Mastered by the Hired Man

The new novel from the winner of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize, The Hired Man is a taut, powerful novel of a small town and its dark wartime secrets.
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Some considered Twisted Sister a joke, others called them the greatest bar band in the world. A joyride that delves deep into the mind of rock and roll's greatest living photographer: The film explores the global power and impact of the music of John Coltrane and reveals the passions, experiences and forces that shaped his life and revolutionary sounds.

A look at the music career of musician James Brown beginning with his first hit song, "Please, Please, Please," in Danny Says is a documentary on the life and times of Danny Fields. Since , Danny Fields has played a pivotal role in music and "culture" of the late 20th century: The sidemen and sidewomen who play the riffs and fills we imitate in the air.

When we turn up the radio, chances are we are listening to one of these players. A-listers have them on speed dial. International tour or recording session, who're they gonna call? Billy Joel, Whitesnake, P! NK and Metallica are synonymous with their own artistry and success, but who is responsible for their instrumental solos? Who tours with them live? It is the consummate side players who kill it show after show, often playing circles around the actual band members.

In "Hired Gun," viewers learn the firsthand stories from individuals who have mastered their craft and perform on the world's biggest stages. This film details the highs and lows of touring life, the demands of hectic session schedules, and the dedication required I was excited to see this documentary after a friend told me about it. A similar documentary, The Wrecking Crew, is a must see!

I enjoyed Hired Guns but was left wanting more. I would've liked to have seen how an A-List player can quickly learn a tune. Show a couple examples of them knowing nothing about a song and picking it up quickly, a Randy Rhoads solo for example, and tell how that compares to a non A-Lister. Show what makes them different. Seeing Jay Graydon play the Steely Dan solo was pretty cool. Maybe I missed it but also seeing some guys who were originally in successful bands and then went on to be session musicians would've been interesting too.

Jeff Pilson for example. Start your free trial.

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Find showtimes, watch trailers, browse photos, track your Watchlist and rate your favorite movies and TV shows on your phone or tablet! Enjoy unlimited streaming on Prime Video. There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Full Cast and Crew. A documentary film about session and touring musicians that are hired by well established and famous bands and artists like Metallica, KISS, and Billy Joel.

The Hired Man

These hired guns may not be household names, but are still masters of their craft. Tim Calandrello , Fran Strine. How '' Changed Michael Mando's Life. Share this Rating Title: Hired Gun 7. Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Learn more More Like This. He restrains himself from doing it, but makes it his lifelong goal to keep that threat hanging. The writing style was fabulous: The present story of the newcomers to town is told in a typical past tense "Laura came to Gost in the last week of July Across the fields the houses of Gost are hidden by the darkness: Highly recommend this one.

Mar 29, Maya Panika rated it really liked it. An English family take a house in Croatia, planning to spend the summer doing it up before selling it on, apparently oblivious to the horrors that had happened around them not so very long ago - or are they? The pre-teen daughter knows more than she lets on to her mother, or does her mother simply not want to know?

Duro - the local man hired to renovate a house he knows too well - isn't telling, and will never tell. He, like everyone around him, has wrapped himself in lies to protect him from ni An English family take a house in Croatia, planning to spend the summer doing it up before selling it on, apparently oblivious to the horrors that had happened around them not so very long ago - or are they? He, like everyone around him, has wrapped himself in lies to protect him from nightmares. The family come to rely heavily on practical, capable Duro. What happens in Duro's head is the story.

The character development is wonderful, as a taciturn, damaged man reluctantly gives up his story.

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There is nothing surprising or remarkable in the plot, the characters are what makes this tale: Duro especially, but also the members of English family, who are instantly recognisable and real. The story is slow and all too predictable - we all know what happened in the Balkans and how this tale of buried memories will end. The Hired Man is about the slow reveal: It's about a cast of characters trapped in a life where someone hit pause button over two decades ago. No one dares speak out or tell what they know about each other. Everyone lives with a past like a loose thread no one dares pull.

Jun 20, Terri Jacobson rated it really liked it Shelves: Duro Kolak lives in the small Croatian town of Gost. It's the year , and an Englishwoman with 2 teenage children comes to live in Gost; Duro becomes their handyman and works to renovate the house and grounds. As the story progresses, Duro remembers back to the time of the Serbo-Croatian war, when he came of age in Gost and the surrounding hills. Gost is a small town and the people know each other well; there are few secrets. As the story unfolds in both the present and the past, a complicated Duro Kolak lives in the small Croatian town of Gost.

As the story unfolds in both the present and the past, a complicated web of intrigue slowly becomes clear. I liked this book very much, though I have to admit to a strong interest in books about Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The writing and the characters are something special. A rewarding reading experience. The town of Gost, Croatia. Post-Yugoslavia, post-war, and it's no coincidence that the name sounds a bit like "ghost.

An English family moves into a house that has been vacated, and hires a local to help fix it up. The reader learns more about the story of the man and the town as he writes it up and remembers bits and pieces. Definitely a slow burn.


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Most of the novel is taken up with Duro and his interactions with the English characters, The town of Gost, Croatia. Most of the novel is taken up with Duro and his interactions with the English characters, but when you find more out about his story, you shamefacedly wish to go back to the more idyllic existence of construction projects and cranky teenagers. This was a replacement book for my international book club, and I might have more to add after we discuss it tomorrow. But in this country our love of the past is a great deal less, unless it is a very distant past indeed, the kind nobody alive can remember, a past transformed into a song or a poem.

We tolerate the present, but what we love is the future, which is about as far away from the past as it is possible to be. The same could happen anywhere. The knowledge was a shivering child locked in an upstairs room. The dark child haunted our dreams, invaded the places in our minds even we didn't dare go. View all 6 comments. Dec 29, Carl R. Anne Lamott once stated that "If your narrator [fascinates] … , it isn't … going to matter if nothing much happens for a long time. The book opens thusly: At the time of writing I am forty-six years old. My name is Duro Kolak. Kolak lives in a Croation village named Gost.

An English lady and her two teen-agers--a boy and a girl--arrive to take up residence in an old house he has been tending to. She hires him to do repairs. He des Anne Lamott once stated that "If your narrator [fascinates] … , it isn't … going to matter if nothing much happens for a long time.

He describes what he does in meticulous detail. The materials he uses. Where he gets them. He also describes his daily bachelor routines, his life in a nearby stone cottage where he lives with his two dogs. Takes some coffee or beer at a local tavern. We learn a bit--but only a bit--about his past. How he grew up in the village, then spent some time on the coast, only to return to the small backwater.

All the while, the repairs progress, as does his friendship with the little family. Still, though, you'd have to describe it as cordial rather than intimate. Then things do begin to happen. A mosaic is discovered under some plaster, a mosaic that disturbs someone in town. Duro takes the family to the coast to buy some needed tiles. He did a lot more than "spend some time" on the coast, and what he did and with whom begins to seep into the narrative.

I'm resisting urge to reveal more here because the process by which Forta pulls aside the layers of gauze that reveal the many stories behind the Duro's story is such an intense experience that it would be like filling you with a meal without giving you a chance to taste it. And this is a meal you need to savor. Bite by amazing bite.

I certainly liked the ambition of this story - the very slow reveal of what happened in a village called Gost during the break up of Yugoslavia in the 90s. It is told on a very personal level through the eyes of the enigmatic narrator, Duro.

I Tried To Master Hypnosis

It is a powerful and sad story but although it started so strongly the middle section really dragged and the whole was only redeemed in the last few pages. It is hard to be so middling on a book that tackles these themes of war and loss and betrayal but ther I certainly liked the ambition of this story - the very slow reveal of what happened in a village called Gost during the break up of Yugoslavia in the 90s. It is hard to be so middling on a book that tackles these themes of war and loss and betrayal but there was something lacking in this which is hard to define. Jul 20, Calzean rated it it was amazing Shelves: I thought this was a masterfully told tale.

One of my favs for the year. Written by a female author Scottish-born of Sierra Leone parentage, it tells the story of Duro and his experiences of the recent Balkan Wars. It is so subtly written, it is an onion of a book - layers are peeled away revealing Duro's war-time experiences and how he deals with it in the post-War days. Reading this book was like peeling an onion - layer after layer before the whole backstory is revealed. I really liked how the author did this. Duro is 46 years old. Some of his family died in the early stages of the war.

The rest have left. He works with his hands and is an accomplished repairman. He lives alone and one morning runs into the English woman who seems to have moved into the "b Reading this book was like peeling an onion - layer after layer before the whole backstory is revealed. He lives alone and one morning runs into the English woman who seems to have moved into the "blue house" which is the house closest to his.

Both the blue house and his house are a ways outside the village. The blue house needs repair work, and Duro is soon engaged in fixing just about everything, including the old car found in one of the outbuildings. He develops a relationship with the three people now living in the blue house - mother, daughter, and bored teenage son. As their day-to-day life goes on, he finds himself reflecting more and more on his life, the lives of those you used to live in the blue house, and the lives of others who once lived or still live in the village.

Through Duro's reflections the reality of the war is revealed and it's not pretty. Jun 04, John Bartlett rated it it was amazing. This is the sort of book that makes you neglect essentials, chores like sleeping and going to work, snatching minutes here and there to keep absorbed in the writing and the story.

And then it makes you sad when it's all over. There's a deceptive beauty to the writing which masks a story of the horrors of war as it is slowly revealed to the reader. This story is imbedded in the sad history of the war in the former Yugoslavia, a story of tight communiies the secrets they hide. This i This is the sort of book that makes you neglect essentials, chores like sleeping and going to work, snatching minutes here and there to keep absorbed in the writing and the story.

This is a disconcerting story beautifully told. Sep 09, Storyheart rated it really liked it Shelves: Forna writes to beautifully. Sep 29, Doreen rated it really liked it Shelves: The novel begins in in the Croatian town of Gost. Past and present unfold at the same time: Duro tells the story of the present working on the restoration of the house and getting to know Laura and her teenaged children, Grace and Matthew , but he also flashes back to several time periods in the past: Gradually it becomes obvious that Gost is not the pastoral ideal it might seem to the undiscerning.

One of the strengths of the novel is the slow buildup in suspense. As Duro drops subtle hints about what lies hidden, the reader experiences curiosity and then unease because of a growing sense of something evil lurking. For example, how is it that Duro knows the blue house so well? Who created the mosaic which adorned the front of the house? Why was the mosaic plastered over? The blue house functions as a metaphor for the village and its mosaic functions as a symbol of the past which the villagers have tried to bury. Just as Grace exposes the mosaic from beneath a thin layer of plaster, Duro exposes the not-so-distant past of the village and its inhabitants.

Clearly she enjoyed the luck of the innocent. None of those sorts of things happened here. Anyway, it was for ever ago. The novel examines how people had to survive the war and then survive living with the knowledge of what they and their neighbours did during that war. He believes that people must not forget the truth about the past and must come to terms with it: In towns like this there is nothing to do but learn to live with each other.

Sometimes the cryptic nature of the conversations between Duro and his former friends becomes annoying. Nonetheless, the strengths of the book far outweigh its weaknesses. Its examination of how people try to establish a sense of normalcy after finding themselves in the midst of an ethnic conflict may leave the reader feeling disconcerted, but that consequence speaks to the power of the novel. Please check out my reader's blog http: May 15, Darryl rated it it was amazing.

Its people generally prefer to remain in the town in which their ancestors have resided for hundreds of years than move elsewhere, so they have little choice but to co-exist with each other and keep their feelings hidden, in the manner of a simmering pot of stew that is My rating: Its people generally prefer to remain in the town in which their ancestors have resided for hundreds of years than move elsewhere, so they have little choice but to co-exist with each other and keep their feelings hidden, in the manner of a simmering pot of stew that is kept from boiling over by its cover.

The newly liberated country, with its temperate climate, well built homes in quaint towns, and low cost of living, proves attractive to well to do western Europeans, who visit Croatia in increasing numbers to take vacations and purchase houses for summer resorts. Duro Kolak is a middle aged resident of Gost, a handyman who lives alone with his two hunting dogs on the edge of town. As he sits on a hillside one morning he is surprised to see a foreign make car drive on the road beneath him, which stops at a long abandoned but very familiar house.

He watches closely as an attractive British woman emerges from the car, accompanied by her two teenage children. Intrigued, Duro introduces himself to the woman, named Laura, her taciturn son Matthew, and her shy but precocious daughter Grace. The "blue house" is sorely in need of repairs, and Duro offers his services to help Laura fix the house and to serve as a personal guide to Gost and the surrounding area. Laura's husband appears only briefly, so she comes to rely on Duro, as he becomes a friend to her and a father figure to Matthew and Grace.

The townspeople soon learn about their new visitors, who they view with a mixture of curiosity, disdain and hostility. Laura and Grace uncover and restore a glass mural, which corresponds to the opening of old wounds between the three men, as the reader learns about the past events that led to misunderstanding, animosity and tragedy. The past and present stories slowly unfold alongside each other, while merging into a rich tapestry and an increasingly compelling drama that kept this reader on edge until the final page.

The Hired Man is a brilliant tale about the effects of civil war on the psyches of its survivors, the ghosts that haunt them, and the difficulty they face in reestablishing a sense of normalcy towards each other and those who did not share their experience. The relationship between Duro and Laura and her children was equally well done, and these characters were lovingly portrayed by Forna. What is even more impressive is that Forna, whose mother is Scottish and father is from Sierra Leone, effectively and convincingly portrays a country that she has little familiarity with. The Hired Man is an excellent follow up to her outstanding novel Memory of Love , and it would be an excellent choice for this year's Booker Prize longlist.

Mar 30, Eva rated it really liked it. I initially gave this book 5 stars, but dropped it down to 4. I wish I could give it a 4. I wanted to give it 5 stars to indicate that I thought it was one of the best books I have read for my personal challenge to read 50 novels in a year, but then had to ask myself if I wanted my friends to interpret that as me truly feeling this book was amazing, perfect, etc. Part of that comes from the fact that the author is trying to wr I initially gave this book 5 stars, but dropped it down to 4.

Part of that comes from the fact that the author is trying to write from the point of view of a middle-aged Croatian man, and it isn't always convincing. I often find that when women authors try to write as male characters, they add a lot more sexual content, frequently more than male authors do. I feel like this is to convince the reader that the narrator really is a male, because, hey!

He's thinking about sex, and that's what men do, yeah? But that's a minor criticism. There were a few other reasons the novel didn't exactly flow for me, but I don't want to dwell on those and detract from the overall very positive experience I had while reading it, or the fact that it was a cut above many other novels I've read this year, which fell entirely flat. Duro, 40 something year old single man living in the Croatian village of Gost, notices that a British named Laura and her two children have moved into a house that had been abandoned for many years.

We quickly discover that the family intends to renovate it and sell it as a vacation home, and also find out that the house has a checkered past, and played a prominent part in Duro's formative emotional life. The main themes include the terrible ways people behave in war time, and how they learn to live with one another afterwards, to keep it simple.

Jun 13, Jo rated it really liked it. Right from the beginning there is a feeling of inevitability in the story, that there is a secret in the past that is going to emerge as the novel unfolds. Initially there is only vague reference to the history of the village and the characters in it and what there is focuses on the childhood of Duro and his friends.

The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna – review

The animosity and love that emerges from these relationships becomes more developed as Duro gradually reveals the troubles of the past. As he helps with the 'blue house' and unearths its hidden treauses so the past is unearthed- quite deliberately -as Duro wants people to remember what happened all those years ago. The writing is fluid and very easy to read and conjured up clear images of the house and the scenery and although the family are somewhat stereotypical they feel simply a means to an end for the greater story that Duro is telling. He is a complex, compelling and likeable character, tough and resolute yet with a strong sense of loyalty and compassion.

It is always interesting to read about war from the perspective of those who lived it, even if it is fiction. We are given a portrait of national and global events from a personal perspective, this was why I picked this novel up and why I thoroughly enjoyed it. Jun 13, Lauren rated it it was ok Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna – review | Books | The Guardian

There is dog trauma in this book. I forgot about it when I initially wrote the review, but it is there and it sucks.


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I don't see how Duro can forgive it. I was interested enough to keep reading just to see what happened, but only just. Duro didn't particularly interest me as a character, and I didn't buy into the idea that the 3 men remained in Gost for the reasons given; it just didn't follow to me.

That was kind of handwavey anyway, as Duro had been away for years and then ret!! That was kind of handwavey anyway, as Duro had been away for years and then returned. The whole thing with Laura and her family felt like filler; it didn't ultimately matter who they were or why they were there, just that someone new had to be in that house and had to be female and had to end up with dark hair.

They're props around which to hang the plot, and it was strange to bring Conor in for a weekend for not particular purpose at all. In summary, not really for me. Feb 15, Adam rated it really liked it Shelves: A gripping story that plumbs the murderous undercurrents of a community after civil war and atrocity through the seemingly ordinary interplay of its characters.

The novel works beautifully at several levels, from the straightfoward narrative of a family restoring a rural Croatian home with the help of a local handyman, to the mystery that is unearthed through their interactions, and to the almost experimental structure of the main character's inner dialogue and sharply drawn memories. I'm fortuna A gripping story that plumbs the murderous undercurrents of a community after civil war and atrocity through the seemingly ordinary interplay of its characters. I'm fortunate enough to have been friends for many years with the author, the remarkable Aminatta Forna, who's also written the striking novel "Memory of Love.

May 26, Brenda Wegner rated it really liked it. Loved this perspective of why people stay. Sep 08, Melissa Joulwan rated it really liked it Shelves: Set in the fictional village of Gost in Croatia, this is a very moving and mysterious story of the aftermath of the Croatian War of Independence in the s.