A masterpiece of scottish literature - Rated 
'Sunset song' is a hauntingly beautiful tale. I came to it whilst living in North-east Scotland. Sunset song, and the companion novels making up 'A Scots Quair', are written in a blend of English and Scots words that only at first seem strange or daunting, you soon find that Grassic Gibbon evokes a lost age in a unique and very effective manner, using very little dialogue (in italics), but talking to the reader all the while. The novel, like much of his writing, is concerned with our lot as man `a mist appearing for a while, then disappearing' (James 4:14), inequality, and the lost `Golden Age' of the Greeks and Hebrews.
Faced with a choice between her harsh farming life and the world of books and learning, Chris Guthrie eventually decides to remain in her rural community, bound by her love of the land, and the croft set in its 'parks' on the Howe. The story returns, again and again, to the early inhabitants who left the standing stones. Grassic Gibbon paints these people, not as warring savages, but as peaceful adventurers. The First World War with its futile brutality is the real de-humaniser.
Chris is now a widowed single mother: her farm, and the surrounding land, is altered beyond recognition - trees torn down, and people displaced. But the novel describes a way of life which is in decline, as John Guthrie said, 'We'll be the last of those who wring a living from the land with our bare hands'.
Chris adapts to her new world, displaying an intuitive strength which, like the land she loves, endures despite everything. 'Sunset Song' is a testament to Scotland's rural past, to the world of crofters and tradition which was destroyed in the First World War, and hence the title of the novel.
It is a powerful description of life in the first decades of the century, and the challenges faced by Chris in the different chapters of her life. Although the story is not just about Chris, as the central character, all else seems to revolve around her.
It is a story of its own place and time, but reminds us.. 'sea and sky and the folk who wrote and fought and were learned, teaching and saying and praying, they lasted but as a breath, a mist of fog in the hills, but the land was forever, you were close to it and it to you, not at a bleak remove it held you and hurted you'.
I agree in a sense, to look at cycles is a way of understanding what the author is telling us about life, for example, at the end (in Grey Granite), when Chris returns to the croft in Barmekin where she was born, and where she will die.
If it helps, this quote from 'Prejudices' by HL Mencken, sums up the spirit of the post-war period, and 'Sunset Song', '..the world as it stands is anything but perfect, that injustice exists, and turmoil and tragedy, and bitter suffering of ten thousand kinds, that human life at its best is anything but a grand, sweet song. But instead of ranting absurdly against the fact..or trying to remedy it with inadequate means..we seek contentment by pursuing the delights that are so strangely mixed with horrors..such is the intelligent habit of practical and sinful men'.
Scottish Calvinism without God - Rated 
Beautifully written - very Scottish - and gets the picture of the Mearns really well. It is however a profoundly depressing book in many ways - from the hypocritical minister, to the depressing lives of many of the people in the narrative. It makes me wonder whether some Scots are naturally morose (because of the weather/lifestyle etc) and that it actually has nothing to do with Calvinism. In fact a good dose of Calvinism might have cheered things up in this book! (in that sense I find it ironic that one reviewer says that he hates the book because it is the usual stereotypical Calvinist bollocks - the ignorance is breathtaking - there is not an ounce of Calvinism in Gibbon - indeed if anything there is usual typical anti-Calvinism - blame John Knox for everything bad in Scotland. No - this book succeeds admirably in showing the ultimate futility of life without Christ.
One of the best books I have ever read...I dare you not to cry! - Rated
I'd never heard of this book before starting on a literature course, but I'm so glad I discovered it. Don't be put off by the 'product descripton' given above, or the Scottish vernacular which you'll encounter on every page, and certainly not by the 'literature' tag. It is above all the story of Chris Guthrie, a crofter's daughter, in the years before the First World War. As she grows from schoolgirl to womanhood, Chris makes the choice to give up her dream of teaching and farm the family croft after the death of her father. It's a beautiful, sad (yet ultimately life affirming) novel of hard work, hope, love, pain, politics, wonderfully realistic characters and incorrigible village gossip! Give it a go - you won't be sorry. I intend to read the rest of the trilogy - "A Scotch Quair" as soon as possible.
well worth a read - Rated
Like others on here I first read Sunset Song for Higher English, loved it then and still love it after reading it again a few more times. This is the only book that has made me laugh out loud, and then cry just a few pages later. It's also the only book where I've fell in love with one of the characters (Long Rob of the mill). I know he's fictional but he's my perfect man haha! The language is a bit weird at first but once you get into it, you might find you actually start using some of the words in your own conversations. Deservedly voted Scotland's favourite book in 2006.
A fantastic, moving novel - if hard to read at first! - Rated
Many people seem to think this novel is "about" Chris, the central female character. Personally I thought it was about rural Scottish life in the early 1900's, and how a particular community comes to be affected by issues far outside of its own borders and its own control.
The close relationships and way of life within a community such as this, means that even very trivial events or actions carried out by an individual all carry great importance to others. Gossip and rumour necessarily play a significant role in the novel.
The unique writing style of the novel does initially make it very hard to read. Sentences are long, and are often not restricted to a single subject or idea, but once the reader learns to engage with the narrator and understands the style, it is like being told a story by a trusted friend.
By the end of the novel, the reader can closely identify with each of the characters, and as their individual fates are decided, it is impossible not to feel a high degree of sympathy for each of them. I personally found it a very moving read - but must admit that had I not had to study this book as part of my degree, I may well have put it down early on and not picked it back up - that would truly have been a great shame. Stick with it, and you will be glad you did!
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