Product Description

Calum and Neil are the cone-gatherers - two brothers at work in the forest of a large Scottish estate. But the harmony of their life together is shadowed by the dark obsessive hatred of Duror, the gamekeeper. Set during the Second World War, Robin Jenkins' greatest novel is an immensely powerful examination of good and evil, and mankind's propensity for both. Removed from the destruction and bloodshed of the war, the brothers' oblivious happiness becomes increasingly fragile as darker forces close in around them. With its themes of class-conflict, war, evil and envy, "The Cone-Gatherers" is a towering work of fiction that remains as relevant today as when it was first published. Suspenseful, dark and unforgettable, it is one of the masterpieces of modern Scottish literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120094 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
"Jenkins is quite simply a major contemporary writer." The Herald "Treat yourself this year to some Robin Jenkins... he is simply wonderful." Andrew Marr "Like all the great masters, his skill is lightly worn, his sentences singing with what he does not say... he is the great old man of Scottish letters." The Times"

About the Author
Robin Jenkins, author of a number of landmark novels including The Changeling, Happy for the Child, The Thistle and the Grail and Guests of War, is recognised as one of Scotland's greatest writers. The themes of good and evil, of innocence lost, of fraudulence, cruelty and redemption shine through his work. His novels, shot through with ambiguity, are rarely about what they seem. He published his first book, So Gaily Sings the Lark, at the age of thirty-eight, and by the time of his death in 2005, over thirty of his novels were in print.

Customer Reviews

haunting
Originally published in 1955, "The Cone-Gatherers" is set in the middle of World War II on a country estate in Scotland. The estate's wood is to be cut down soon to provide wood for the war effort, and two men have been sent into the wood by the forestry service to collect cones for seed. The men are brothers, and the younger is a simple-minded but very empathetic hunchback with "a face like Lord Byron". Through no fault of their own, the brothers acquire the irrational hatred of the estate's gamekeeper. The wood, itself lying under the shadow of ruin, quickly becomes a dangerous and mysterious setting in which the problem of evil plays out to tragedy.

Jenkin's short novel is the stuff of high literature and evokes associations with Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and the bold themes of Joseph Conrad. Also, the novel exhibits a strong and welcome moral sense not often seen modern fiction today. It addresses the intense issues of character and virtue also seen, for instance, in the works of the mid-century Oxford group "the Inklings", especially the novels Charles Williams (such as "The Descent into Hell" and "All Hallows"), though without the supernatural element. As a story of genuine, concentrated pathos, "The Cone-Gatherers" is the sort of haunting novel that brings the reader to a stark confrontation with the truth of human nature.

Scratch the surface and...
When it was first handed out as our Higher English text I groaned with everyone else. And probably if you read it through you'll think it was boring. But then you go back, read it again and go a little deeper. You see the love between the brothers, the twisted deterioration of Duror, the conflict between the Runcie-Campbell family, both with the outside world and amongst themselves.
Duror is the main character really. The book may be titled after the Cone Gathering brothers but it is Duror and his warped mind and view of reality that make the book. At first it begins as nothing more than an old habit of detesting the imperfect, enhanced by his wifes' morbid obesity. But then it starts to get under his skin. Calum, disfigured and a tad soft in the head, seems to have very little going for him. But he's happy. His life is without luxury, his job poor and generally his life is not brilliant. But he is happy. And this gets to Duror. It slowly eats away at him, gnawing constantly at his sanity, lowering him lower and lower until there is nothing left for him but Calum. He cannot stand the sight of him. But he needs him.
The deterioration that Jenkins shows is both amazing and revolting, even a little scary. Read it once, read it twice and reflect on all the meanings that Jenkins gives you.

A study of an obsessive personality - don't miss it!
Duror, gamekeeper on the Runcie-Campbell estate, is a disruptive force in the lives of everyone with whom he comes in contact. His obsession with, and distste for, all that is flawed or imperfect forces him along a path which means certain destruction for himself and the cone-gatherers, Calum and Neil. The novel also gives a wonderful picture of life on the Runcie-Campbell estate during WW2: the master is at war and his lady is trying, with little experience, to run the estate to the best of her ability. However, her over-reliance on the manipulative Duror contributes to the tragedy. Social class and the division between the classes is explored - witness the hope for the future expressed by those who are inferior. Glossary included for Scottish words/phrases.