Customer Reviews

You Can Go Home Again: Adventures of a Contrary Life (Farming Biography)

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I *am* going home again. After nearly 20 years in Texas, my family is moving back to Ohio. We feel that call that Gene Logsdon describes so movingly, hilariously. Now, most people, considering the fact that we are doing it by going first and finding jobs later, think we are certifiable. How wonderful to read Gene's work and find encouragement in values that go beyond acquisition and comfort. We're college [over]educated and employable, and jobs are the least of our worries.

Gene's book talks about home, care, a sense of place. When a place where eleven generations have called home calls you back, you have to listen, and that's why we're going. We have a "10-year plan" -- we're lucky enough to be starting out on some acreage on my Dad's farm. And will build from there. My child and my brother's children will be able to cross the pasture to visit each other and their grandparents.

Will we be self-sufficient? Of course not. What does that mean anyway? People are too "self-sufficient" as it is. I want to live someplace where I can depend on people (in all the right senses of the word). We'll grow some vegetables and berries, raise some chickens and have a good time doing it. I dream grandiosely of a cow or maybe three goats (I want to name them Gina, Lola and Brigitta, but my husband is pushing for "Shot Clock I, II, & III" [he spends a lot of time statting basketball games!]) I pour over Lehman's catalogues. It's fun to plan.

I think that's where reviewer "trailboss" below misses Gene's point. I've read everything of Gene's that I can lay my hands on (too much is out of print! ), and one point he repeatedly emphasizes is that this is not about subsistence farming. There's more than "survival" to it or it wouldn't be worth last week's supermarket strawberries.

Gene never claims that you can find Total Peace, Contentment and Happiness and on a homestead. If you don't have some of that before you start, then disappointment is inevitable.

Going home is about place, people, and good dirt. That's the saving grace of it. Not making a "profit" on it, not becoming Organically Pure, or worshipping Gaia. Of course, you can do all those things, but the home and the dirt is the start of it.

And the softball. Former high school first-base ace here! Since we're moving to southern Richland County, Ohio, I hope we get to meet Gene and the boys in a softball tournament somewhere, sometime! In the meantime, Gene, keep pestering your publishers about reprints. :)

Gene Logsdon has published his autobiography. Telling the story of his life - from farm boy to the Roman Catholic seminary, studying for the priesthood, dropping out, graduate school, and editor of a farm magazine and finally back to Ohio - he describes how his life comes to a circle. He returned to the good life of his childhood - at least almost. As a witness of the great change in agriculture, he feels a little bit like the last of the dinosaurs, one of the last generation who grew up on a traditional farm before agrobusiness destroyed the culture of rural America. Logdson does not present great programmes, but he has rather chosen to change his life by living an alternative life and work for in his home area for a resurgence of rural America. With his writings he nevertheless exercised a great influence. If you have enjoyed any of Logsdon's books, are interested into rural living and agrarian thought, this book is definitely worthwile reading.

Trust your instincts - - this is the message that keeps returning in this story of one man's life filled with choices that would cause uncertainty for anyone. Gene's self-effacing narrative describes how uncertain life can be when faced with tough choices.

These were very tough choices: Move from small-town USA to Metropolitan sprawl? Withdraw from something as precious as the priesthood? Steal some fresh-baked pies and risk the wrath of nuns?

Somehow it is comforting to know that life can have an "undo" button. Gene illustrates that you can make a wrong choice and still recover. The message: You should always trust your instincts, and you can go home again.

This is a wonderful, if brief, story of someone who bares his life and soul, so that others can see the common thread - - be true to yourself.

Mr. Logsdon goes a wonderful job of describing how it feels to "go home again" and why so many of us yearn for what we think is impossible. His stories and accounts of life at home are told in a warm and personal way; a way that touched and stirred my soul.

This book is about the idea that we can go back to a slow, sane and thoughtful way of life. The story is autobiographical and describes the life of the author in a rural area of north western Ohio. He leaves home to train for the priesthood but decides that he isn't cut out for it. He goes home for a while, goes to college, gets married, moves to Philly to write for Farm Journal, sells a book and moves onto a small farm near his folks' old place. He's been there ever since.

The book is peppered with stories about life of small town people and farmers. He also writes about how economic interests in this country have made some ways of life very touch and go. It was very familiar to me because that is where I grew up. Logsdon writes about the 1978 blizzard, an event of note that is still spoken of around there. The great strength of this book can be brought out in this particular story. Mr. Logsdon recounts how he, his family and his neighbors made it through a storm that had shut the electricity for several days and the temperature plunged down well below zero. The people that were the best off were his elderly neighbors that heated with wood and made their food on a cook stove. Much of what is in this book is about having an independent spirit and thinking for your self about what makes sense and not what the supposed experts say. Going home is portrayed both literally and metaphorically. Our real home is the simple and wise way of life that considers how we can live in this world with destroying it. Home is where you can make it.

My one complaint of this book is that there are some issues with living in rural areas that the author doesn't write about. Like all places there are social issues. A person that wants to move into a rural area and has no experience in these sorts of places should spend a little time vacationing in their perspective home and talking to the people there.

I grew up and my parents still live in Forest, Ohio that is mentioned in this book. An earlier reveiwer mentioned about rural land being expensive. That's true if you are buying rural land in California, Vermont or Washington. In Northwestern, Ohio you can get farm land for $5000 an acre or less depending on the ground itself. An average house in the towns that are written about in this book go for less than $100,000.

I just finished the book.

Reading the other reviews, one gets the feeling that they were reading different books. It reminds me of the Indian folktale of the four blind men and the elephant. Actually, I like the Persian version better: where three men encounter the elephant on a very dark night. The fourth man brings a candle. Ultimately, the Persian story is a story of redemption and salvation. And so is You Can Go Home.

This book is likely to cause discomfort to those have a very high need for order. Sometimes we (the Hecksel's) have guests on short notice. When that happens, we make the house suitable for company by taking all the clutter-of-life and pitching it into one of the bedrooms...the one with the lock, of course. Gene's book is a personal guided tour of that room. Great fun for those who love stories and antiques. Pain for those who crave a completely deterministic approach to life.

Gene is gutsy because he talks about religion. Gene is doubly gutsy for talking about money. Americans are funny people. We will tell total strangers of our sexual conquests before ordering our second drink, but not tell our CPA the true extent of our wealth & earnings. Go figure.

We are rich in proportion to what we do not need.

Somewhat an autobiography, this book tells less of the tale of the author himself, and more of the happenings of the places he lived in. While it has some information, this is definitely not a how-to book.

Logsdon takes us to the later years of his childhood, where he is preparing for the priesthood. While he loves to write, farming calls out to him. However, he is slated to be one of the better scholars of the church and is pushed in that direction. That all changes when he has a chance to work on a farm in the service and discovers just what is missing from his life.

The next part details the early years of his marriage and his time spent writing for a farm magazine. While he enjoys the writing, the subjects do not always please him and he finds himself leaning to the smaller publications that cover Organic Farming and sustainable ways to use the land. He also discovers that he enjoys writing books as well.

With the success of some of his books he is able to return "home" and buy some land for a farm. The latter half of the book is located on or near this farm and he outlines greatly the life over the last century in the small towns around the area. He remembers fondly the good times and laments that the towns are slowly dieing now, being replaced by bigger cities.

Logson's writing is wonderful. It has a sense of humor and is greatly descriptive. While he tends to go on quite a bit on certain subjects its like listening to someone tell a story. You may have heard it a thousand times and groan outwardly, but inside you're always excited for the telling. The only part of the book I couldn't really get into was the softball chapter. While its great the community would come together for it, I just tired of reading it after it went on several pages.

You Can Go Home Again
Copyright 1998
204 pages

I'll be brutally honest. I read some Farm Journal stuff when I was a kid, but I just could never quite warm up to this book, and it wasn't because of "The Blizzard" chapter either. There was plenty of stuff here that I could relate to, and even more that I should have been able to, but, finally, I just kinda skimmed the last few chapters and put it back on the shelf. Sorry, Gene. There are simply too many other good memoirs out there that I can't wait to read, and several are already in my teetering to-read pile. What first attracted me to YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN was the pr copy that mentioned Logsdon had spent several years in the seminary, an experience I thought I'd relate to, since I did some time in one of those institutions myself. But even that part didn't really grab me - a bad sign from the get-go. And then when he got deeper and deeper into the back-to-the-land, grow-your-own-food kinda stuff, my interest really started to wane. Don't get me wrong, there have been a couple of farm memoirs I've really loved (I was a "pseudo" farm kid myself, growing up next door to my Grandpa's small farm). Ron Jager's EIGHTY ACRES is an all-time favorite of mine, as is the late Curtis Stadtfeld's FROM THE LAND AND BACK. Both books are set on farms less than an hour from my own hometown (Reed City): near McBain and Remus (all three towns in west Michigan). Another beautifully written Michigan farm memoir is Anne-Marie Oomen's PULLING DOWN THE BARN. Perhaps my biggest beef with Logsdon's book is (and this is my opinion only) there's a little too much about the farming and not enough about the people involved. Lemme close this way. Perhaps if the national economy really goes to hell this year and I have to get out in the back yard and plant my own vegetables just to survive, I'll take this book down and give it another try. In the meantime, all the best to you, Gene Logsdon. I tip my hat to your self-sufficient lifestyle. - Tim Bazzett, author of REED CITY BOY

Mr. Logsdon's book, although, "nice" and romantic as a read is flawed in it's premise that somehow, despite sky rocketing real estate costs for rural land, etc. that we can somehow go back to the land and earn a living. It seems that Mr. Logsdon's need to write to support himself and his wife belies the very notion he argues. Having tried, myself, to find land at a reasonable cost, having been launched a number of years ago by this author and others of the same bent, I found nothing but frustration and disappointment.

Mr. Logsdon would leave one to believe that all large scale farmers are without brains and that they choose to ignore the profits of small scale farming. Instead, I believe that Mr. Logsdon has closed his eyes to the hard realities that land values require large scale farming and that he fails to prove, other than in a romantic yearning only, that we can truly "Go Home Again". Truly, I wish it were so...unfortunately, unless you are Amish you cannot afford to.

The book leaves one with a warm feeling despite its flawed premise. The book could be shortened with less diabtribe about old villages or softball teams.

I bought the book still holding onto a waning desire to find "the way" to go home again myself only to realize that his book, likely unwittingly, provides many of the reasons why we can't go home again despite the desire to do so...and that is sad and unfortunate.