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Hannah Coulter Paperback – September 30, 2005

by Wendell Berry (Author)

179 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."

Hannah Coulter

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Susan Denaker brings twice-widowed farm wife Hannah to life with soft-spoken but resolute dignity. As the 20th century closes and a new millennium begins, the elderly—yet fiercely self-sufficient—Hannah reflects on her past, especially the crucial threads of family, community and the soil. Denaker does an especially effective job of portraying the other figures in the Port William Membership in a manner that fits the approach of the first-person narrative. She adjusts the octave and tone of the male and female characters of varying ages just enough to set them apart from each another, but listeners can be certain that Hannah maintains full control of her own storytelling. The experience evokes a sublime visit to a beloved grandmother figure with memories and wisdom to impart. A Shoemaker & Hoard paperback (Reviews, Oct. 4, 2004). (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD 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 Hardcover 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: 179 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1730 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

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Top customer reviews

A Story of a Farming Community - Becomes More Dramatic in the Last Quarter

ByDonna Hillon August 7, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I was three quarters of the way through this book before it started to become really meaningful to me. I cried towards the end. I can never give a book less than four stars if it makes me laugh or cry. But most of the book was a bit too dry for me and not detailed enough. I thought that I'd become immersed in the farm life, that I would learn about what a day in the life of Hannah Coulter was like. But other than a paragraph that listed the various chores Hannah performed, her life on the farm didn't really come to life. I felt emotionally distant from all the characters for much of the book, and then in the last quarter I felt myself become attached to the characters. Before that last quarter there was so little conflict in the story. World War II seemed to be the worst thing that happened, and then it was as though Port William was sort of a Utopian existence. There was a sense of community. I can't remember any conflicts until the last quarter and then the grown children and grandchildren stir things up a bit. Also, we get to hear more about Hannah's and Nathan's marriage which was so typical of so many marriages, mine included. The fights that blow over. The fact that husband and wife recognize that they're angry but can hardly remember what they're fighting about. If I were a reader who was prone to underlining and highlighting I would have done this in the last quarter of the book. Berry really seems to understand the complexities of marriage as well as the difficulties of having grown children and grandchildren who become distant from you both geographically and emotionally. If there would have been a bit more depth shown in their community life--if we could have become aware of challenges they had in the group dynamic, then I think this would have been a more complete story. For three quarters of the book I wasn't feeling an emotional connection. I was just saying to myself--these are nice people--they seem to get along well. But where's the drama here? Is there anything that is going to touch me deeply? And I'm thankful that eventually the story did resonate with me. Took a while, though.

0Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

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

Most recent customer reviews

Five Stars

Most beautiful book

Published 2 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 4 months ago by Dmoblack29

Tender, meaningful memoir!

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

Published 6 months ago by AnnG

Beautifully written

Who else could have written this story with such beauty?

Published 6 months ago by Mr. D.

Four Stars

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

Published 6 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 6 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 7 months ago by Lisa Castle

Wonderful!

Lovely and touching. Mr. Berry never disappoints.

Published 7 months ago by Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Beautiful book!

Published 8 months ago by M. Lasher

Three Stars

Nicely sedating.

Published 8 months ago by FredI

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