This book is getting a little easier to read, but it is still going slowly. The first hundred pages were about just one day in the character's lives, and now I am on page 215, and it is only chapter four. Berry is getting more detailed about a few of the characters that I believe will be the focus of the rest of the novel: Mat, whose son is missing in action in World War II; Jayber Crow, the town's barber; one of my favorite characters, Uncle Stanly, who is the gravedigger and dirty old man of the town, and a new character named Gideon.
Gideon was introduced as the man who works a section of Mat's cousin's farm. Confusing, huh? Anyhow, the entire third chapter three was about Gideon and his search for his daughter who was snatched away in a flood before his eyes. After she gets washed away, he searches through the mud and the flooded valley for her for five days straight, only sleeping for an hour or two when it was entirely necessary. This chapter also chronicles Gideon's wife's actions while he is gone. It was a depressing chapter indeed.
I am enjoying this book because I am a fan of realism. Berry is very good at giving plenty of details so readers can feel what farming life in Kentucky in 1945 was like.
3 comments:
I am glad you're getting to know these characters. They are deep and wide in their connection to the land and their community. They are the most well developed and carefully considered fictional characters I have ever run across. Wendell Berry has been sharing them with us for many decades now through his many poems, novels and short stories. Keep reading Wendell Berry and getting to know Matt, Jayber, Hannah... etc and your life will be richer, deeper and more carefully constructed. I have lived with these folks for 3 decades now and not a day goes by but what some choice I make is not influenced by my understanding of what these folks have taught me. Hannah Coulter is the most beautiful book I've ever read. A Place On Earth is the perfect place to start getting to know Port William and it's people. Bless you in your journey.
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Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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