Keith [on semi hiatus]’s Reviews > The Earth > Status Update

Very Huysmans' belfry scene.

...his head and he was chewing a cheap, foul-smelling, soggy black cigar. And yet in his bleary handsome eyes you could detect the sense of fun and generosity of heart often met with in dissolute but good-natured rogues.

In he came, a tall, strapping, curly-headed, powerfully built man in the full prime of his forty years; his long, pointed, unkempt beard made him look like Jesus Christ but a Christ on whose face life had left its mark: the face of a drunkard not above raping women and waylaving men. He had spent the morning in Cloyes already drunk; he wore muddy trousers, a stained and filthy smock, a ragged cap pushed back on...

Jean continued sowing until nightfall. After Post Field came Ditch Field and then Crossways Field. Up and down he walked over the ploughed land with steady stride; and as the wheat in his bag diminished, so behind him the good seed fructified the land.

'I say, suppose Coliche misbehaves again, would you like me to come along with you to the farm?'
She was already some distance away and she turned and called out in her calm voice which echoed over the silent countryside: 'No, there's no need, she won't be any trouble now. She's got all she wanted!'

Page 29: ...pushed his penis right in. Then it came out again. It was all over; the dibble had planted the seed.