Customer Reviews

A Place on Earth

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A Place On Earth will constantly make you think about your connections to the land, your community, and to your closest loved ones. The way Wendell Berry poetically weaves together the characters in this novel is beautiful. The themes of belonging, respect, tolerance, and understanding are all elegantly and cleverly written throughout. The ideas of "a sense of place" and of community that come forth from this book are definitely something to strive for. Berry is a master - he makes you think. Definitely a book to savor and delight in. Try it, you'll like it! I also highly, highly recommend Berry's, "The Unsettling of America" for provocative thoughts and facts on community and agriculture.

"A Place on Earth" is the second novel of the Port William Membership that I have read; the first being "Jayber Crow". Berry proves himself to be yet again a master storyteller with the power to weave prose into beautiful and sometimes elegaic poetry. "A Place on Earth" is an incredible tribute to the power of loss, love, family and community.

Rather than focusing on one character, or one cohesive story, Berry chooses to tell about the daily life of various town members. Readers feel as though they are members of the community as well and have known these characters and their comings and goings for years. There are several main characters, such as the Feltner family, who have received news that their son is missing in action and must come to terms with the fact that he may never come home. Since Port William is a small town, the lives of every townperson is interweaved with that of their neighbors. Everyone knows everyone, and knows their joys and sufferings almost as immediately as they do.

A long time fan of Berry's poetry, I have loved the discovery of these two novels, and look forward to reading the rest of the Port William stories. Wendell Berry paints his characters so vividly, and sometimes so heartbreakingly real, that we come away from the story shocked back into reality. Berry knows the true nature of loss, the grief that accompanies it, and the hope that can be found in the most hopeless situations. Through all the trials and tribulations of the town and its members, hope persistently prevades and will, in the end, erase the pain that has been caused.

This is a book to savor slowly. Unlike much of modern fiction - written to be read in a flash - this wonderful novel requires the reader's attention to every sensory detail. To read it in a rush is to deprive oneself of what the book is all about - the passing of generations, the anguish of loss, the reaffirmation of life, and - above all - the love of the land. The characters are wonderful, and certain chapters, to counterbalance the undercurrent of loss, are intentionally hilarious. We have all known some of the people who live in Port William, Kentucky - age does not dimish them. This novel is what American fiction should be - but often isn't. A poet wrote it, which is evident in every line. A memorable treat for the patient reader.

This is to me simply a beautiful novel. I was reading the reviews and found the one from the gentleman in Utah that gave it one star and just could not fathom his review. There is immense depth in the story and character development. It is a great novel and I'm going to read it again now. Worth every cent.

Wendell Berry's wonderful and beautifully written novel brings us back to a beautiful place on earth, Port William. The time is 1945, and the backdrop is the ending of World War II, and how is affects the lives of the farmers and people of this little and beloved town. Here we see our friends from Berry's other novels about Port William: Jayber Crow, Hannah Coulter, Old Jack, Burley, Mat, and others we have come to love. We feel the poignancy and despair: we see the inadequacy of platitudes in the face of loss and grief. We also meet new characters whose lives are also incised by tragedy, such as a terrible flood. Through this, though, Berry also gives us hope, and at times, even humor, such as through the character of Uncle Stanley. We live with these character and we love them, and Berry's writing, simple and elegant, brings us closer to the experience of what it is to be human. His book evokes a great poem by jani johe webster, "a place called earth" (from her book "silhouette of a soul"): "if you live here/these space miles/from the moon/ a place called earth/ turn the page / make the music change from sorrow to harmony / let the geese come home / across the miles / the trees bud / into spring / and the day open itself." In Berry's novel, the geese do, in a sense come home again: the war ends and we celebrate with these characters. And the many of characters do change the music of their lives from sorrow to harmony: and we see the quiet heroism in their souls. Along with "Jayber Crow", "Hannah Coulter", and "The Memory of Old Jack," this is one of Berry's greatest and most sensitive works.

This is a wonderful novel that delivers what I hope to find in fiction (but seldom do): wisdom. Berry offers no easy answers--instead, his stories deepen our sense of life's mystery.

mr berry is my favorite author when it comes to writing about rural america. I've enjoyed each novel that i've read by him so far, but this one is my absolute favorite. this is a great american classic that has been sadly under the radar for too long. the writing is exquisite and the book is filled with wonderfully memorable characters that make each page pulse with life. my highest recommendations go out to this great work of art.

With these words Thoreau demonstrated that if one has to spend a day's wages to purchase the fare for a journey that takes a day by one's own effort, the hiker has earned a good deal more than the worker. It's a lesson that we have yet to incorporate into our modern life. In addition to handing over a day's wages to avoid a day's walk, we hire out the care of our children, gardens, homes, and pets as well as the production and preparation of our food, often to people we barely know, all because our jobs do not allow us the time to do these things for ourselves. Many of us spend more waking hours in our cars than we do in our homes. We "connect" with people online and therefore conclude that we are part of "a community." We are surrounded by plants we can't name and live in houses with rooms we rarely enter.

It from this milieu that Wendell Berry's novel "A Place on Earth" almost functions as escapism, and certainly a delight. Berry transports us to the geographically fictional but undeniably real town of Port William, Kentucky at the close of the Second World War, a community removed in time and mood from much of our current experience. It's a place where farmers work their fields with horses, dinner is the noonday meal, and men call their grandsons "honey." A place of the quiet dignity of good work and skills honed by the knowledge of and connection to the land. A place of tragedy that befalls the land and its people when these skills and connections are neglected. A place of renewal and strength despite devastating loss.

Berry's writing is a celebration of language and his subject. As an essayist he cogently illustrates the state of agriculture, politics, and consumerism in our society. Working with a gentler, but equally passionate touch as a novelist he has produced a moving tale honoring people, place, and work.

I doubt that there is any writer who is as good as Wendell Berry in portraying the life of a community. He is a master at showing the joy in and the struggles of relationships among generations of a family, nuclear and extended; friends; co-workers; and community members.

"Old Jack gets the impression that his opinions and approval are not being asked for, and instead of being angered by the young man's independence as he would have expected, he finds that he is delighted. It is a meeting of two of the same kind. While he was taking the measure of the younger man, his own measure has been taken. That tickles him. When his last question has been answered, he raised his hand.
'You go right ahead. Satisfy yourself, and you'll satisfy me.'"

The pain and fear when the younger generation goes off to war is heart breakingly depicted in this book. The setting is the time of WWII, but it is no less relevant today as is illustrated by the soldier from Idaho who is currently being held prisoner in Afghanistan.

This is a book that reads almost like poetry. I found myself slowing down and re-reading for the pleasure of the words and the strong sense of place that the author is able to create. I found the characters believable and admirable - doing the best they can as the war takes their sons and husbands- trying to hold on to life at home so that their war veterans will have the home that they left recognizable when they return to it. A powerful and realistic blending and interweaving of the lives of members of a small southern community - I highly recommend this book.