| Title | : | A Place on Earth |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1582431248 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781582431246 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 321 |
| Publication | : | First published November 30, 1966 |
The earth is the genius of our life," Wendell Berry writes here. "The final questions and their answers lie serenely coupled in it.
A Place on Earth Reviews
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There are few authors who can capture the feeling of a place and the nature of a people as well as Wendell Berry. His fictional place of Port William is achingly real and his recurring use of familiar characters to tell a new story makes you feel as if you are part of that community and have sat in Jayber’s barber shop or traded at Burgess’ store.
This is one of Berry’s sadder novels. It is an exploration of loss, in all its forms, through death and estrangement and longing. Every emotion that can be associated with love and loss is here, spread before us like a banquet, and there is a seat at the table for every man because this is the food of life and each of us must taste of it. The wisdom of Berry is a soft, human, heartfelt thing, however, never pedantic or condescending.
Seeing that the old man is saddened by what he said, Wheeler says kindly; “Nothing anybody can do, Uncle Jack.” But surely Wheeler knows better than to think that is any consolation. It is just the truth. And a man who is depending on the truth to console him is sometimes in a hell of a fix. To Old Jack, the sorrowful thing exactly is that there is nothing anybody can do.
He understands that the loss of any person you love is so personal that, for you, it is the only death that has ever occurred.
And there he sat in your granddaddy's chair, with his consolations and his old speech. Just putting our names in the blanks. And I thought; Preacher, he’s dead, he’s not here, and you’ll never know what it is that’s gone. The last words ought to say what it is that has died. The last words for Tom ain’t in the letter from the government, and they won’t be said by the preacher. They’ll be said by you and me and the rest of us when we talk about our old times and laugh about the good happenings. They won’t be said as long as we live.
But all is not sadness, for just as life can make us laugh through our tears, so Berry does as well. There are a couple of scenes in this novel that made me howl, and a thread of humor that runs through it beginning to end. When reading Berry, I seem to want to step inside the covers of the book and comfort, kiss or reassure these people, or at the least just crawl up on the porch and sit with Andy and Henry and listen to their stories and laugh at their antics.
Wendell Berry is a poet and a prophet and a farmer who understands this earth in a way that most of us cannot. He obviously knows the hard work, but also the satisfaction, that comes with a life of purpose that is tied to all of God’s creation. Coming from a family that once farmed, I can remember how much my grandfather knew and understood of nature and the cycle of life that is lost to me now and is beyond even the imaginings of my grandchildren.
If you have not ever read Wendell Berry, you cannot imagine what you have missed. -
The GR book description states that “ In
A Place on Earth the central character is not a person but a place: Port William, Kentucky, and the farmlands and forests that surround it, and the Kentucky River that runs nearby.”
I disagree. The characters stand out more than the place. They are alive and real, and it is they that make the story. I do agree that the fictional town, Port William, is well drawn too. It becomes a place with an identity of its own. Life is slower there, simpler, less hectic. It is a joy to visit the people and the town. This is not to say the townsfolk’s lives are friction free or that they are model citizens. The novel is set during the Second World War and one son is "missing in action" and his wife at home in the town is pregnant. Anyhow, it is the characters' fumbling humanity that makes them so real. In
Wendell Berry’s book real people, with real life problems are beautifully drawn.
There are a multitude of characters. Are they hard to keep straight? No, they are not! For each one, either an incident or a characteristic about them is given. What you are told makes each one unique and special. They become individuals you neither confuse nor forget. Old Jack, for example, always knows what is best and he is terribly obstinate. We meet Jayber Crow, the town barber, and Stanley Gibbs the gravedigger. Each become individuals you wish you knew in person. I don’t see any as being evil, but they fumble and make mistakes. I find them extremely easy to relate to.
I do think though that Wendell Berry is better at drawing men than women; the women do not come alive to the extent the men do. They are rather flat; they lack the foibles of the men; they are too good, too perfect. In this story there are many more male characters than female characters, so this is not a problem.
The prose is lyrical and worthy of thought. Here follow two examples:
“When we have lost it all, we have had what we lost.”
“I don’t believe that when his death is subtracted from his life, I don’t believe it leaves nothing. It leaves his life.”
The audiobook narration by Paul Michael is excellent. He reads slowly. This suits the mode of life in Port William. He is great at drawing the humor, the sadness and the profundity of the lines. He uses different intonation for different characters, and he does this extremely well. When the war ends there is a party and a couple of friends get seriously drunk. This episode is funny and very well narrated. You simply must laugh; do remember I spoke of the gravedigger Stan!
So far, I think this is my favorite by the author. Maybe it is a bit on the long side. It exists in two editions. In 1983 it was revised and shortened. I think what I listened to was the longer version.
*****************
The Memory of Old Jack 5 stars
A Place on Earth 4 stars
Stand By Me 4 stars
Jayber Crow 4 stars
Hannah Coulter 2 stars
Nathan Coulter 2 stars
Andy Catlett: Early Travels TBR -
As usual, right after finishing a Berry book, it immediately becomes my favorite. This one gave me the chance to read more about my favorite characters in Port William: Burley Coulter and Jayber Crow. I especially like the way Margaret Feltner was portrayed in very few words and scenes. Her strength and faith and courage in adversity were instrumental in Mat Feltner's ability to be the respected man that he became. Hannah Coulter got her own book, but Margaret is every bit as important as a character. Just quietly going about her days, doing what needed to be done, makes an incredible statement about Berry's appreciation of women.
There is a lot of sadness and loss in this book as well. The story of Ida and Gideon and the flood was heart-wrenching, but when you throw in the loneliness of Ernest Findlay, it creates an unbearable sense of the futility of impossible dreams.
Because Berry is a master at portraying real people dealing with real things, there is humor as well. Uncle Stanley Gibbs was guaranteed to produce laughs whenever he appeared on the scene, especially his remarks while teaching Jayber the finer points of grave digging. A drunken scene late in the novel had me rolling, and little Henry Catlett driving the mules into the barn was priceless. Through it all, the inhabitants of Port William just keep doing what is necessary to get through the days and seasons of their life the best way they know how.
As do we all. -
5 🍓🍓🍓🍓🍓
In an interview
Ron Rash was talking about the intensity we readers experience with certain books and about a passage in particular he said
"Until then I had entered the books I read, but that was the first book that entered me."
That is exactly how I feel when I read
Wendell Berry. This one was particularly immersive and poignant.
I utilized both ebook and audio formats. The narration was excellent. -
"A Place on Earth" is a book of deep reflection about family, grief, friendship, and the land. Wendell Berry takes us to the small farming community of Port William, Kentucky during the last year of World War II. Mat Feltner's grandfather and father had passed down their farm to him along with their strong work ethic and a love of their community. Mat and Margaret's son, Virgil, is missing in action in Europe. Virgil's wife, Hannah, is expecting their first child. They are dealing with the unknown, a combination of hope and grief, as they wait to hear more about Virgil.
The Feltner grandchildren, their neighbors, and a few quirky characters in town provided humor in the book. It was a year of change and loss for several families, but also a time of new life and celebration as the war ended. Wendell Berry writes thoughtfully about everyday people, the satisfaction of hard work, the change of seasons, and the circle of life. -
Wendell Berry’s novels of Port William are like coming home. Read just one and you’ll want to read another and another. You’ll soon fall into a calming place where the land is honored and neighbors are your family. You’ll get to know the steadfast and faithful people that inhabit its hills. There is Jayber Crow, the barber with a knack for listening, Mat Feltner, a stand-up man with a heart for his family, Burley and Jarrat Coulter, brothers trying to make amends, Old Jack Beechum, an ambitious farmer who has lived a long, difficult life. And there are others who have stories to tell.
Berry tells each story through a lens of love for the people of his beloved Kentucky and for the land to which he is devoted. His prose is soft and peaceful all the while giving his readers a portrayal of an intimate rural lifestyle of the past foreign to many modern ways of living.
There was never anything like it - that black humus, built up under the forest for thousands of years. There it was, dark as shadows under the trees, abundant and deep, waiting to be opened. Surely no dirt was ever more responsive or more alive. You could believe, for once, that the earth might give back to a man more than it took from him. It welcomed him everywhere he put down his hand or his foot or his seed. It had advanced through millennia to break itself open on the coulter of his plow; he could not have helped but feel that jointure breaking in every nerve.
This is now my fourth Wendell Berry novel and each and every one I am struck by the rich eloquence of his writing and the ebb and flow of its cadence. It is meant to be savored and enjoyed with such attention and veneration. Berry is a story teller and he gives his poetic voice to his characters. In A Place on Earth, Berry reveals the heart and the love of the Feltners, Coulters, Catletts and others in a story of loss that leaves noone immune. Each loss is personal and heartbreaking with depth that can only be imagined.
The story takes place during WW2 when sons have left for the war leaving behind concerned and hopeful family and friends. Those remaining endure unforeseen hardships and traumas. Under pressures and pain, this community looks out for and takes care of each other and the bonds of friendship become even more necessary. Friends quietly and reverently sit together in comfort without need for words.
And that is the theme of their talk. The sense of time passing. The sense of the future as a reality they will not quite accept until it is upon them.
Berry is also in tune to the silly and jovial attitudes of some of his characters. There is humor among the sadness and I believe it is because he uses just the right characters to bring some really laughable moments.
If you haven’t read anything by Wendell Berry, I urge you to go now and find one of his novels of Port William and I guarantee you will be struck by this farmer and writer who values and respects the power of nature and our earth. -
"But I don't believe that when his death is subtracted from his life it leaves nothing. Do you, Mat?" "No" he says. "I do not." "What it leave is his life. How could I turn away from it now any more than when he was a child, and not love it and be glad of it. just because death is in it?" Her words fall on him like water and like light........"And Mat,"she says "we belong to one another. After all these years. Doesn't it mean something?" It is along time before he answers...."I do not know what it means,"he finally says. 'I know what it's worth."
I don't know what the past month means and it sure as hell is not worth it. however, his words of death, pain, and sorrow seem to hold more hope than anything i touch these days. Without telling me what hope is, the stories seem more true and worthy of pain and grief and this is what i need. Old Jack said in this book that "And a man who is depending on the truth to console him is sometimes in a hell of a fix." Thanks for putting great words to so much i feel. -
This book ended my journey through the Port William books. It was not written last in the series, we just didn't own it until recently. All nine of these achingly beautiful books have fallen into one of two catergories for me: either it has been "one of the best books I have EVER read" or "Wow. That was gorgeously written, and utterly depressing." This kind of toggled between the two categories. In fact, for the first time in the whole series I caught myself being angry at Wendell Berry for killing one of the secondary characters whom I had grown to depend on and love. The book dealt with loss and death, while occasionally throwing in some absurdity to ease the sober tension. One of the comic scenes in the end, while probably intentional, almost seemed like it was put in because we as readers were owed something lighter (even though the comic scene was at a pretend funeral). So, I gave this 4 stars because it was awesomely and tightly written, but just too sad to receive 5 stars. Since I read it last, it felt like the missing puzzle piece in the lives of many of the Port William membership. His treatment of Burley I found to be especially tender, and while completely wayward, I still love that old boy.
Recommended if you already love the Port William membership. And like all of the others, there is a bit of mild language. -
What can I say? It’s a Berry. The people and the place.
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Classic Berry. A gentle story of life in the small town of Port William, where life goes slowly, where war is far away and impacts the town only when its sons stop writing home. If you have ever read any of Berry's books, you will be glad to renew acquaintance with some of the Port William residents and meet others for the first time.
My thanks to Lawyer and all the folks at the
On the Southern Literary Trail group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this and many other fine books. -
My favorite place to revisit, Port William, Kentucky!! Not just the place, but the folks, the sense of community, and as they loving refer to themselves “membership”. I love these souls, whom are the creation of Wendell Berry’s extraordinary mind and storytelling.
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This is the second novel of Berry’s I have read.
A Place on Earth, Port William to be exact, is a place that seems as real as some I have driven past without much thought of it. This is a southern farm community in the 1940’s America and it drips nostalgia from each page. In bringing it to life Berry spins a hell of a yarn here. It is filled with incredible detail down to each dew drop on each blade of grass or so it seems. I wonder if in creating this place Berry has indeed counted each hair on these folk’s heads.
It took me a bit to get used to the flow of the writing. I felt at first the detail was a bit too much. Whole chapters, it seemed, describing a single room or a card game with little to no dialogue. The folks of Port William have lives that are mix of humor and sadness. Incredible sadness. The ebb and flow of the seasons matches the lives of each Character here within the farming year. The action, if you can call it that, of the story takes place in the last years of World War II, and the war has had an impact on the community. Many of the young men are gone, serving overseas, and some will not return. Their absence from the Port William membership affects both their families and the broader community.
As the story moves you do get a sense of a certain wonder for a life in simple terms. Like waves arriving on shore seamlessly in that consistent pattern of seasons and it grows on you. It moves from one family to the next effortlessly until you have a quilt of the whole community. The language is unique in many ways. It reads at time like a piece of poetry. I can lull you slowly to a sense of calm then awaken you with a sudden unplanned event just when you felt all was well. in dong so it reveals itself much like life. It rolls along uneventful as each of own reality is much of the time.
The antagonist and protagonist seems to be life itself, each characters innermost thoughts and the struggles with them and each days diary of chores to be completed in order for life to move forward. There is an undeniable sense of change throughout the book, as old ways are replaced by new ones as the elders look back on what has occurred in the history of their time here searching for their stamp on it. It tells of both death and new life and brings them forward equally without much more fanfare than any other life event. Each have the same affect. A simple fact of life moving forward. Time it seems waits on no one person.
You will slowly feel and become aware of the frenetic pace of contemporary society moving in on Port William and the largely unseen world outside of it. These characters are people who keep on living, despite setbacks and the difficulties that they are faced with. There is something to be learned here. In a world I personally have not been exposed to other than through writing such as Berry’s. And for that I am thankful. -
Interesting book. On the surface, it seemed like a series of vignettes about many different Port Williamites randomly strung together. While it was a pleasure to discover more about the different characters, including the dependable and accommodating Jayber Crow and his counterpart, the rambunctious and garrulous Stanley Gibbs, it was the underlying theme of life and death, the Here and the Hereafter that left a deep impression.
The story is set near the end of World War II. While Port William seemed a world away from the conflict, the bombers flying over Port William were a reminder of the fighting, and of the sons who had gone to fight. One of its own, Billy Gibbs, was flying in the bombers. Brothers Nathan and Tom Coulter had also gone to fight, the latter already known to have died. The story primarily follows the Feltners, as Mat, Margaret, pregnant Hannah and Bess wait in anguish for news of Virgil who had also gone to serve in the army.
There were recurring themes of loss and yearning, which were not related to the war. Mat’s brother-in-law, the handicapped Ernest Finley, was suffering loss of a different kind. He had desires but only had emptiness. Gideon Crop was grieving for his daughter, and Ida Crop had to cope with his absence.
There were interesting contrasts throughout the book, especially between life and death. The most striking was the sombre preparations for the funeral for one of the Port Williamites. Then there was the comical, mock funeral for the drunk, giant Whacker Spradlin, who was dumped into the freshly dug grave as a lark. Mat Feltner was at first offended by its irreverence, but was later drawn in by its jubilation and celebration.
The comparison between the Here and the Hereafter comes when Brother Piston makes an awkward visit to the Feltner, not knowing how to bring comfort to them. The ever-present observer, Burley Coulter gives his opinions in a letter to his nephew Nathan.
There’s the preacher who has what I reckon you would call a knack for the Hereafter. He’s not much mixed with this world. … I do say that some people’s knack is for the Here.
And surely the talk of a reunion in Heaven is thin comfort to people who need each other here as much as we do. I ain’t saying I don’t believe there’s a Heaven. I surely do hope there is. That surely would pay off a lot of mortgages. But I do say it ain’t easy to believe. And even while I hope for it. I’ve got to admit I’d rather go to Port William.
Mat Feltner also reflects on life, telling Hannah about his advice to Virgil years ago after Virgil had lost his crops.
”And I told him that a man’s life is always dealing with the permanence – that the most dangerous kind of irresponsibility is to think of your doings as temporary. That, anyhow, is what I’ve tried to keep before myself. What you do on the earth, the earth makes permanent.”
Finally, as Mat goes on his usual walkabout in the woods, after all that has happened, he finds peace.
It is the restfulness of a place where the merest or the most improbable accident is made a necessity and a part of a design, where death can only give into life. -
I just can't get enough Wendell Berry. It's almost mysterious how his writing can be so simple and unflowery and yet so beautiful and powerful. I think what I love so much about Berry's novels is the sense of both contentedness and longing. Each character has something to be grateful for but also something missing; that mixture of feeling is so true to life.
In this book we revisit many of the characters we've met in Berry's other Port William novels: Mat and Margaret Feltner, Jayber Crow, Burley Coulter, etc. Instead of focusing on one person or family, each chapter peeks in at the life of various members of the Port William community.
A couple favorite passages:
I used to think that when I got to be a man I’d do what I pleased. And what I aimed to please to do was hunt and fish,and breed as far and wide as a tomcat. But there’s a great many pretty girls that I’ve gone by, and a lot of good hunting nights, and a lot of fishing weather. It has happened that that wasn’t so much what I was called to as I thought. What it has been, I reckon you would say, is love, for Jarrat and you boys. I realize now that if my calling hasn’t been that, I haven’t had one. When I die there won’t be much around here that anybody can point to and say “Burley Coulter done that.” There’s not any wheeling and dealing of mine that anybody’ll remember. But for me, when I think of my life I have to think of it with Jarrat’s and yours and Tom’s. And even if there’s a lot I’ve let go by, I don’t say I ain’t blessed. (158)
There’s one of my thoughts. Amazing how I’ve got so I depend on my thoughts. I can take one I like and just about wear the hair off it between supper and bedtime. I can remember a time when my head wasn’t exactly the part of me that I was most interested in. And now there’s actually some thoughts that I kind of look forward to getting a chance to think. I’ve got a pretty good pocketknife and a pretty good dog and three or four good thoughts. (160) -
Overall, Wendell Berry's fiction I've read centers around or is related to the community of a fictive small Kentucky town named Port William.
Set near the end of WW II this book is threaded around a farmer's struggles in dealing with the news that his son has been listed as missing in action. True to Berry's community approach, Port William serves as the central protagonist involving humorous, sweet, and sad tales of numerous other residents.
This book to me is an immersion course to Berry's fiction with multiple story lines of loss and redemption weaved together. Getting the most from this book requires concentrated reading, and can elicit a rollercoaster of emotions.
The extensively edited 1983 version of this book is the better to my mind. -
"'But I don't believe that when his death is subtracted from his life it leaves nothing. Do you, Mat?" "No" he says. "I don't." "What it leaves is his life. How could I turn away from it now any more than when he was a child, and not love it and be glad of it, just because death is in it?'" -page 262
I want to record that page number so I may go back and reread it in times of sorrow. This is such a genuine, poignant, soothing book about life and loss. Wendell Berry is truly one of my favorite authors.
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I am not sure I deserve to read Wendell Berry. At least, I am keenly aware each time I do that I am in over my head. In a manner somewhat similar to the Gospel of John, Berry manages to be simultaneously simple and profound.
A Place on Earth starts very slowly. Berry seems determined to reward only those who can settle themselves into the pace of small-town life and thereby learn the art of patient observation. If at first it seems not much is going on, well, you haven't learned how to see past appearances. Everything is fraught with meaning if only you have eyes to see. Moreover, you ought to feel your place as a stranger in Port William because you are, and always will be. But you are welcome to stay and glean wisdom from the lives of its inhabitants if you have the patience.
Mid-book, much more "plot" happens, but even here the pieces are disparate, even while being intimately connected, and the ending is just the end of your visit here, not at all a neat and tidy tying off of threads. There is so much sadness, so much loss, and yet there is also real and abiding hope.
If I am wise, I will revisit this book and this place. If I am really wise, I will do it in print form rather than as an audio book. But even in my current state of foolish clumsiness, I can perceive some of the genius Berry weaves. The title takes on many subtle meanings if one is willing to be quiet and observe all that is encompassed in this little place on earth. -
"The leaves brightly falling around him, Mat comes into the presence of the place. It lies clearly and simply before him, radiant as though a light in the ground has become visible. He has come into a wakefulness as quiet as sleep."
Wendell, you did not disappoint. This wonderful book made me laugh, cry, and pause to see the beauty of hot summers, loss, and life. -
This is novel in which, on one level, nothing happens. The beauty of the prose is rooted in the details of everyday life in a rural community during WWII - floors swept, wood planed, cows milked, sheep sheared, penny candy bought, alcohol drunk, meals consumed. That's not to say that events don't overtake the central characters -- tragedy, loss, suicide, and war demand our attention, but it's the response of the characters (floors swept, cows milked, meals consumed) that throw those events into such sharp relief. What is there to do after tragedy but keep going? And how unglamorous the work of 'keeping going' is.
This is a warm book, a book that captures love for a place, and love for a community, and love for a natural world that sometimes doesn't cooperate with the best-made plans of men. And this is definitely a book about men. There are many female characters, lovingly drawn, with faults and foibles as well as admirable traits, but we see them only as the men in the book see them, and learn of them only as the male characters need that from us. This is not necessarily a criticism - the book doesn't aim to sideline, ignore, or reduce women; it merely seeks to explore what it means to be a man in a rural community in 1945.
I enjoyed it greatly. -
This meaningful tome touches on every single aspect of life's ongoing journey and bundles it up in the small town of Port William. Wendell Berry is an extremely insightful writer and can bring a chuckle when in includes an unexpected dash of farcical humor in his work. A Place on Earth is very relatable to me in so many aspects. Wendell Barry includes and intermingles what each of us experiences, regardless of species . . . . . . . humans, animals, nature and our galaxy. Nothing is immune from the exposure. Birth, childhood, instincts, relationships, hate, rage, love, grief, illness, recovery, death. Voice is given to each experience with insight, honesty and reality.
For me, I experienced a very relatable loss while listening to this book. My beloved aging cat companion, Mama, died. I am deeply touched by grief. This book has provided the comfort that I am not alone in my experience. This afternoon I completed this gem and I was blessed with a splash of unexpected joy. Two of my young grandchildren visited me. There couldn't have been a more pleasurable wrap up and true appreciation of A Place on Earth. I am there. -
I wish I lived in Port William; painful, poignant, precious, peaceful.
I love Berry's writing as it is full of what is at the heart of me. To live deeply with courage and integrity. To be human and yet, whilst recognizing human frailties and limitations, to not let it prevent one from doing the best one can do, and keeping one’s eye on something far greater. To say at the end of each day, 'I tried and tomorrow I will try again until I can’t try anymore.'
And to forgive others liberally even whilst being aware of their failings, but not more so than one’s own. -
This book took me back to the old home of my grandparents, and to their quiet, hardworking way of life with simple pleasures. My grandma, especially, was with me again as I savored the beauty of the land. Berry always makes me slow down and immerse myself in his stories.
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heavy with both beauty and loss, and so i guess, reality.
also. when i grow up, i want to be a sixty-year-old farmer. -
oh man. i did not expect this to be so heart-rending but also so full of warmth and wonder and light. i can't wait to read more stories from port william.
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This is not one to rush through. Heavily edited from its original length, it exists as a novel with a short story form. The stories reveal the Port William characters more fully than a standalone novel can. Some great lines from it:
He (Old Jack) has been seen more than once sitting on the back bench of a courtroom, grinning and crying shamelessly as a child while Wheeler makes his closing speech to the jury.
It seems a man is about as easy to lose in this world as a pocketknife.
I used to think that when I got to be a man I'd do what I pleased. And what I aimed to please to do was hunt and fish, and breed as far and wide as a tomcat.
"I haven't even got any grave," (young) Henry says. "I ain't dead."
"Well, maybe you ain't got one yet that you're in, honey, but you got one ... you're going to." - Aunt Fanny
There is an almost unbearable sweetness in his (Ernest Finley) knowledge of all this. He has come to follow her through her days with the pleasing anticipations and recognitions with which one reads a familiar and much loved passage, but with an anxiety, too, as though the passage is but a fragment, leading to the verge of a revelation that is not told, or lost.
"One thing, old man. Just remember one thing. You can only speak for yourself. You never know what the other man has to go through." - Jayber Crow
The leaves brightly falling around him, Mat comes into the presence of the place. It lies clearly and simply before him, radiant as though a light in the ground has become visible. He has come into a wakefulness as quiet as a sleep. -
While this was not my initial indoctrination into the life of Wendell Berry's Port William, it would make a superb introduction. It moves gracefully from character to character, diving in just deep enough for the reader to get a true sense of the loss and sorrow and joy and delight that fill each member's life. It stays consistent in its chronology, covering the same events and occasions, and merely shifts from one perspective to another. The common thread that runs throughout the book is the life of Port William itself; its complicated, intricately woven tapestry of relationships and interdependencies. It is greatly rewarding to read this book with the knowledge of Berry's other works of fiction such as Hannah Coulter or Jayber Crow in mind, but those aren't prerequisites for A Place on Earth by any stretch. A Place on Earth is a wonderful mosaic of lives that culminates in a beautiful, but not idealistic, image of loving, committed community.
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A lovely story of farmers and farm life. The land and place, the back drop of the story, is the thread that holds together the individual dramas (and comedies) of the different families and characters depicted. I was inspired by the inextricable link between the characters and the land they farm and the community they are part of. The land really is another member of the community. I was also inspired by the committment to the work of the land of these characters. I aspire to the lifestyle depicted here.
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This is a book that I will eventually buy, hopefully the audio book as well. I can't express how much this book spoke to me, it resounded deeply within my spirit. The descriptions of scenes, emotions and characters were the best I think I have ever encountered in my long years of reading. The prose takes you on a slow and thoughtful journey which then gently sets you down within the very essence of the story. This book will stay with me for a long time.
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This is an extended detailed description (too lengthy to classify as a vignette) of a small community , it's people and it's landscape. I found myself thinking, "seriously? Who cares?" & struggled to complete it. It's also very sad & not particularly uplifting. I realize that there are many reviewers who have said this is beautiful prose, but I was not impressed.
