Customer Reviews

Home Economics

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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Mr. Berry, in engaging with the pressing issues and institutions of our day--from higher education to national security to gender relations to the perception of manual labor--introduces a new vocabulary for improving our country and our world. Instead of "progress" and "movement," Mr. Berry suggests "community" and "loyalty." These notions, and the overarching theme of commitment to place, inform all fourteen insightful essays. Mr. Berry is passionate and articulate, and his book will, at least, encourage debate, if not inspire real and lasting change in the way that Americans deal with their environment, their neighbors, and themselves.

The first essay, "Letter to Wes Jackson", is the reason I recommend this book so highly to anyone who appreciates thoughtful, elegant essays. In this essay Berry asks the rhetorical question: is randomness a verifiable condition, or evidence of the limits of our ability to order things? He chooses the latter option, and then spins out the ramifications of that choice in terms of religion and science and the way we live with or abuse the world - all in three revelatory pages. The rest of the book, while not (to me) the powerful revelation that the first essay was, contains some of the finest, most deeply-considered writing you will find in essay form from any writer of any period. Berry is one of the best.

My recommendation is to buy two copies: one to hoard, and one to loan.

I have read (and continue to re-read) several of WB's books. i enjoyed The Irish Journal tremendously and would be interested in any additional travel writing that this man may have to offer. The other essays are well-written though sometimes ringing a little off compared to the rock solid writing of some of his other essay material. Also, The reviewer who chastised WB for a lack of economic knowledge should understand that WB is not speaking in the manner of Keynes or Galbraith but in a manner closer to home...i.e. the title.

I have been a fan of Wendell Berry since my undergraduate days. I own many of his collected essays, as they are worth returning to again and again. At his best, Berry is one of the most thoughtful and challenging writers in America today--whether writing literary criticism, social criticism, poetry, or fiction.

This collection of essays is not Berry's very best. But Berry at his worst would still be worth reading (and I can't say that I've ever read anything by him that I could even call "moderately bad"). If you wish to go beneath the surfact events and problems in America to their root causes, Berry will take you there.