Στο goodreads το βιβλιαράκι αυτό παίρνει αρκετά μέτριες κριτικές... και δεν μπορώ να καταλάβω γιατί. Εντάξει, δεν είναι και από τα καλύτερα βιβλία του είδους, αλλά σίγουρα είναι καλό και αξίζει καλύτερη βαθμολογία και να διαβαστεί περισσότερο. Βέβαια πολλοί μπορεί να έχουν δει την ταινία του Πέκινπα και έτσι να νιώθουν ότι το βιβλίο δεν φτάνει το επίπεδο της ταινίας, αλλά είναι άδικη μια τέτοια σύγκριση. Το λοιπόν, η ιστορία είναι αρκετά γνωστή, ο Αμερικάνος καθηγητής Τζορτζ Μαγκρούντερ, η Αγγλίδα γυναίκα του Λουίζ και η κόρη τους Κάρεν, νοίκιασαν ένα μεγάλο σπίτι στην φάρμα των Τρέντσερ, στο χωριό Ντάντο, κάπου στην αγγλική εξοχή, έτσι ώστε ο Τζορτζ να τελειώσει το γράψιμο του βιβλίου του μέσα σε ηρεμία και ησυχία. Η οικογένεια Μαγκρούντερ είναι λίγο πολύ ανεπιθύμητη στους κατοίκους του χωριού, οι οποίοι έχουν ζήσει όλη τους τη ζωή στο χωριό και δεν συμπαθούν ιδιαίτερα τους ξένους. Λίγο πριν τα Χριστούγεννα όμως, συμβαίνουν κάποια δυσάρεστα γεγονότα: Μετά από ένα τροχαίο ατύχημα ένας δολοφόνος παιδιών με μυαλό οχτάχρονου ξεφεύγει, ένα διανοητικά ανάπηρο κοριτσάκι εξαφανίζεται από την γιορτή του χωριού και το χιόνι έχει αποκλείσει το χωριό από τον έξω κόσμο. Κατά μια διαβολική σύμπτωση ο δολοφόνος που ξέφυγε συναντιέται με τον Τζορτζ, με τον Τζορτζ να τον πηγαίνει σπίτι του. Και ο πατέρας του χαμένου κοριτσιού, ένας μεθύστακας αγροίκος, μαζί με άλλους φίλους του, θέλουν να σκοτώσουν τον δολοφόνο. Και έτσι αρχίζει η πολιορκία του σπιτιού της οικογένειας Μαγκρούντερ. Και τα πράγματα γίνονται όλο και χειρότερα... Αργεί κάπως να πάρει μπρος, αλλά όταν παίρνει δεν μπορείς ν'αφήσεις το βιβλίο κάτω. Η όλη σκιαγράφηση των κατοίκων του χωριού, του ίδιου του χωριού, αλλά και της οικογένειας Μαγκρούντερ είναι πολύ καλή και με βάθος, που κάνει την ιστορία να φαίνεται ιδιαίτερα ρεαλιστική. Οι σκηνές της πολιορκίας του σπιτιού είναι πολλές και αρκετά δυνατές. Η γραφή είναι πολύ καλή, απλή αλλά με ρεαλιστικές περιγραφές και πειστικούς διαλόγους. Η μετάφραση είναι από τον Ερρίκο Μπαρτζινόπουλο και είναι φυσικά πολύ καλή. Αν πετύχετε το βιβλίο αυτό, μην διστάσετε να το αγοράσετε, αξίζει μια ανάγνωση. Έχω την ταινία του Σαμ Πέκινπα στην ταινιοθήκη μου, που κάποια στιγμή θα την δω κι αυτή. Η ταινία και το βιβλίο μου κόστισαν συνολικά 1,50 ευρώ. Ούτε τυρόπιτα.Στα ελληνικά κυκλοφόρησε το 1972 σε έκδοση τσέπης από την Άγκυρα, με τον τίτλο "Αδέσποτα σκυλιά".
For more reviews, visit my blog at http://leighanneslit.blogspot.comAmerican professor George Macgruder has traveled to England with his British wife and daughter in hopes of finding a quiet place to finish his book. They rent an old house known as Trencher's Farm in a small village. It's the holiday season and in the middle of a snow storm on their way home, they accidentally hit a child killer who's escaped from a mental institution. Being the nice people that they are, they bring the man home and await the arrival of the police and a doctor. But a group of locals learns that they're holding the killer and a chain of events begins to unfold that will leave George fighting for his life as well as that of his family.This chronicles a man who is in the fight of his life, for both his own life and his wife and daughters. And it was just...okay. It was fantastic and it wasn't horrible either. You spend the first half of the book leading up to the accident, then everything after that goes downhill.Louise, George's wife, is pretty much a giant bitch. This book is as much about their relationship as it is about these crazy things that are happening. Louise feels like she's been taking care of George for years and now she has all sorts of resentment towards him and even their daughter.There were some transitions in this that I really hated. One minute you're in the Macgruder home and you're with Lousie and Karen, and the next paragraph you're in the local pub. Normally, there will be an elongated space or a little marker, showing a change is perspective and there wasn't anything like that, so there were moments of super confusion.But, it was pretty suspenseful. There were moments where you really wondered if George would do anything to defend his family or if he would let them all get killed. Then you are wondering what the hell the crazy people are going to do next, so that made the suspense worth it.Like I said, this book was okay. If you like suspense, then you should give this book a shot. I can't compare it to the book, so if that's what you were hoping for, sorry. 2.75 out of 5 stars, which I rounded up to 3. If I had a hard copy of this book, I'd swap it, or sell it to a used bookstore.
Do You like book The Siege Of Trencher's Farm (2011)?
I read this book because I saw the film and was left thinking there had to be more. As I watched the movie I had a really hard time liking any of the characters or feeling any really sympathy for what they were going through. Usually you can read the book and get to know the characters and at least feel something for them. Not the case with this one. It just seemed a little weak to me. The whole main character becoming a more of a man through violence and the wife gaining respect for him because of it was a pretty shallow. And where was the daughter in all of this? Louise seemed to care less about the child. I found myself wanting her (Louise) to get shot along with the crazy men outside. The only people I really felt sorry for were the poor psychopath locked in the attic and the daughter. I think this may be the only Gordon Williams work that I read. I wasn't overly impressed.
—Celeste
This story was incredibly violent. Like the title of the book states, it is a story about a house comes under attack. Specifically, how George comes under attack by locals and has to fight them to a gory death. The details of the fights and how it is really described as an all out fight to the death, of scraping nails, bloody sockets, and numb limbs, it was disturbing. The story also deals into the sinister lives of small town people and the anxiety that comes with it or because of it. George is also a complicated character, there are moments where I like him, there are moments when he is a pompous, misogynists ass. The violence just really bothered me, there is something disturbing about this story that neither film nor can I really touch on, but it is there.Finally I had a weird dream because of this, so I guess it is worth a read if it disturbed my dreams.
—Eva
This is a reissue of the long out of print novel that was the basis for the 1971 Sam Peckinpah film STRAW DOGS, which starred Dustin Hoffman and Susan George. The film was banned for 26 years in England for it's graphic violence(what else could you expect from a Peckinpah film) and treatment of women. American professor George Magruder and his British wife, Louise, along with their daughter Karen, take a six month lease on an isolated home known locally as Trencher's Farm in order for him to finish his book.It's nearing Christmas and things are not going well for the Magruders. He's not accepted by the locals when he stops in a pub for a beer. "Rich American!" Louise and he are arguing, the kind where both parties say hurtful things they don't really mean.They attend a local Christmas party in an attempt to heal things. It doesn't go well. Santa scares a young local girl, mentally challenged, and she rushes out into the snow storm, quickly getting lost. Hunting parties are organized to find her. George decides to take his family home and return to help look for the girl.At the same time, a car wreck his freed a convicted murderer, Henry Niles, of three little girls, brought into the village for a medicinal shot. With the mind of a small child himself, he's been a patient at a mental asylum down the road for nine years.George and Louise are arguing on the way home when a severely cold Niles rears up in front of their car and is struck. Not realizing who he is at first, they get him into the car and get home where they can call the doctor. By then they have learned his identity.The phone call sets in motion a number of things. The roads are snowed in and the police can't get there for a while. Word quickly spreads about Niles and a small party arrives demanding the child-like killer. They are easily fended off. Then the missing girl's father joins the party, with a shotgun. All are drunk and still drinking.Then begins the siege.And George Magruder, an academic and a mild mannered man is called upon to do things he never would have imagined. When a neighbor tries to disarm the father, he's accidentally killed and the four men realize something. Prison faces them and one has already served a stretch. Memories of an incident told them by their parents, a rapist brutally slain by a pack and never caught because no one talks, tells them what they have to do.The police are walking in from nine miles away, the phone lines have been cut, and George Magruder stands between an armed mob and his family.I've never seen the movie, but a Wikipedia entry shows there were considerable changes, though the basic plot is there. The new film moves the location to Los Angeles.I was caught up in the action in this one.
—Randy
