Hit by a Farm by Catherine Friend
Wittily Subtitled: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn
May 17, 2008
Catherine Friend's debut adult novel Hit by a Farm (2006 Marlowe and Company) is the fantastically entertaining tale of a woman who finds her new life on a farm vastly different from the one she begins with her partner on a farm, far from the city they started out in.
An author, Friend tells the story of her partner's unending support through her publishing years. When her partner decides her dream is to become a farmer, she follows her to their new life.
Chapter titles like "Touching Testicles" "Even My Bra Was More Supportive" and " At Long Last, Sheep Sex" interest the reader right from the start. Through trials and tribulations, Friend and her partner learn to farm. They shear sheep, witness sheep sex, and find that llamas are interesting sheep herders and geese weren't such a good idea after all.
But throughout this riveting, witty tale are the underlying themes of identity, support, frustration, and, ultimately, triumph.
Themes
When a person gives up the life they have built their identity around, how do they figure out who and what they are in the long run? When her own carreer must take a back seat because there are sick or birthing sheep, how does she find the time to do what she loves too?
Relationship Issues
Relationship issues are faced courageously in writing, if not during the ordeal itself. Friend openly shares the distress, the fights, the frustration both of them feel as they stumble through the often painful learning process. How do they work out the fact that their needs are now slightly different? How do they grow together as their farm grows too? How does Friend keep from divorcing her partner when a sheep birthing sac falls out of her dryer?
On the back cover she says, "Farms have fences. People have boundaries. Mine began crumbling the day I knelt behind a male sheep, reached between his legs, and squeezed his testicles." Indeed, while laughing, it is easy to question the necessity of personal boundaries and how they so quickly can get wrapped up in situations beyond our control.
Facing Stress in a Partnership
Recurring nightmares plague both of them, and Friend clearly becomes depressed, even if she cant acknowledge it because she never has time. Her partner too becomes stressed as she tries so desperately to make the farm work as her health deteriorates for no apparent reason.
But together they face the onslaught of stress and fear, of death of trusted pets and expensive farm animals. Eventually, they learn from their mistakes and their successes, and each year gets easier. Friend finds her boundaries again, and because she does, their relationship and farm grow stronger.
Funny and Provocative Read
Hit by a Farm is a must read, if only for the amazing humour and laughingly outrageous stories. But it is also a good read for anyone interested in overcoming diversity when it just seems as though life is too much to handle and change is crushingly hard. Her blog, Farm Tales, keeps an interested reader up to date on the often comical goings on of the farm world she lives in.
Author
She and her partner have been together for twenty four years and still farm. Catherine Friend’s newest book, The Compassionate Carnivore: Or How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint, and Still Eat Meat, was released this month to astounding reviews. Written with the same wit, wisdom and hilarious experiences, it is sure to be another must have for anyone concerned about eating meat but unwilling to go the herbivore route. She has also written The Spanish Pearl and The Crown of Valencia, a romantic adventure about a woman who falls in love in another century. Friiend's six children’s books have been put out by Candlewick Press and Hyperion Books for Children. Friend is an avid believer in ethical and sustainable farming.
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