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Hannah Coulter Paperback – September 30, 2005

by Wendell Berry (Author)

181 customer reviews

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"Ignorant boys, killing each other," is just about all Nathan Coulter would tell his wife, friends, and family about the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945. Life carried on for the community of Port William, Kentucky, as some boys returned from the war and the lives of others were mourned. In her seventies, Nathan's wife, Hannah, has time now to tell of the years since the war. In Wendell Berry's unforgettable prose, we learn of the Coulter's children, of the Feltners and Branches, and how survivors "live right on."

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. "This is the story of my life, that while I lived it weighed upon me and pressed against me and filled all my senses to overflowing and now is like a dream dreamed.... This is my story, my giving of thanks." So begin the reflections of Hannah Coulter, the twice-widowed protagonist of this slim, incandescent novel in Berry's Port William series. In 1940, the precocious, innocent Hannah leaves her small Kentucky farming town to work as a secretary in nearby Hargrave, where she meets Virgil Feltner, seven years her senior, who gently courts her. They marry and have a daughter, but Virgil, "called to the army in 1942," dies in the Battle of the Bulge. Love follows mourning, as a kind but driven farmer, Nathan Coulter, returns from combat and woos Hannah. In delicate, shimmering prose, Berry tracks Hannah's loves and losses through the novel's first half; the narrative sharpens as Hannah recounts her children's lives—Margaret becomes a schoolteacher with a troubled son; Mattie ("a little too eager to climb Fool's Hill") flees rural life to become a globe-trotting communication executive; Caleb, Nathan's hope to run the family farm, becomes a professor of agriculture instead. Beneath the story of ordinary lives lies the work of an extraordinarily wise novelist: as Hannah relates her children's fate to her own deeply rooted rural background, she weaves landscape and family and history together ("My mind... is close to being the room of love where the absent are present, the dead are alive, time is eternal and all creatures prosperous"). Her compassion enlivens every page of this small, graceful novel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audible Audio Edition edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* For the first 40 pages or so, Berry's latest novel about the Kentucky farming community called, by its inhabitants as well as the author, the Port William membership, seems more of same. A good same, for few write American English more limpidly than Berry, and he has realized his characters as thoroughly as Faulkner did any of the people of Yoknapatawpha County. But as this telling of a farm woman's life in her voice continues--and voice it seems more than writing, so spontaneously speechlike are its cadences and the simple accuracy of its diction--it feels ever more poetic. Not gnomic and surrealist, like prose poetry, but flowing and long breathed, like epic poetry. Of course, the story it tells is epical, that of a heroine who expresses, in her living and doing, the essence of her people. Its character is domestic rather than martial; though, since its time span includes World War II, its trials include the MIA disappearance of Hannah's first husband and the ghastly combat experience of her second, Nathan Coulter, which Hannah learns of with any precision only after his death a half-century later. If its domesticity is more often happy and fulfilling, though, the cultural movement--the short, precipitate, ill-informed, poorly considered demise of the American family farm--over which Hannah's beautiful and heartbreaking story arches is as tragic as any war. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Audible Audio Edition edition.

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Product details

Paperback: 190 pages
Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard (September 30, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1593760787
ISBN-13: 978-1593760786
Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 6 x 8.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 181 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4270 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

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Top customer reviews

Fictional memoir

ByM. F. Crowlon August 14, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I enjoyed great chunks of this book though occasionally felt it went around in circles a little. The writing is deceptively simple, and profound. The sense of people and place is strong. It's barely a novel, much more a fictional memoir. Nevertheless it moves the reader considerably, and is able to present a great breadth of time within its relatively few pages.
At times you crave a bit more dialogue (because when the dialogue does come it's superb) and sometimes a little more action of some sort (any sort) wouldn't have gone amiss. But the warmth of relationships, the detail of character and the wonderful feeling for what humanity is are all worth patiently reading through.
I could have done without the details of Nathan's probable experience of the war; it comes very late in the book (even though we've been forewarned of it from the beginning), and seems to jar against the book's poise. It doesn't contribute greatly to the story, except I suppose to show that this man had such integrity he was able to hold all this inside him and not poison others with it.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

An elegy for the simple, natural life we once led

ByStyle Hawkon September 3, 2016

Format: Audio CDVerified Purchase

Hannah Coulter, a high-school graduate coming from a rural mid-western background, has a remarkable gift for complex philosophical thinking and analysis of unwelcome modern trends. Like all Wendell Berry's writing, this book, too, beautifully displays his melodic, evocative prose. His characters are fully rounded and developed. I wish I knew my friends and neighbors as well. "Hannah Coulter" provides an elegy for the simpler life we once led in the mid-twentieth century, for the respect for nature and true love for the land. Berry illustrates the harshness and damage done by our increasingly corporate life, its nefarious effects upon farming in this country, upon small villages and upon the individuals who live there. Hannah's children, though raised on the farm, all leave and become almost unintelligible to her. The boy who truly loved the simple farming life ends up in agribusiness. The book ends on a happier note: the grandson who had wandered off into drug culture and the "wild life" returns home at last to run the farm in the old-fashioned way.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Hannah Coulter, a fictional autobiography

ByAmazon Customeron September 14, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Hannah Coulter is a beautifully written novel steeped in nostalgia for small, communal, family-owned farm life. Berry's ability to portray the beauty of the land as well as the characters of the individuals who work on it and are part of it reflects his respect for both the characters and the land.
If one reads "Hannah Coulter" simply for the language, which at times, is lyrical, it would be a pleasurable endeavor, but it is his ability to portray Hannah, the eponymous woman, as a young uncertain girl, an impassioned newlywed, a middle-aged mother, and a twice widowed 80-year old grandmother looking back on her life, reflecting on the losses, while remaining grateful and caring that makes this novel both endearing and enduring. Hannah is a woman you'll not soon forget, nor will you want to. Berry's social commentary, however, is not subtle, as he bemoans the loss of family life, the destruction of the environment, and the psychological and cultural effects of war.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A Poignant Novel of Life in Rural America

ByDatamanon December 26, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

“Hannah Coulter” is Wendell Berry's seventh in a series of novels about the fictional town of Port William, Kentucky. I had not heard of Berry before reading this book. It is my loss that I have not read him before now. Hannah is an old woman and twice-widowed mother of three. In the novel, she reflects on her childhood, her loves, her children, and her beloved Kentucky farm life. Despite her losses, she is a woman whose character has deepened as the years go by. Her journey leads us to a new understanding of her family, neighbors and the friends who have stood by her.

This is not your typical novel. There is not much of a plot and no “action” to speak of. Instead, this is a poignant account that walks the line between memoir and nostalgia. It’s the telling of a tale of a life well-lived. Through Hannah’s eyes, we catch a glimpse of rural life as it was often lived back then. Most of all, this is a love story—not a romance novel so common today—but a real, true, lasting love story told with authenticity and honesty. Like Hannah’s life, it is a story told slowly and purposely.

This novel was of particular interest to me because Hannah was born at the same time as my parents. Her story could easily have been my mother’s story, or the story of so many others from their generation. My mother grew up in rural Nebraska, the daughter of a man who earned his living from the land. It is a reminder of the importance of learning and passing on the stories of those who have come before us. As I read the book, I found myself thinking often of my family’s story. These stories are worth remembering and telling. “Hannah Coulter” reached something in me that just can’t described or named.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Very calming book with little or no violence. Pleasant ...

ByLisa Won September 12, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Very calming book with little or no violence. Pleasant, but left me wanting more depth when it came to some of the subjects/characters. Rather milquetoast for my taste and would have prefered something with a bit more grit.

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Great read!

ByIRENE COMPTONon September 7, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Covers so many events of 20th century. The story is fascinating and truly enjoyable. Hannah ' s story rings true and captures the reality of love and long married life, so rare these days. Not overly syrupy or romantic, the story is told in a very straight forward manner. Perfect balance of character development and setting. Anyone with a longing for a portrait of true love and devotion will find the answers in this story.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most recent customer reviews

Love it

Good

Published 17 days ago by Barbara Nickerson

Five Stars

Most beautiful book

Published 3 months ago by Ginamarie Lynch

this is a fantastic read. I really enjoyed the story and the ...

If you are interested in the simple but hard life for farmers, this is a fantastic read. I really enjoyed the story and the characters became like cherished friends.

Published 5 months ago by Dmoblack29

Tender, meaningful memoir!

Tender memoir of finding love not only once, but twice.

Published 7 months ago by AnnG

Beautifully written

Who else could have written this story with such beauty?

Published 7 months ago by Mr. D.

Four Stars

Loved the setting and the story. Found it somewhat slow however.

Published 7 months ago by Alda M. Riles

Exquisitely told story.

A very beautiful, poignant look back at an ordinary life, full of joys and sorrows, much like anyone's, but raised to the level of high art.

Published 7 months ago by Margot

and give insights to what it was like for these two different people

This novel is real, it is the story of life and death, and one that many can relate to and understand what the main character, Hannah Coulter goes through.Read more

Published 8 months ago by Lisa Castle

Wonderful!

Lovely and touching. Mr. Berry never disappoints.

Published 8 months ago by Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Beautiful book!

Published 9 months ago by M. Lasher

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