morgancrutchfield

Never having read Wendell Berry before, I selected Jayber Crow after finding it on an admired author's all-time-favorites list. Now that I'm finished reading it, I am aware that Berry has written about many of the same characters in the imagined community of Port William in other volumes. To be honest, I'm glad I didn't know that when I started, or I may have felt I needed to read other books first and--if they're as slow as this one--I never have gotten around to Jayber Crow. Jayber Crow is a beautiful work, perfect to read before nodding off to sleep (which you might do even in broad daylight). I thought about recommending it to a neighbor who is terminally ill for two reasons: one--because Jayber's subtle musings about life and death give the reader much to muse about (and his conclusions in the last ten pages are uplifting and consoling), and two--because reading it makes the reader feel as though she's prolonging her own life. The sad, wistful portrait of rural America disappearing within a man's lifetime rings true, and the telling is sweet and poetic. But . . . I don't plan on reading any more Berry.

2023-01-04 06:03