glad that I took the opportunity to read.
February 6, 2023
Half of this novel is about a writer grappling with her slippery material—striving to catch beauty but not kill it. This part reads like a writer’s memoir.
The second half is the book we saw the writer struggling to approach. This section flows like a clear mountain stream.
So much to love here, including the innovative and illuminating structure. Never has a writer struggling with material offered so much to a reader.
The second half is the book we saw the writer struggling to approach. This section flows like a clear mountain stream.
So much to love here, including the innovative and illuminating structure. Never has a writer struggling with material offered so much to a reader.
November 30, 2018
Afterwards, she takes a break, because Machine Without Horses is such an exhilarating dance for Megan that she needs some space between it and the next dance she enters. She likes to feel the residue of it in her body for as long as it will linger.
Machine Without Horses is not your average read: The first half begins with author Helen Humphreys considering the little information she has about real life celebrated salmon-fly dresser Megan Boyd (who was awarded the British Empire Medal by Queen Elizabeth II, and who counted Prince Charles among her friends and clients), and by explaining the authorial process of turning data points into fiction, and relaying a plot that mostly consists of Humphreys learning how to tie a salmon fly for herself, Humphreys is able to conflate herself with Boyd, conflate the solitary and exacting work of writing with fly tying, and although I have no idea how true-to-life this section is, it's a satisfying look at Humphreys and her processes:
Starting a book is like starting a love affair, it demands full and tireless attention or feelings could change. Commitment takes time, and so there must be a rush of passions at the beginning. This means that the other life of the writer, the “real life”, has to fade into the background for a while. In the past I have found this difficult, but now it is a relief. At the moment, real life is overrated and I am happy to think about River Brora and to imagine Megan's childhood near it.
Explaining that the liberties she intends to take with Boyd's story necessitate a change of name, Part Two of the book is the life story of “Ruth Thomas”, celebrated salmon-fly dresser (recognised by QEII, befriended by HRH, etc.), and the reader gets the opportunity to see how the author delivers on the guesses and suppositions that she had made in the first part. The whole thing makes for an engaging read, and as Humphreys adds a twist of tinsel and a shaving of plume to the fish hook of the known facts, what is created is as complex and as lovely as one of Megan Boyd's flies:
If I had a complaint, it would be the too frequent use of salmon-related metaphors (young Ruth dodged through the fields like a salmon swimming upstream, a pregnant woman's belly flutters like a salmon in the river), and even if the fly-tying instructor in the first part encouraged Humphreys to focus on the relationship that Boyd had with the salmon as she did her work, the final passage went too far for me:
I do like the lyricism of that, but it's one metaphor too far for me. Overall, I really appreciate the intent and execution of this project; it doesn't take long to read, and I was equally interested in learning about Megan Boyd and about Humphreys herself.
July 22, 2019
Lady of the Flies
Alcuni autori per me sono porti sicuri, la certezza di approdare a letture capaci di ristorare, nutrire, offrire un rifugio dove poter deporre le armi del vivere frenetico quotidiano e lasciarmi trasportare altrove.
Eppure quella di Helen Humphreys, scrittrice e poetessa canadese nata in Inghilterra (luoghi dove, da appassionata lettrice di Virginia Woolf, spesso letterariamente ritorna) di cui non ringrazierò mai abbastanza il gruppo di lettura che me l’ha fatta scoprire ormai molti anni fa e l’editore Luca Bergamini per la passione con la quale ce ne aveva parlato invogliandoci a leggerla, non è mai una lettura piana, perché dietro alla sua prosa poetica e dietro alla semplicità delle sue storie, si celano sempre il tumulto dei sentimenti, gli interrogativi sull’esistenza, le battaglie sostenute per accettarne i conflitti e le diversità.
È così che anche questa volta, dopo avermi già condotta nell’Inghilterra della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, nella Francia di Adele e Victor Hugo, nel Canada di Cani selvaggi e delle diverse sfumature dell’amore e dell’appartenenza, e nelle pieghe del suo dolore privato sublimato in Notturno, non ho esitato a lasciarmi portare in Scozia, là dove i salmoni saltano controcorrente nei fiumi, per farmi raccontare la storia di Megan Boyd, la misteriosa vita di Megan Boyd, tra i più importanti e influenti costruttori di esche a mosca per salmoni, amica personale del principe Carlo d'Inghilterra e insignita di una delle più alte onorificenze britanniche dalla regina Elisabetta.
Verrebbe da chiedersi come possa interessare qualcuno la vita di Megan Boyd (di cui, senza sorprendermi, non avevo mai sentito parlare), me lo sono chiesto più volte durante le prime pagine del romanzo, domandandomi, soprattutto, come potesse interessare me, che di pesca (e al salmone, nello specifico) ne so come di fisica quantistica e il cui interesse nei confronti di questa - disciplina, sport, attività? - è pari allo zero.
Ma la capacità di Helen Humphreys è quella di saper cogliere un baluginìo dove altri vedono il buio, dove lei stessa vede solo il buio, e accendere una fiammella: anche nella vita di Megan Boyd, nata nel 1915 nel Surrey e poi da bambina trasferita con la famiglia vicino il fiume Brora, nelle Highlands scozzesi, di cui non si sa praticamente nulla, se non che sin dall'infanzia e sulle orme del padre, che era un gillie (chi fa da accompagnatore a una battuta di caccia o di pesca), inizierà a costruire mosche per i pescatori della zona, e che favorita da un’abilità fuori dal comune, da un’indole incline alla solitudine che la renderà piacevole trascorrere intere giornate nel suo cottage al tavolo di lavoro a intrecciare piume, fili d’argento e ami da pesca, finirà per diventare una leggenda in tutto il Regno Unito e anche oltreoceano; che amava guardare il mare dalla finestra del suo cottage, le danze di campagna, vestire da uomo e… e poi Helen Humphreys immagina, e dopo una prima parte del romanzo in cui rende partecipe il lettore dei suoi dubbi, del suo desiderio di raccontare quella vita di cui si sa poco, dopo aver esitato su quale strada prendere, imparato a costruire lei stessa mosche per la pesca al salmone (fra le quali il famoso amuleto celeste), percorso le strade di campagna e dei villaggi che la stessa Megan percorreva per andare a consegnare il latte o recarsi nelle sale da ballo, dopo aver guardato il mare dallo stesso rifugio dal quale Megan in tempo di guerra controllava le coste durante i suoi turni di osservatore per l’esercito, dopo aver cercato di immedesimarsi in lei fino a trovare la sua voce, ci regala, nella seconda parte del romanzo, la vita immaginata di Megan Boyd, che servì il futuro re d'Inghilterra e morì cieca in una casa di riposo dopo una vita intera trascorsa a realizzare mosche per la pesca del salmone con una richiesta continua di ordini che era ormai da tempo impossibile evadere.
Talmente immaginata da sembrare vera, talmente autentica da scomparire del tutto fra le righe, talmente viva da guizzare come il manto argenteo dei salmoni quando saltano fuori dall’acqua: di quei salmoni per cui Megan costruiva esche dai nomi seducenti e dalle piume esotiche, ma che lei stessa, amante dei cani che l’accompagneranno per tutta la vita e della natura, nell’ultima contraddizione della sua esistenza, non avrebbe mai pescato.
E anche questa è Helen Humphreys, ancora una volta poesia in prosa, ancora una volta capace di adattare la sua scrittura alla materia del suo scrivere: perché se con La verità, soltanto la verità, svelava al lettore di aver cercato, nel cesellare quella che a posteriori appare un'opera di fine oreficeria, di utilizzare quasi esclusivamente parole e frasi pronunciate da Adèle Hugo e Charles Sainte-Beuve nei loro scritti, e che al di là di poche eccezioni gli avvenimenti del romanzo ricalcavano quelli realmente accaduti, qui il suo lavoro è stato esattamente l'opposto: ha intessuto di fili d'argento inesistenti e colorate piume esotiche, i pochi fatti di una vita rimasta segreta, raccontato il riserbo di un'esistenza intravisto in un baluginìo improvviso.
Machine Without Horses, il titolo originale del romanzo, fa riferimento al nome di un ballo tradizionale scozzese, quelli che Megan Boyd amava ballare.
Alcuni autori per me sono porti sicuri, la certezza di approdare a letture capaci di ristorare, nutrire, offrire un rifugio dove poter deporre le armi del vivere frenetico quotidiano e lasciarmi trasportare altrove.
Eppure quella di Helen Humphreys, scrittrice e poetessa canadese nata in Inghilterra (luoghi dove, da appassionata lettrice di Virginia Woolf, spesso letterariamente ritorna) di cui non ringrazierò mai abbastanza il gruppo di lettura che me l’ha fatta scoprire ormai molti anni fa e l’editore Luca Bergamini per la passione con la quale ce ne aveva parlato invogliandoci a leggerla, non è mai una lettura piana, perché dietro alla sua prosa poetica e dietro alla semplicità delle sue storie, si celano sempre il tumulto dei sentimenti, gli interrogativi sull’esistenza, le battaglie sostenute per accettarne i conflitti e le diversità.
È così che anche questa volta, dopo avermi già condotta nell’Inghilterra della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, nella Francia di Adele e Victor Hugo, nel Canada di Cani selvaggi e delle diverse sfumature dell’amore e dell’appartenenza, e nelle pieghe del suo dolore privato sublimato in Notturno, non ho esitato a lasciarmi portare in Scozia, là dove i salmoni saltano controcorrente nei fiumi, per farmi raccontare la storia di Megan Boyd, la misteriosa vita di Megan Boyd, tra i più importanti e influenti costruttori di esche a mosca per salmoni, amica personale del principe Carlo d'Inghilterra e insignita di una delle più alte onorificenze britanniche dalla regina Elisabetta.
Verrebbe da chiedersi come possa interessare qualcuno la vita di Megan Boyd (di cui, senza sorprendermi, non avevo mai sentito parlare), me lo sono chiesto più volte durante le prime pagine del romanzo, domandandomi, soprattutto, come potesse interessare me, che di pesca (e al salmone, nello specifico) ne so come di fisica quantistica e il cui interesse nei confronti di questa - disciplina, sport, attività? - è pari allo zero.
Ma la capacità di Helen Humphreys è quella di saper cogliere un baluginìo dove altri vedono il buio, dove lei stessa vede solo il buio, e accendere una fiammella: anche nella vita di Megan Boyd, nata nel 1915 nel Surrey e poi da bambina trasferita con la famiglia vicino il fiume Brora, nelle Highlands scozzesi, di cui non si sa praticamente nulla, se non che sin dall'infanzia e sulle orme del padre, che era un gillie (chi fa da accompagnatore a una battuta di caccia o di pesca), inizierà a costruire mosche per i pescatori della zona, e che favorita da un’abilità fuori dal comune, da un’indole incline alla solitudine che la renderà piacevole trascorrere intere giornate nel suo cottage al tavolo di lavoro a intrecciare piume, fili d’argento e ami da pesca, finirà per diventare una leggenda in tutto il Regno Unito e anche oltreoceano; che amava guardare il mare dalla finestra del suo cottage, le danze di campagna, vestire da uomo e… e poi Helen Humphreys immagina, e dopo una prima parte del romanzo in cui rende partecipe il lettore dei suoi dubbi, del suo desiderio di raccontare quella vita di cui si sa poco, dopo aver esitato su quale strada prendere, imparato a costruire lei stessa mosche per la pesca al salmone (fra le quali il famoso amuleto celeste), percorso le strade di campagna e dei villaggi che la stessa Megan percorreva per andare a consegnare il latte o recarsi nelle sale da ballo, dopo aver guardato il mare dallo stesso rifugio dal quale Megan in tempo di guerra controllava le coste durante i suoi turni di osservatore per l’esercito, dopo aver cercato di immedesimarsi in lei fino a trovare la sua voce, ci regala, nella seconda parte del romanzo, la vita immaginata di Megan Boyd, che servì il futuro re d'Inghilterra e morì cieca in una casa di riposo dopo una vita intera trascorsa a realizzare mosche per la pesca del salmone con una richiesta continua di ordini che era ormai da tempo impossibile evadere.
Talmente immaginata da sembrare vera, talmente autentica da scomparire del tutto fra le righe, talmente viva da guizzare come il manto argenteo dei salmoni quando saltano fuori dall’acqua: di quei salmoni per cui Megan costruiva esche dai nomi seducenti e dalle piume esotiche, ma che lei stessa, amante dei cani che l’accompagneranno per tutta la vita e della natura, nell’ultima contraddizione della sua esistenza, non avrebbe mai pescato.
E anche questa è Helen Humphreys, ancora una volta poesia in prosa, ancora una volta capace di adattare la sua scrittura alla materia del suo scrivere: perché se con La verità, soltanto la verità, svelava al lettore di aver cercato, nel cesellare quella che a posteriori appare un'opera di fine oreficeria, di utilizzare quasi esclusivamente parole e frasi pronunciate da Adèle Hugo e Charles Sainte-Beuve nei loro scritti, e che al di là di poche eccezioni gli avvenimenti del romanzo ricalcavano quelli realmente accaduti, qui il suo lavoro è stato esattamente l'opposto: ha intessuto di fili d'argento inesistenti e colorate piume esotiche, i pochi fatti di una vita rimasta segreta, raccontato il riserbo di un'esistenza intravisto in un baluginìo improvviso.
In 2013, filmmaker Eric Steel produced and directed Kiss The Water, an 80-minute documentary on Megan Boyd's fly tying life. The film was shown at both the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and the Edinburgh Film Festival. In the film, David Profumo, the fishing editor of Country Life magazine who was apprenticed with Boyd one summer during his youth, said:
«She had the most delicate feminine hands; her creations were the Fabergés of the fishing world. You could say she wove a certain kind of magic.»
[David Profumo, Kiss the Water] [da Wikipedia.org]
Machine Without Horses, il titolo originale del romanzo, fa riferimento al nome di un ballo tradizionale scozzese, quelli che Megan Boyd amava ballare.
June 7, 2022
About more than Salmon Fly Tying and Scottish Country Dancing
Review of the HarperCollins 2018 hardcover edition
This one was unorthodox in its title, its structure and its subject matter, and it appealed to me for all of those reasons. Humphreys divides the book in half. The first section is Humphreys' own non-fiction novel about the process of researching the life of real-life salmon fly tying expert Megan Boyd (1915-2001) and about what decisions had to be made in the writing of her biographical fiction. The second half is the actual novella which was the result. The novella fictionalizes Megan into a new character named Ruth which was Humphreys' decision in order to distance the fiction out of respect. I'm labelling the book as 1/2 non-fiction novel and 1/2 novella as the relative lengths are pretty much an equal 144 pages in the total 288 pages.
The title is its own puzzle, or at least it is for most of us who don't know Scottish country dances. It isn't until pg. 121 that we discover (in the non-fiction section) that the 'Machine Without Horses' is "Megan's favourite dance ... and the one she is best at." That explanation still leaves its own mystery though. Why is the book titled after an event/incident that is only a tiny part of it? The reader can propose their own answers to that as no explanation is otherwise given. A simplistic one is that a salmon fly is a machine with which to catch fish. But perhaps a better one is that the human heart is a machine as well.
My thanks to Karan for the recommendation!
Trivia and Links
1. As mentioned in Humphreys' Acknowledgements section, a recent biography is available called Megan Boyd: The Story of a Salmon Flydresser (2016) by Derek Mills and Jimmy Younger.
2. There is a recent documentary film Kiss the Water (2013) by director Eric Steel for which you can see the trailer on YouTube here.
3. There are many examples of how to dance the Machine Without Horses on YouTube.
Review of the HarperCollins 2018 hardcover edition
This one was unorthodox in its title, its structure and its subject matter, and it appealed to me for all of those reasons. Humphreys divides the book in half. The first section is Humphreys' own non-fiction novel about the process of researching the life of real-life salmon fly tying expert Megan Boyd (1915-2001) and about what decisions had to be made in the writing of her biographical fiction. The second half is the actual novella which was the result. The novella fictionalizes Megan into a new character named Ruth which was Humphreys' decision in order to distance the fiction out of respect. I'm labelling the book as 1/2 non-fiction novel and 1/2 novella as the relative lengths are pretty much an equal 144 pages in the total 288 pages.
The title is its own puzzle, or at least it is for most of us who don't know Scottish country dances. It isn't until pg. 121 that we discover (in the non-fiction section) that the 'Machine Without Horses' is "Megan's favourite dance ... and the one she is best at." That explanation still leaves its own mystery though. Why is the book titled after an event/incident that is only a tiny part of it? The reader can propose their own answers to that as no explanation is otherwise given. A simplistic one is that a salmon fly is a machine with which to catch fish. But perhaps a better one is that the human heart is a machine as well.
My thanks to Karan for the recommendation!
Trivia and Links
1. As mentioned in Humphreys' Acknowledgements section, a recent biography is available called Megan Boyd: The Story of a Salmon Flydresser (2016) by Derek Mills and Jimmy Younger.
2. There is a recent documentary film Kiss the Water (2013) by director Eric Steel for which you can see the trailer on YouTube here.
3. There are many examples of how to dance the Machine Without Horses on YouTube.
November 24, 2019
Vita e opere di una creatrice di esche a mosca per la pesca dei salmoni.
Ci sono talvolta autori che riteniamo non possano interessarci, tanto sembrano lontani dal nostro gusto per stile, argomenti trattati, ambientazione (geografica o temporale) e invece ci sorprendono sovvertendo il pregiudizio. (altre volte, ahimé succede l’esatto contrario…).
Non credo dunque che avrei affrontato la bibliografia di Helen Humphreys con l’intento di leggerne ogni romanzo pubblicato in italiano, se non mi fossi imbattuto tempo fa nel magnifico ”Cani selvaggi”, un piccolo capolavoro che, a distanza di anni, non smette di restarmi impresso nella memoria. ”Amuleto celeste”, nonostante il titolo poco attraente e piuttosto fuorviante che non c’entra nulla con l’originale (invero poco traducibile alla lettera…), è l’ultimo romanzo pubblicato dall’autrice e, se non raggiunge la malìa di “Cani selvaggi, si pone a mio parere appena un gradino più sotto.
Una delle caratteristiche più immediate della Humphreys narratrice (oltre che poetessa e saggista) consiste nella bizzarria nella scelta dei temi delle sue storie. In questo caso si tratta della ricostruzione biografica, abbondantemente ed esplicitamente infarcita di fiction, dell’esistenza di Megan Boyd, inglese vissuta all’estremo Nord della Scozia e a quanto pare una delle più talentuose artigiane nella costruzione di esche a mosca per la pesca dei salmoni. E fin qui la stranezza del soggetto sarebbe relativa, potendo la sostanza del romanzo essere supportata da una serie di potenziali eventi, calamità naturali, relazioni tumultuose, viaggi avventurosi. Niente di tutto ciò: la Boyd visse per gran parte dei suoi 87 anni nella solitudine del proprio cottage (per decenni privo di acqua e luce) dedicandosi esclusivamente all’attività per cui è rimasta famosa nel suo ambiente, salvo alcuni lavoretti supplementari in tempo di guerra allorché tutti gli uomini erano al fronte.
Questa lunga premessa per sottolineare il talento della Humphreys nella stesura di un gioiellino di romanzo a fronte di un materiale così scarno. Nella prima parte, che occupa oltre la metà del libro ed appare la più interessante, l’autrice prende il soggetto, per così dire, alla larga, analizzando le circostanze ed i motivi della sua scelta, le analogie fra la creazione di un libro e di un’esca a mosca ed anche la sintonia fra molti elementi della propria personalità e quella della Boyd, non ultima una certa tendenza alla mascolinità (la Humphreys è stata più volte finalista al “Lambda Literary Award”, riconoscimento nell’ambito LGBT), tanto che la scrittrice ha anche l’ardire di immaginare e descrivere una relazione “proibita”, inventata ma plausibile, con una madre di famiglia del luogo!
Al fine di immedesimarsi ancor più con la sua protagonista, la Humphreys si è preliminarmente dedicata presso un artigiano locale ad un complesso tirocinio nella pratica di costruire esche a mosca, descrivendolo in un capitolo dove classifica in dettaglio gli svariati tipi di esca, la loro storia, il loro “inventore” ed addirittura le situazioni climatiche e meteorologiche in cui un’esca si dimostra più efficace di un’altra. Un mondo intero, insomma, racchiuso in questi buffi oggettini artigianali di complicata fattura.
Il fattore che più di ogni altro caratterizza Amuleto celeste resta comunque la consueta magnifica scrittura di Helen Humphreys che ci porta a raggiungere il soggetto per vie traverse e preziose divagazioni che svelano tanto il carattere della narratrice quanto la personalità dell’artigiana in un processo narrativo che nella seconda parte si trasforma in qualcosa di più simile alla biografia di un’artista, talentuosa al punto da richiamare l’attenzione del principe Carlo d’Inghilterra, divenuto uno dei suoi “clienti” più affezionati.
Ci sono talvolta autori che riteniamo non possano interessarci, tanto sembrano lontani dal nostro gusto per stile, argomenti trattati, ambientazione (geografica o temporale) e invece ci sorprendono sovvertendo il pregiudizio. (altre volte, ahimé succede l’esatto contrario…).
Non credo dunque che avrei affrontato la bibliografia di Helen Humphreys con l’intento di leggerne ogni romanzo pubblicato in italiano, se non mi fossi imbattuto tempo fa nel magnifico ”Cani selvaggi”, un piccolo capolavoro che, a distanza di anni, non smette di restarmi impresso nella memoria. ”Amuleto celeste”, nonostante il titolo poco attraente e piuttosto fuorviante che non c’entra nulla con l’originale (invero poco traducibile alla lettera…), è l’ultimo romanzo pubblicato dall’autrice e, se non raggiunge la malìa di “Cani selvaggi, si pone a mio parere appena un gradino più sotto.
Una delle caratteristiche più immediate della Humphreys narratrice (oltre che poetessa e saggista) consiste nella bizzarria nella scelta dei temi delle sue storie. In questo caso si tratta della ricostruzione biografica, abbondantemente ed esplicitamente infarcita di fiction, dell’esistenza di Megan Boyd, inglese vissuta all’estremo Nord della Scozia e a quanto pare una delle più talentuose artigiane nella costruzione di esche a mosca per la pesca dei salmoni. E fin qui la stranezza del soggetto sarebbe relativa, potendo la sostanza del romanzo essere supportata da una serie di potenziali eventi, calamità naturali, relazioni tumultuose, viaggi avventurosi. Niente di tutto ciò: la Boyd visse per gran parte dei suoi 87 anni nella solitudine del proprio cottage (per decenni privo di acqua e luce) dedicandosi esclusivamente all’attività per cui è rimasta famosa nel suo ambiente, salvo alcuni lavoretti supplementari in tempo di guerra allorché tutti gli uomini erano al fronte.
Questa lunga premessa per sottolineare il talento della Humphreys nella stesura di un gioiellino di romanzo a fronte di un materiale così scarno. Nella prima parte, che occupa oltre la metà del libro ed appare la più interessante, l’autrice prende il soggetto, per così dire, alla larga, analizzando le circostanze ed i motivi della sua scelta, le analogie fra la creazione di un libro e di un’esca a mosca ed anche la sintonia fra molti elementi della propria personalità e quella della Boyd, non ultima una certa tendenza alla mascolinità (la Humphreys è stata più volte finalista al “Lambda Literary Award”, riconoscimento nell’ambito LGBT), tanto che la scrittrice ha anche l’ardire di immaginare e descrivere una relazione “proibita”, inventata ma plausibile, con una madre di famiglia del luogo!
Al fine di immedesimarsi ancor più con la sua protagonista, la Humphreys si è preliminarmente dedicata presso un artigiano locale ad un complesso tirocinio nella pratica di costruire esche a mosca, descrivendolo in un capitolo dove classifica in dettaglio gli svariati tipi di esca, la loro storia, il loro “inventore” ed addirittura le situazioni climatiche e meteorologiche in cui un’esca si dimostra più efficace di un’altra. Un mondo intero, insomma, racchiuso in questi buffi oggettini artigianali di complicata fattura.
Il fattore che più di ogni altro caratterizza Amuleto celeste resta comunque la consueta magnifica scrittura di Helen Humphreys che ci porta a raggiungere il soggetto per vie traverse e preziose divagazioni che svelano tanto il carattere della narratrice quanto la personalità dell’artigiana in un processo narrativo che nella seconda parte si trasforma in qualcosa di più simile alla biografia di un’artista, talentuosa al punto da richiamare l’attenzione del principe Carlo d’Inghilterra, divenuto uno dei suoi “clienti” più affezionati.
January 12, 2022
I have said somewhere that I like when an author takes risks while writing. It gives me the idea I am in front of an authorial work rather than an editorial option. And Helen Humphreys took risks while writing this book, which is divided into two parts. In my humble opinion, she succeded greatly in both parts.
The first part is sort of a memoir of Humphreys process of writing a fictionalized biography of Megan Boyd, one of the most famous salmon fly-dresser, born in Surrey, England, in 1915, though she lived in Brora, Scotland, since a very young age, when her father, back from World War I, decided to live a freer life as a gilly (fishing and hunting guide). It is not only for the process of writing itself but also because it humanizes a writer's life, something that people might rarely have an idea of.
The second part is the biographical novel on Megan Boyd, whose name becomes Ruth Thomas (To avoid upsetting any of her relatives or friends who might still be alive, I will change Megan’s name.). It is a very touching telling of a quite lonely life, one that was mostly dedicated to creating fly dressings for fisherpeople all over the world and taking care of her dogs. Yet, as lonely as it could be, it seems that Ruth (Megan) dealt well with it, regardless of her romantic aspirations. One of the few activities she would take was country dancing, being machine without horses one of her favorite dances (the dance and tune appeared in the 18th century). She would usually dress in men's clothes and guide the women while dancing. She was also well-known for helping elder people.
I'm not a fishing person. I actually would only eat green leaves for the rest of my life if it depended on killing an animal. And so did Megan. She didn't fish, as it seems she liked the fish rather than the process of capturing it. It seems a contradiction, yet I understand her. She took fly dressing not only as a way of living but as art itself too, no matter how traditional they were. They were exquisite.
The part in the novel that touched me the most, besides her love epiphany together with Evelyn in the castle and while making love during a rainy night, was the realization of life coming to an end, she was losing her sight fast (having always worked using sunlight in a cottage with no electricity) and her own efforts to look for the proper ways to deal with it, moving to a nursing home. It totally broke my heart, but also showed me how strong-willed she was.
Some people may wonder how a person can live such a life, with almost no traveling, no having fun, no this, no that. In our consumerist-hedonistic times, these are hard attitudes to take, but life is neither only a constant flow of adrenaline nor abundant happiness seeking. Learning to deal with everyday requests might be the trick to a fuller life.
Megan Boyd, I love you!
The first part is sort of a memoir of Humphreys process of writing a fictionalized biography of Megan Boyd, one of the most famous salmon fly-dresser, born in Surrey, England, in 1915, though she lived in Brora, Scotland, since a very young age, when her father, back from World War I, decided to live a freer life as a gilly (fishing and hunting guide). It is not only for the process of writing itself but also because it humanizes a writer's life, something that people might rarely have an idea of.
The second part is the biographical novel on Megan Boyd, whose name becomes Ruth Thomas (To avoid upsetting any of her relatives or friends who might still be alive, I will change Megan’s name.). It is a very touching telling of a quite lonely life, one that was mostly dedicated to creating fly dressings for fisherpeople all over the world and taking care of her dogs. Yet, as lonely as it could be, it seems that Ruth (Megan) dealt well with it, regardless of her romantic aspirations. One of the few activities she would take was country dancing, being machine without horses one of her favorite dances (the dance and tune appeared in the 18th century). She would usually dress in men's clothes and guide the women while dancing. She was also well-known for helping elder people.
I'm not a fishing person. I actually would only eat green leaves for the rest of my life if it depended on killing an animal. And so did Megan. She didn't fish, as it seems she liked the fish rather than the process of capturing it. It seems a contradiction, yet I understand her. She took fly dressing not only as a way of living but as art itself too, no matter how traditional they were. They were exquisite.
The part in the novel that touched me the most, besides her love epiphany together with Evelyn in the castle and while making love during a rainy night, was the realization of life coming to an end, she was losing her sight fast (having always worked using sunlight in a cottage with no electricity) and her own efforts to look for the proper ways to deal with it, moving to a nursing home. It totally broke my heart, but also showed me how strong-willed she was.
Some people may wonder how a person can live such a life, with almost no traveling, no having fun, no this, no that. In our consumerist-hedonistic times, these are hard attitudes to take, but life is neither only a constant flow of adrenaline nor abundant happiness seeking. Learning to deal with everyday requests might be the trick to a fuller life.
Megan Boyd, I love you!
March 18, 2019
After her masterpiece, The Lost Garden, this new Helen Humphreys novel was a huge disappointment. The first half is a meta-essay about the impossibility of fictionalizing in an interesting way the life of a woman who did nothing—nothing at all—except make salmon flies; in the second half, the ‘novel,’ Humphreys goes on, alas, to amply prove the point. One of the most boring books I’ve ever read.
Full video review, made jointly with Ange of the BookTube channel Beyond the Pages, who had quite a different opinion on the novel: https://youtu.be/8_OZt9x-BfE
Full video review, made jointly with Ange of the BookTube channel Beyond the Pages, who had quite a different opinion on the novel: https://youtu.be/8_OZt9x-BfE
September 27, 2018
Do you believe in magic? Have you ever wondered how a magician performs their magic? If you answer is yes to these questions then please read this book.
Humphreys is more than an accomplished writer. She is a writer whose precision and touch with language is delightful to experience. In “Machine Without Horses” Humphreys offers two books in one. The first part of her novel is an explanation of how she came to discover the story of Megan Boyd, a woman who was a master dresser of salmon flies. Humphreys writes that “making a salmon fly is about doing it right.” Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Boyd was the best of her peers, and she made salmon flies both for those who lived near her and, when her skill and fame expanded, for those around the world, including HRH Prince Charles.
In the first part of this novel Humphreys weaves through how she approaches a novel, how she takes what might appear to be an uninspiring idea, and shows the reader the magic it takes to create a story that will fully engage a reader. Her style is clear, evocative, and convincing.
The second part of the novel is the story of a fictionalized Megan Boyd. What a creative and engaging idea as readers get to watch how a real person is transformed into a fictional character who exists in both the space of reality and creativity at the same time.
I could not help but think how an over-riding metaphor in this novel is the fact that Megan Boyd created salmon flies that were creations of both human skill and an imagination, and transformed parts of many feathers, bits of thread, and foil into a representation of reality. With these flies, real fish believed that these flies were also real, and thus rose through the water to take them. The real and the illusion. The character of Megan Boyd and her fictional doppelgänger Ruth Thomas. In the hands of many authors such a magical touch of writing would be clumsy, or worse, ungainly and over complicated. Not here. Helen Humphreys is the perfect one to cast a spell on her readers.
Read this novel.
Humphreys is more than an accomplished writer. She is a writer whose precision and touch with language is delightful to experience. In “Machine Without Horses” Humphreys offers two books in one. The first part of her novel is an explanation of how she came to discover the story of Megan Boyd, a woman who was a master dresser of salmon flies. Humphreys writes that “making a salmon fly is about doing it right.” Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Boyd was the best of her peers, and she made salmon flies both for those who lived near her and, when her skill and fame expanded, for those around the world, including HRH Prince Charles.
In the first part of this novel Humphreys weaves through how she approaches a novel, how she takes what might appear to be an uninspiring idea, and shows the reader the magic it takes to create a story that will fully engage a reader. Her style is clear, evocative, and convincing.
The second part of the novel is the story of a fictionalized Megan Boyd. What a creative and engaging idea as readers get to watch how a real person is transformed into a fictional character who exists in both the space of reality and creativity at the same time.
I could not help but think how an over-riding metaphor in this novel is the fact that Megan Boyd created salmon flies that were creations of both human skill and an imagination, and transformed parts of many feathers, bits of thread, and foil into a representation of reality. With these flies, real fish believed that these flies were also real, and thus rose through the water to take them. The real and the illusion. The character of Megan Boyd and her fictional doppelgänger Ruth Thomas. In the hands of many authors such a magical touch of writing would be clumsy, or worse, ungainly and over complicated. Not here. Helen Humphreys is the perfect one to cast a spell on her readers.
Read this novel.
June 15, 2024
Quanto di una storia vera può diventare romanzo e quanto di un romanzo può rispecchiare la verità di un’esistenza? Mentre sistema il disordine cronico che ormai ha preso il sopravvento nel suo studio, Helen Humphreys ritrova il necrologio dedicato a Megan Boyd, una delle più importanti costruttrici di esche a mosca della sua generazione.
Ben poco si sa della sua esistenza, della sua vita in un piccolo cottage scozzese sul fiume Brora. Boyd passava le sue giornate seduta davanti ad un tavolo nella sua rimessa a costruire esche a mosca per la pesca del salmone. Ben presto è diventata un’autorità in materia, tutti si rivolgono a lei per una consiglio, e le ordinazioni – che arrivano ormai da ogni parte del mondo – si accumulano sul tavolo della donna, che arriva a lavorare anche quattordici ore al giorno pur di non sentirsi schiacciata dall’impossibilità di rispondere a tutti.
La prima esca che ha potuto accarezzare e stringere tra le mani è stata una Blue Charm, un dono di suo padre. Soffice, blu, meravigliosa, Boyd se ne innamora e scopre la sua unica, vera vocazione. È tutto tremendamente naturale per lei: assemblare e smontare quelle piccole opere d’arte, scegliere le piume colorate e i fili argentati che le comporranno, muovere le mani in una danza capace di creare piccoli e micidiali animali.
Continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...
Ben poco si sa della sua esistenza, della sua vita in un piccolo cottage scozzese sul fiume Brora. Boyd passava le sue giornate seduta davanti ad un tavolo nella sua rimessa a costruire esche a mosca per la pesca del salmone. Ben presto è diventata un’autorità in materia, tutti si rivolgono a lei per una consiglio, e le ordinazioni – che arrivano ormai da ogni parte del mondo – si accumulano sul tavolo della donna, che arriva a lavorare anche quattordici ore al giorno pur di non sentirsi schiacciata dall’impossibilità di rispondere a tutti.
La prima esca che ha potuto accarezzare e stringere tra le mani è stata una Blue Charm, un dono di suo padre. Soffice, blu, meravigliosa, Boyd se ne innamora e scopre la sua unica, vera vocazione. È tutto tremendamente naturale per lei: assemblare e smontare quelle piccole opere d’arte, scegliere le piume colorate e i fili argentati che le comporranno, muovere le mani in una danza capace di creare piccoli e micidiali animali.
Continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...
May 12, 2024
This was a really good book! Very meditative and tender. Really there was nothing about it I didn't like. I found the first half seamlessly fell into the second half, and it was so interesting to read first about the process of writing and then read the product of that process. Like Followed by the Lark, this book is stunningly atmospheric. The natural world in both parts 1 and 2 mirror each other in Kingston and Brora, with both becoming characters unto themselves.
(i will note that the cover is so deceiving -- it feels so random? like yes dancing is important but the blue dress is so random and kind of misrepresents the book. so many better symbols!!!!!)
(i will note that the cover is so deceiving -- it feels so random? like yes dancing is important but the blue dress is so random and kind of misrepresents the book. so many better symbols!!!!!)
February 19, 2021
What a brilliant read, a curious and refreshing narrative style, I was tempted to reread it immediately after finishing it. Loved it .......I am so thrilled to have discovered her work.
January 14, 2020
Let me preface this review by saying that this is not the sort of book I'd usually select, but it was the "One Book, One New Tecumseth" pick by the town's Public Library, and so I purchased a signed copy. The title is based on a dance called Machine Without Horses, and we learn that the subject, Megan Boyd, loved to go to town to dance after a hard week of tying flies for salmon fisherman. Very little else is known about her life, though her flies were sought after worldwide, including royalty.
The book is told in two parts. Part 1 is Humphrey's telling us where she got the idea to write about a Scottish woman who ties flies (an old obituary) as well as much about her writing process, how authors think, her daily routine with her dog, and so on. While my writing process differs from hers in many ways, I actually enjoyed most of this. That said, there were three things that irked me. In one section, she writes about a novelist who tells two stories about the watch he is wearing. Rather than tell us which story is correct, Humphreys simply says, "I guessed correctly." As if this "secret" (which story is correct) must be kept from the reader. In another section, she recalls reading novel set in the 1930s, about a woman who walked from New York to Alaska. Once again, she keeps an important detail from the reader: the name of the book and author (readers, or at least this reader, likes to fact check this stuff, and possibly try to find the book). But the thing in Part 1 that annoyed me most was where Humphreys states that she doesn't want to hurt any family or friends with her fabricated story of Megan Boyd. "I'll give her another name," she tells us just before Part 2. Which is absurd, given that Part 2 is in the same book.
Part 2 is the story of "Ruth," Humphrey's fictionalized life of Megan Boyd. There's far more about the intricacies of flies/types of flies/how to tie a fly then I have any interest in, much of it used to pad the word count, which, despite considerable repetition on how she spends her days and the austerity of her life and cabin, is lean (without Part 1, Part 2 simply could not have been long enough or have enough meat on the bone to warrant a novel). As such, the story tends to drag, though there are some nice moments where Humphreys delves into Ruth's relationships with her father, a man by the name of Captain Asher, and a woman named Evelyn. I also enjoyed reading about her three dogs (at different times of her life), though one dog, Socks, simply disappears from the book without a word of explanation. (We can assume years have gone by and the dog has crossed the rainbow bridge, but a mention would have been nice given several chapters included him).
There are also inconsistencies in the story that her editor should have caught, often entering around Ruth's daily routine. For example, on one page, Ruth makes her usual "proper breakfast" - eggs, toast, bacon and a grilled tomato - before daylight. Now, she lives without electricity, so she's cooking in the dark or possibly by paraffin lamp (okay?) but not two pages later, much is made about how she leaves the curtains open a crack so she rises with the sun, the time depending on the time of year. Which is it?
Critics seemed to have loved this book, and you may too. I really wanted to, but in the end, to this reader, it was just okay. 2.5 stars.
The book is told in two parts. Part 1 is Humphrey's telling us where she got the idea to write about a Scottish woman who ties flies (an old obituary) as well as much about her writing process, how authors think, her daily routine with her dog, and so on. While my writing process differs from hers in many ways, I actually enjoyed most of this. That said, there were three things that irked me. In one section, she writes about a novelist who tells two stories about the watch he is wearing. Rather than tell us which story is correct, Humphreys simply says, "I guessed correctly." As if this "secret" (which story is correct) must be kept from the reader. In another section, she recalls reading novel set in the 1930s, about a woman who walked from New York to Alaska. Once again, she keeps an important detail from the reader: the name of the book and author (readers, or at least this reader, likes to fact check this stuff, and possibly try to find the book). But the thing in Part 1 that annoyed me most was where Humphreys states that she doesn't want to hurt any family or friends with her fabricated story of Megan Boyd. "I'll give her another name," she tells us just before Part 2. Which is absurd, given that Part 2 is in the same book.
Part 2 is the story of "Ruth," Humphrey's fictionalized life of Megan Boyd. There's far more about the intricacies of flies/types of flies/how to tie a fly then I have any interest in, much of it used to pad the word count, which, despite considerable repetition on how she spends her days and the austerity of her life and cabin, is lean (without Part 1, Part 2 simply could not have been long enough or have enough meat on the bone to warrant a novel). As such, the story tends to drag, though there are some nice moments where Humphreys delves into Ruth's relationships with her father, a man by the name of Captain Asher, and a woman named Evelyn. I also enjoyed reading about her three dogs (at different times of her life), though one dog, Socks, simply disappears from the book without a word of explanation. (We can assume years have gone by and the dog has crossed the rainbow bridge, but a mention would have been nice given several chapters included him).
There are also inconsistencies in the story that her editor should have caught, often entering around Ruth's daily routine. For example, on one page, Ruth makes her usual "proper breakfast" - eggs, toast, bacon and a grilled tomato - before daylight. Now, she lives without electricity, so she's cooking in the dark or possibly by paraffin lamp (okay?) but not two pages later, much is made about how she leaves the curtains open a crack so she rises with the sun, the time depending on the time of year. Which is it?
Critics seemed to have loved this book, and you may too. I really wanted to, but in the end, to this reader, it was just okay. 2.5 stars.
March 27, 2019
Just because you're a writer doesn't mean you can write about anything. It won't be convincing if you don't have points of connection. 142
The setting for a story is almost as important as character p30
HH obviously has many points in connection with the subject of this meta-fiction. Both women are meticulous, patient and creative in there very different artistic endeavors.
We become what we do. It's inevitable. How could we expect...character to be separate from the repetitive actions of our daily life p115
The most interesting thing about this book for me is the way it is structured. We get a delightfully detailed look at HH as she sets about preparation to write. I am sure not many had ever heard of Megan Boyd so I don't feel too badly that I needed to look her up to find out the scanty facts of her life. When we get to read the memoir itself, that life, visualized so carefully by HH, blooms.
It may be that I get most things wrong in this novel, but if just one scene, one line of dialogue, moves the reader to consider MB not merely as an oddity but as a fully realized human being, than I have done my job as a novelist. p141
The setting for a story is almost as important as character p30
HH obviously has many points in connection with the subject of this meta-fiction. Both women are meticulous, patient and creative in there very different artistic endeavors.
We become what we do. It's inevitable. How could we expect...character to be separate from the repetitive actions of our daily life p115
The most interesting thing about this book for me is the way it is structured. We get a delightfully detailed look at HH as she sets about preparation to write. I am sure not many had ever heard of Megan Boyd so I don't feel too badly that I needed to look her up to find out the scanty facts of her life. When we get to read the memoir itself, that life, visualized so carefully by HH, blooms.
It may be that I get most things wrong in this novel, but if just one scene, one line of dialogue, moves the reader to consider MB not merely as an oddity but as a fully realized human being, than I have done my job as a novelist. p141
February 25, 2019
The first half of the book was frustrating to read.
If I wanted to work through the decisions made in writing a book, I'd have taken a writers' course!
If I wanted to learn how to tie salmon flies, I'd have found a place that offers a hands-on course!
I couldn't help but question if a book was due at the publisher's, and the first half was there to fill up some pages.
I apologise if this review seems too negative, but I did come close to tossing it in quite a few times. When the book actually got to "the story", it was quite good.
For that reason alone, I am glad I did read it to the end.
If I wanted to work through the decisions made in writing a book, I'd have taken a writers' course!
If I wanted to learn how to tie salmon flies, I'd have found a place that offers a hands-on course!
I couldn't help but question if a book was due at the publisher's, and the first half was there to fill up some pages.
I apologise if this review seems too negative, but I did come close to tossing it in quite a few times. When the book actually got to "the story", it was quite good.
For that reason alone, I am glad I did read it to the end.
January 30, 2019
This was a really boring book. In the first part of the book, the author talks about all the decisions she has to make when writing a book. The second part utilizes her decisions. Most of the book discusses tying flys for salmon fishing. Perhaps someone who fishes would enjoy this book, but I sure didn't like it. I have no idea why I read the whole book, but I kept thinking that it would get better.
May 19, 2020
"I used to wonder where the dead went. I used to think that something of them floated free when they died, remaining with those of us they had left, or lingering in the atmosphere. Now I don't think anything like that. Now I just feel them gone and wish they could come back. I wish this all the time.
But in my better moments, I like to believe that they are full of their days, of the brightness of their days - my father sitting in his deck chair, reading the paper, my friend in her garden - and that they will shed this light, slowly, like fireflies, into the long darkness where they now find themselves." (129-130)
Helen Humphreys has a beautiful way with words, simple and clear but striking. And completely unlike any author I've ever read. And this is a book unlike any other I've ever read, utterly unique. Partly about her writing process, partly about her own journey with bereavement and grief, and partly about how we can never truly know anyone else, but we can imagine our way into the possibilities of their story.
This slim book is a fascinating insight into Humphreys' research process for her historically-based fiction. Tired and restless after experiencing six personal losses in as many years (all from cancer, and yes, I'm including the dog where she does not - they were together for 13 years!), Humphreys is cleaning out her study when she unearths an old obituary a friend sent her years ago, as possible story fodder.
The obituary belongs to Megan Boyd, a renowned but reclusive salmon-fly tier in Scotland, who was befriended by Prince Charles and was awarded The British Empire Medal by the Queen. Fiercely private, little is known about her personal life, although her local reputation as an eccentric, her love of country dancing and her affectation for dressing in men's clothes were well documented, as was her love of dogs, who were her only work companions.
Megan Boyd with one of her beloved Collies
By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...
Humphreys' writerly instinct is roused: here is a workaholic who was most often alone, but seemingly never lonely. How is this possible? As Humphreys takes fly-tying lessons to get a feel for the craft and explores Megan's history and legacy, she notes all the difficulties of reimaging real lives as fiction. It is an extraordinarily fine line to walk, and must be done with the utmost sensitivity.
As she says:
"I need to become Megan Boyd, and in doing so, I need to leave myself and my world behind. Whatever is preoccupying me at the moment needs to be synthesized into fuel for the narrative, but it has no place in the actual narrative. This is the sleight of hand that comes with writing a novel. It is about making yourself disappear." (143)
Megan Boyd was a contradiction: she spent nearly every waking hour making exquisitely intricate salmon flies - even designing a namesake lure that worked when all others failed, when it was too hot for the salmon to be bothered to bite - but didn't want to kill the salmon, or think about them dying. She disavowed her agency in their deaths, while supporting salmon conservation.
I always thought salmon flies were made to imitate insects, and some are - but Megan made only the more artistic types, designed to make a fish that didn't need to eat still jump to the lure. She did the work, she said, for the fishermen, like her father. She thought that as the salmon returned home to spawn, they remembered their past in this river they had left when they were young, and so they chased her lures due to some innate sense of nostalgia and unthinking reflex. Her life is an enigma, more so than many of Humphreys' subjects.
The second half of the book is Humphreys' interpretation of what Megan's life might have been like, only she renames the character Ruth out of respect for Megan's family and friends. It is more of a short story, a fleeting glimpse of a life that might have been, than a novel. Humphrey notes that for a life to become a story, it must have drama, and if there is nothing documented that will do, then something - some impetus - must be invented.
Following along with the project from Humphreys' first inklings, sparked by the obituary, to the different ways she could shape the story - a male lover, or a female one? A supportive father, or a withholding one? - and finally to the finished prose is a remarkable backwards journey akin to the salmon heading upstream to spawn.
A story of love and loss and living through both. Deeply affecting and highly recommended, to students of writing and to anyone bereaved.
You can see some of the beautiful flies Megan tied at this old listing at Mullock's Auctions.
But in my better moments, I like to believe that they are full of their days, of the brightness of their days - my father sitting in his deck chair, reading the paper, my friend in her garden - and that they will shed this light, slowly, like fireflies, into the long darkness where they now find themselves." (129-130)
Helen Humphreys has a beautiful way with words, simple and clear but striking. And completely unlike any author I've ever read. And this is a book unlike any other I've ever read, utterly unique. Partly about her writing process, partly about her own journey with bereavement and grief, and partly about how we can never truly know anyone else, but we can imagine our way into the possibilities of their story.
This slim book is a fascinating insight into Humphreys' research process for her historically-based fiction. Tired and restless after experiencing six personal losses in as many years (all from cancer, and yes, I'm including the dog where she does not - they were together for 13 years!), Humphreys is cleaning out her study when she unearths an old obituary a friend sent her years ago, as possible story fodder.
The obituary belongs to Megan Boyd, a renowned but reclusive salmon-fly tier in Scotland, who was befriended by Prince Charles and was awarded The British Empire Medal by the Queen. Fiercely private, little is known about her personal life, although her local reputation as an eccentric, her love of country dancing and her affectation for dressing in men's clothes were well documented, as was her love of dogs, who were her only work companions.
Megan Boyd with one of her beloved Collies
By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...
Humphreys' writerly instinct is roused: here is a workaholic who was most often alone, but seemingly never lonely. How is this possible? As Humphreys takes fly-tying lessons to get a feel for the craft and explores Megan's history and legacy, she notes all the difficulties of reimaging real lives as fiction. It is an extraordinarily fine line to walk, and must be done with the utmost sensitivity.
As she says:
"I need to become Megan Boyd, and in doing so, I need to leave myself and my world behind. Whatever is preoccupying me at the moment needs to be synthesized into fuel for the narrative, but it has no place in the actual narrative. This is the sleight of hand that comes with writing a novel. It is about making yourself disappear." (143)
Megan Boyd was a contradiction: she spent nearly every waking hour making exquisitely intricate salmon flies - even designing a namesake lure that worked when all others failed, when it was too hot for the salmon to be bothered to bite - but didn't want to kill the salmon, or think about them dying. She disavowed her agency in their deaths, while supporting salmon conservation.
I always thought salmon flies were made to imitate insects, and some are - but Megan made only the more artistic types, designed to make a fish that didn't need to eat still jump to the lure. She did the work, she said, for the fishermen, like her father. She thought that as the salmon returned home to spawn, they remembered their past in this river they had left when they were young, and so they chased her lures due to some innate sense of nostalgia and unthinking reflex. Her life is an enigma, more so than many of Humphreys' subjects.
The second half of the book is Humphreys' interpretation of what Megan's life might have been like, only she renames the character Ruth out of respect for Megan's family and friends. It is more of a short story, a fleeting glimpse of a life that might have been, than a novel. Humphrey notes that for a life to become a story, it must have drama, and if there is nothing documented that will do, then something - some impetus - must be invented.
Following along with the project from Humphreys' first inklings, sparked by the obituary, to the different ways she could shape the story - a male lover, or a female one? A supportive father, or a withholding one? - and finally to the finished prose is a remarkable backwards journey akin to the salmon heading upstream to spawn.
A story of love and loss and living through both. Deeply affecting and highly recommended, to students of writing and to anyone bereaved.
You can see some of the beautiful flies Megan tied at this old listing at Mullock's Auctions.
October 29, 2018
Helen Humphreys is a writer who defies categorization, and this newest work makes that doubly true. The book is about a British 'salmon fly tier' who lived most of her life and did all of her work near Lake Brora in Scotland. At least, the second half of the book is. The first half is about Humphreys choosing to and attempting to and ultimately succeeding in writing the book about Megan Boyd. Both sections are compelling and beautifully written.
Some call Humphreys a poet; some call her a novelist. Her novels read like verse; here poetry moves like a novel. Treat yourself, if you want to explore the beauty of language and of life, and even of loss. Read any and all of her works.
Some call Humphreys a poet; some call her a novelist. Her novels read like verse; here poetry moves like a novel. Treat yourself, if you want to explore the beauty of language and of life, and even of loss. Read any and all of her works.
July 21, 2023
Part one was sublime in its exploration of the ordinary - a subtle, lyrical meditation on writing and grief and dogs. A perfect book for a cosy winter morning. Part two was enjoyable, though a little bit of a come-down for me. Still beautifully written, of course, as always. (Patch must have been an extremely long-lived dog!)
January 18, 2019
Beautiful, gentle book. Layered and thoughtful.
A book for writers, filled with quotable lines that
I copied down to mull over later, after I
return the book to the library...like this...
"It [writing] has become a
process for making me whole again whenever the world
breaks me down." (page 44).
A book for writers, filled with quotable lines that
I copied down to mull over later, after I
return the book to the library...like this...
"It [writing] has become a
process for making me whole again whenever the world
breaks me down." (page 44).
October 17, 2020
Half personal essay half historical fiction about a woman named Megan Boyd who tied fly fish hooks in Scotland. What an incredibly fascinating story.
October 26, 2019
Simply brilliant storytelling by a Canadian author whose books are always thoughtful, beautifully written pieces of fiction.
Machine Without Horses tells the day in a life story of famed salmon-fly dresser, Megan Boyd. Of course, this day to day life is fiction but the first half of the book is not. The author has lost more than a handful of loved ones including her dog to cancer in a matter of months. She is bereft and, perhaps, a bit lost. A friend had told her awile ago about the recent death of Boyd and would it interest her, to write about this woman, could it be a story. Humphreys finds the notice while cleaning out her workspace.
While walking her dog, and thinking, meeting other dog walkers and their dogs, Humphreys likens her current life to Megan's. Their aloneness, by choice, but still--Megan lived in a small cottage on an estate in Scotland's north, Brora, and crafted the most exquisite and sought after salmon flies. The list of orders never gets done and when she dies, it is still there, hundreds of unopened orders from fishermen. HRH was one of her dear customers; Charles came up regularly to salmon fish on the estate. More and more the author is drawn to Boyd's life, what did it consist of, so little is known of her private life; what did she do every day, only tie flies or have a beau, go out dancing in the village, and besides walking her dog, what did she do, what were her thoughts, what was her life?
Part One uncovers childhood details, sparse but enough to motivate the author to contact a local dresser near her in Kingston. Paul is a recent widower, something Humphreys finds out soon enough and which explains his absent looks, something she knows well. He teaches her to dress the Jock Scott, the trickiest of flies, one of Boyd's favourites and in great demand. Two weeks in and the result is a mess but the task, to get into Boyd's head has worked. Starting over, simply Paul teaches Helen easier flies for another week. They talk about Boyd's life, what it was. Soon, the book begins.
Part Two is the imagined life of Megan Boyd, now Ruth Thomas for the book. It is a wondrous story, her daily life in the shed wherein she toils creating salmon flies, to look out the window at the North Sea, past her garden. This is her view. Her dog sits beside her, waiting. Then a walk, gulping down dinner, she makes use of the last light to make more flies, to fill more orders that fishermen leave on a pad by her door or by mail. When war comes Ruth does the mild run then switches to coastal watching--a series of huts along the shore have lookers all keeping an eye out for enemy ships. There is dancing during wartime and ceilidhs many Saturday nights; Ruth strikes up a friendship with a local woman who teaches her to dance and love the Machine Without Horses; it reminds Ruth of the ebb and flow of patterns like salmon in the water. Time passes, life moves along. There are joys of living so far north, the views, the sea, being your own boss but there are sorrows; when Ruth's dad dies she's torn, travels back from London with his old suit which she takes to wearing as it reminds her of him. Since there's no record of any relationship in her life, the author gives Ruth one, a very special one with that local woman, and then, another with Captain Asher, for whom she did the surveillance during the war years. And, there are her dogs whose deaths all broke her heart.
So much more to tell, but I'll stop here hoping you'll be inspired to read this fascinating book; salmon-fly dressing is an art, I never imagined how a tackle box of flies comes to be. And, more, the author runs down how she begins a book, telling the story, the characters, the pacing, plot, why should we read it when there are so many stories. And, lastly, how this particular book, the writing of it, helped her grieve her loved ones through the life of wee Ruthie, a solitary woman making lures in a small shed in the north of Scotland for so many years. Was she happy, wonders Humphreys. Yes. Definitely yes.
Machine Without Horses tells the day in a life story of famed salmon-fly dresser, Megan Boyd. Of course, this day to day life is fiction but the first half of the book is not. The author has lost more than a handful of loved ones including her dog to cancer in a matter of months. She is bereft and, perhaps, a bit lost. A friend had told her awile ago about the recent death of Boyd and would it interest her, to write about this woman, could it be a story. Humphreys finds the notice while cleaning out her workspace.
While walking her dog, and thinking, meeting other dog walkers and their dogs, Humphreys likens her current life to Megan's. Their aloneness, by choice, but still--Megan lived in a small cottage on an estate in Scotland's north, Brora, and crafted the most exquisite and sought after salmon flies. The list of orders never gets done and when she dies, it is still there, hundreds of unopened orders from fishermen. HRH was one of her dear customers; Charles came up regularly to salmon fish on the estate. More and more the author is drawn to Boyd's life, what did it consist of, so little is known of her private life; what did she do every day, only tie flies or have a beau, go out dancing in the village, and besides walking her dog, what did she do, what were her thoughts, what was her life?
Part One uncovers childhood details, sparse but enough to motivate the author to contact a local dresser near her in Kingston. Paul is a recent widower, something Humphreys finds out soon enough and which explains his absent looks, something she knows well. He teaches her to dress the Jock Scott, the trickiest of flies, one of Boyd's favourites and in great demand. Two weeks in and the result is a mess but the task, to get into Boyd's head has worked. Starting over, simply Paul teaches Helen easier flies for another week. They talk about Boyd's life, what it was. Soon, the book begins.
Part Two is the imagined life of Megan Boyd, now Ruth Thomas for the book. It is a wondrous story, her daily life in the shed wherein she toils creating salmon flies, to look out the window at the North Sea, past her garden. This is her view. Her dog sits beside her, waiting. Then a walk, gulping down dinner, she makes use of the last light to make more flies, to fill more orders that fishermen leave on a pad by her door or by mail. When war comes Ruth does the mild run then switches to coastal watching--a series of huts along the shore have lookers all keeping an eye out for enemy ships. There is dancing during wartime and ceilidhs many Saturday nights; Ruth strikes up a friendship with a local woman who teaches her to dance and love the Machine Without Horses; it reminds Ruth of the ebb and flow of patterns like salmon in the water. Time passes, life moves along. There are joys of living so far north, the views, the sea, being your own boss but there are sorrows; when Ruth's dad dies she's torn, travels back from London with his old suit which she takes to wearing as it reminds her of him. Since there's no record of any relationship in her life, the author gives Ruth one, a very special one with that local woman, and then, another with Captain Asher, for whom she did the surveillance during the war years. And, there are her dogs whose deaths all broke her heart.
So much more to tell, but I'll stop here hoping you'll be inspired to read this fascinating book; salmon-fly dressing is an art, I never imagined how a tackle box of flies comes to be. And, more, the author runs down how she begins a book, telling the story, the characters, the pacing, plot, why should we read it when there are so many stories. And, lastly, how this particular book, the writing of it, helped her grieve her loved ones through the life of wee Ruthie, a solitary woman making lures in a small shed in the north of Scotland for so many years. Was she happy, wonders Humphreys. Yes. Definitely yes.
December 31, 2018
Every book by Helen Humphreys is completely different from anything else she has written. It's always a surprise to follow her.
This was a lovely book that was approached in such an unusual way that I was wondering where it would lead. The first section is a non-fiction account of how the author discovered, then researched, a woman named Megan Boyd, who was a world-famous fly-tier. Boyd fascinated the author, who delved into her life with the idea of writing a book. The deeper she researched, the more she realized what a total enigma Megan Boyd really was.
This leads to the second section, in which the author creates a fictional account of Megan's life, but changes her name to Ruth, because she wants to create a life story that she imagines for Megan/Ruth, but has no proof existed for the real Megan. Are you still with me?
Both sections were fascinating. I was completely swept up in the fiction of Section Two, even knowing the research from Section One was unavoidably spotty. It's hard to describe this book, but I can say without reservation that the writing was incredibly beautiful, as it always is with this author. I spent ages on the internet looking at salmon flies, maps of eastern Scotland and photos of Megan Boyd. I nearly cried during the last few chapters.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who's looking for something unique yet approachable. I loved it.
This was a lovely book that was approached in such an unusual way that I was wondering where it would lead. The first section is a non-fiction account of how the author discovered, then researched, a woman named Megan Boyd, who was a world-famous fly-tier. Boyd fascinated the author, who delved into her life with the idea of writing a book. The deeper she researched, the more she realized what a total enigma Megan Boyd really was.
This leads to the second section, in which the author creates a fictional account of Megan's life, but changes her name to Ruth, because she wants to create a life story that she imagines for Megan/Ruth, but has no proof existed for the real Megan. Are you still with me?
Both sections were fascinating. I was completely swept up in the fiction of Section Two, even knowing the research from Section One was unavoidably spotty. It's hard to describe this book, but I can say without reservation that the writing was incredibly beautiful, as it always is with this author. I spent ages on the internet looking at salmon flies, maps of eastern Scotland and photos of Megan Boyd. I nearly cried during the last few chapters.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who's looking for something unique yet approachable. I loved it.
June 25, 2018
Humphreys weaves a story that is part biography and part novel with her usual elegant style. The first half of the book reveals much about a writer's process in preparing and then crafting her story. The second half, tells the story of a driven and extraordinary woman who spent more than 50 years tying fishing flies. This part of the story is told with the author's trademark lyrical style.
April 30, 2024
Unconventional in that the author is placed in the first half of the book. Insightful. I am not usually a quotes person...but H just gets it...
"Fiction is measures and reassuring in a way that life isn't, and that's why we read it."
"Fiction is measures and reassuring in a way that life isn't, and that's why we read it."
April 21, 2019
Classic Helen Humphreys,beautifully conceptualized.Loved it.
January 20, 2025
Visit JetBlackDragonfly (The Man Who Read Too Much) at www.edenthompson.ca/blog
Helen Humphreys is a favourite author; her work never disappoints.
This unique novel is set in two different parts. The first concerns a writer very much like Humphreys, planning to write a biography of Megan Boyd, a famous Scottish fly-dresser. Boyd was renown across the world (with a four-year wait list) for her artistry in creating exquisite salmon fishing flies - even supplying and befriending HRH Charles.
For sixty years she worked alone in a shack behind her simple cottage overlooking the North Sea, outside the small Scottish village of Brora. Without electricity or running water, she worked from sun up to sundown, her dog her only companion. Adverse to harming animals, she never fished herself. "How do you become the best at something that you yourself have never tested?"
Megan seems an eccentric, intimately knowing the countryside, the rivers and the fish. Her lack of vanity in wearing only men's clothes with a short mannish haircut made her look an outsider, but one who was welcomed in her community. Megan Boyd had the honour of having a fly named after her, used in the dead summer when salmon are disinclined to bite.
Humphreys spends a hot summer outside, walking in nature with her own dog, and contemplating what an author should included or decline when illustrating a life. Who did she confide in? Did she have a lover? These are questions an author must fill in for the reader. The people who colour Megan's life, and the ones you have to let go.
The first exploratory part ends, and part two is Humphrey's creation. The story of a strong, independent artist arises, and the reader sees how all the threads of imagination are woven by Humphreys to create a fully rounded character. I felt I knew Megan well, from what was considered then eliminated, as well as what was included in the final story.
Highly satisfying and well recommended.
Helen Humphreys is a favourite author; her work never disappoints.
This unique novel is set in two different parts. The first concerns a writer very much like Humphreys, planning to write a biography of Megan Boyd, a famous Scottish fly-dresser. Boyd was renown across the world (with a four-year wait list) for her artistry in creating exquisite salmon fishing flies - even supplying and befriending HRH Charles.
For sixty years she worked alone in a shack behind her simple cottage overlooking the North Sea, outside the small Scottish village of Brora. Without electricity or running water, she worked from sun up to sundown, her dog her only companion. Adverse to harming animals, she never fished herself. "How do you become the best at something that you yourself have never tested?"
Megan seems an eccentric, intimately knowing the countryside, the rivers and the fish. Her lack of vanity in wearing only men's clothes with a short mannish haircut made her look an outsider, but one who was welcomed in her community. Megan Boyd had the honour of having a fly named after her, used in the dead summer when salmon are disinclined to bite.
Humphreys spends a hot summer outside, walking in nature with her own dog, and contemplating what an author should included or decline when illustrating a life. Who did she confide in? Did she have a lover? These are questions an author must fill in for the reader. The people who colour Megan's life, and the ones you have to let go.
The first exploratory part ends, and part two is Humphrey's creation. The story of a strong, independent artist arises, and the reader sees how all the threads of imagination are woven by Humphreys to create a fully rounded character. I felt I knew Megan well, from what was considered then eliminated, as well as what was included in the final story.
Highly satisfying and well recommended.
September 28, 2020
Of late I have been so mentally distracted thanks to Covid I have found it hard to settle into a book. Not so with this one. This gentle, warm examination of the life of Megan Boyd grabbed me from the first page and I simply had to finish it.
Of course Helen’s writing is beautiful, lyrical, so good at conveying place and time - but this is a book also about grief, about the process of writing a novel, about inserting oneself into the life of another, playing with different scenarios, rounding out the character created in the dance between fiction and non-fiction.
HH is astonishingly good at this sort of writing - her careful research adds tremendous depth to the story. Megan Boyd was a top of the line fly-tyer, making salmon ties for everyone from the local
Gillies to HRH. She worked endless hours in a tiny shed, creating these beautiful enticing bits of feather and fur and thread- I now want to go immediately to a fishing store and look at flies, admire their craft... or, as Helen did, take a class in tying flies and see how the magic is created.
Perhaps this story is even more appealing as I am struggling with my writing myself, as I am grieving myself, as I continue to live alone. It’s a sad and strange time at present, beset as we are by news and virus. The thought of hiding in a cabin somewhere and working on something minute and perfect is very appealing.
Alas, like many, I’ll have to experience it virtually for the present. Thank you, Helen, for letting me explore this life with you.
Of course Helen’s writing is beautiful, lyrical, so good at conveying place and time - but this is a book also about grief, about the process of writing a novel, about inserting oneself into the life of another, playing with different scenarios, rounding out the character created in the dance between fiction and non-fiction.
HH is astonishingly good at this sort of writing - her careful research adds tremendous depth to the story. Megan Boyd was a top of the line fly-tyer, making salmon ties for everyone from the local
Gillies to HRH. She worked endless hours in a tiny shed, creating these beautiful enticing bits of feather and fur and thread- I now want to go immediately to a fishing store and look at flies, admire their craft... or, as Helen did, take a class in tying flies and see how the magic is created.
Perhaps this story is even more appealing as I am struggling with my writing myself, as I am grieving myself, as I continue to live alone. It’s a sad and strange time at present, beset as we are by news and virus. The thought of hiding in a cabin somewhere and working on something minute and perfect is very appealing.
Alas, like many, I’ll have to experience it virtually for the present. Thank you, Helen, for letting me explore this life with you.
September 30, 2019
In the first half of this book Helen humphreys lusts the things that a writer has to think about as she sets out to write a novel, especially of someone who actually lived. She does not mention the point of view or the voice of the author . She should have given it a lot of thought before she started writing this. Because she chooses to simply narrate she is simply outlining events and things that Ruth does as an outside observer. There is no character development, no insight. I found this a very disappointing novel and will only finish it because we are discussing it. I heard her talk about the process of writing and her interest in the woman. But even as she talked she was not able to explain anything beyond external facts as her reason for writing. And if you simply list those as she did in her talk and in the novel, you cannot convince me that you have found a way to transform the character into someone worth reading about.
I also found the device of describing her process and the life of megan in part 1 an unfortunate device. For me a novel takes me into a new world, and if it is good I believe in that world. A willing suspension of disbelief. If you tell me what you plan to do you have placed yourself directly between me and the story and I can always see your hand.
I also found the device of describing her process and the life of megan in part 1 an unfortunate device. For me a novel takes me into a new world, and if it is good I believe in that world. A willing suspension of disbelief. If you tell me what you plan to do you have placed yourself directly between me and the story and I can always see your hand.
November 9, 2024
“Machines Without Horses” is officially a novel. But in fact it is half a reflection on the process of conceiving and framing a novel and half the novel that results from that process. In this hybrid work, Humphreys explores the life of famous salmon flymaker Megan Boyd who worked in solitude in a very basic cottage in the north of Scotland.
In Part One, which equates to just over half of the book, Humphreys traces the planning process as she struggles to get inside the head of Boyd and build a half fact-based and half-imagined story about her life.
Part Two is the realization of the creative process as Humphreys fills in the blanks to create, as faithfully as possible a plausible portrayal of a character who was well known and revered in her field but also eccentric and in many ways very ordinary.
It is a novel (pardon the pun) approach to conceiving and writing a novel and an interesting insight into the creative process. For my tastes, it took a bit too long to get to the narrative itself. But “Machines Without Horses” is still an interesting read from a very gifted writer.
In Part One, which equates to just over half of the book, Humphreys traces the planning process as she struggles to get inside the head of Boyd and build a half fact-based and half-imagined story about her life.
Part Two is the realization of the creative process as Humphreys fills in the blanks to create, as faithfully as possible a plausible portrayal of a character who was well known and revered in her field but also eccentric and in many ways very ordinary.
It is a novel (pardon the pun) approach to conceiving and writing a novel and an interesting insight into the creative process. For my tastes, it took a bit too long to get to the narrative itself. But “Machines Without Horses” is still an interesting read from a very gifted writer.
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