A World Lost [Paperback]

Wendell Berry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Andy Catlett is nine years old when his Uncle Andrew is murdered. Still haunted by the death as an adult, Andy works to gather details of the tragedy from the fragile memories of family, neighbors, and friends. This beautiful, bittersweet novel was featured by Booklist , Library Journal , and the Louisville Courier-Journal as one of the best books of 1996. It is the summer of 1944, and nine-year-old Andy Catlett is engrossed in the wide easy countryside near Port William, Kentuckythe clear, cool water of Chathan Spring, fields full of tumblebugs and meadowlarks, and a sky so huge it seems a great gape of vision. But sadness, loss, and mystery invade Andys world on a hot July afternoon when his Uncle Andrew is murdered. No one tells the boy why his uncle and namesake was killed, and the question follows him into manhood.As the adult Andy revisits family history to gather fragments of truth about his uncle and the murder, he begins to understand the limits of fact, namely that the truth about us, though it must lie all around us every day, is mostly hidden from us, like birds nests in the woods.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Wendell Berry is absolutely unique in American letters: a poet, novelist, essayist, and man of the land whose pastoral vision presents a ringing indictment of modern materialist society. A World Lost is the latest in Berry's fictional recreations of the lost world of Port William, Kentucky, in the 1940s, and it tells the story of Uncle Andrew Catlett, a womanizer and roisterer whose death in a trivial argument is retold by his grown nephew, Andy. Berry is uninterested in stylistic leaps or postmodern bravura: he is interested in a profound, well-told tale of honor and memory and community. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Brilliantly detailed characters and subtle social observations distinguish Berry's unassuming but powerful fifth novel. The T.S. Eliot Award-winning poet, essayist and novelist writes with the authority of a man steeped in the culture of a time and place, again the fictional town of Port William, Ky., familiar to the readers of his previous works. Approaching his 60th birthday, Andy Catlett still struggles to understand the conspiracy of silence that has kept him from the truth about the day in the summer of 1944 when his namesake, his irresponsible, black sheep Uncle Andrew, was murdered. On that fateful afternoon, when his beloved uncle refuses his request to accompany him on his mission to dismantle the outbuildings of a nearby abandoned lead mine, nine-year-old Andy sneaks away from his grandmother and luxuriates in the forbidden pleasure of swimming alone in the farm pond. When he returns, Andy is called into his father's presence and informed that his uncle has been shot. While it is impossible for his elders to shield him from their grief, young Andy is kept in the dark about the circumstances of the tragedy. He is left to go through life bearing a misplaced sense of guilt. Imbued with the textures, dialect and social mores of backwater Kentucky during WWII, the narrative is pulled along by a chain of revelations about the interior lives of the characters. Berry shows us the psychic costs of misplaced family pride and social rigidity, and yet he also celebrates the benevolent blessing of familial love. This is simple, soul-satisfying storytelling, augmented by understated humor and quiet insight.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 151 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887178546
• ISBN-13: 978-1887178549
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,964,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wendell Berry is a truly great writer., December 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A World Lost (Paperback)

Wendell Berry is a truly great writer. He tells a simple story : how a young boy's life changes forever because of his favorite uncle's sudden death, and more importantly, how one event can shape the remainder of a person's life. In these days of relentless, horrific tragedies which are never fully assimilated or understood, Berry sets a timeless stage in the small town of Port William, Kentucky, where the same events are felt for generations. In his books there is all the time in the world, to feel, to adjust, to accept. He uses just the right words and not too many of them. His language has a clarity and spaciousness that leaves a reader deeply refreshed. I would highly recommend his book of short stories, "Fidelity" ( and that story in particular). As in the best classics of literature, the reader is transported to another world and comes away a better person for it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unsolved Crime Revisited, October 10, 2000

By 

"labibliophile" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A World Lost (Paperback)

Nine-year-old Andy Catlett's sweet and comfortable childhood is turned upside down in the summer of 1944 when his favorite uncle, for whom he is named, is murdered. Determined to learn the truth behind the crime, the now grown-up Andy examines the evidence, which consists mainly of the recollections of his uncle's family and friends in the town of Port William, Kentucky.

The truth proves elusive, but the portrait of Uncle Andrew and the world he inhabited that emerges from this small jewel of a book is beautifully wrought, and the love that exists among family members and among friends is the real truth after all.

A good mystery and deeply emotional.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another beautiful reflection on family from Berry, July 1, 2010

By 

Happy Face (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A World Lost: A Novel (Port William) (Paperback)

I ordered this book for a book club, in part because it was one of Berry's shorter novels and easier to read in time for the date of our book club meeting. I LOVED this book. Berry writes so beautifully and so honestly about family, marriage, and fatherhood. He is one of my favorite authors and an excellent choice both for independent reading and group studies. Highly recommended!