2024 the best place on earth review

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(as of Nov 30, 2024 20:45:15 UTC - Details)

Published in 1967, we return to Port William during the Second World War to revisit Jayber Crow, the barber, Uncle Stanley, the gravedigger, Jarrat and Burley, the sharecroppers, and Brother Preston, the preacher, as well as Mat Feltner, his wife Margaret, and his daughter-in-law Hannah, whose son will be born after news comes that Hannah’s husband Virgil is missing.

"The earth is the genius of our life,” Wendell Berry writes here. “The final questions and their answers lie serenely coupled in it."

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Counterpoint (May 17, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1582431248
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1582431246
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.035 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.04 x 0.04 x 0.04 inches
Reviewer: Ted Ramirez
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Berry Land: Rich, nuanced, real characters
Review: Berry creates a complete, "Tolkienesque" world, place and time filled with richly developed characters and personalities that capture the reader's soul and hold it fast. Real people with histories, hopes, dreams and fears. Pain and joy live side by side as they do for all of us. A life-changing read that carries one to a place where the soul can live and breathe. Masterful. Unforgettable.

Reviewer: Grama Frog
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: It leaves me longing...
Review: With only a few pages left to go in "A Place on Earth" I closed the book, even though an uncommitted afternoon stretched ahead of me. Port William has become such a unique and vivid place to inhabit that I didn't want my journey there to end.Even before I eventually returned to finish the book later that day, I ordered still another installment in Wendell Berry's series, probably my fifth or sixth one. Berry's cast of characters are imperfect people whose authenticity warmed my heart-and broke it, infuriated me, made me laugh out loud or sense tears welling up, and usually reflected a fair share of myself, the good and the not so.The story revolves around the intertwined lives of inhabitants of the tiny Kentucky town of Port William in the mid-1940s. They weather a natural disaster, endure loss, experience brotherhood, and root themselves in their love and harsh demands of the land they farm. They are bound by sweat and honor. A strong undercurrent of humor exists to balance the pastoral beauty and poignant drama of their existence.I wish I could know these people. But then, maybe I do and just can't see it for all the complex diversions and distractions of our current day. It is too difficult to parse out this book. For me its richness and poetic beauty are more easily felt than described. The next Port William book cannot arrive in the mail soon enough.

Reviewer: Richard P. Anderson
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Beautifully Crafted
Review: This is a beautifully written novel and well worth the read. Each word has purpose and meaning and if you try to read it quickly, it will be like glancing at a spectacular sunset without taking time to enjoy how it changes with each passing moment. My hesitation in giving it five stars are the last 20 pages which left my feeling a little empty.

Reviewer: Walter C. Schumann
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Wendell Berry's "Knack for the Here"
Review: I've just finished my fourth book by Wendell Berry: A Place on Earth. The first three, all of which I loved, were Jayber Crow, That Distant Land, and Hannah Coulter. A Place on Earth is different from the first three in that it is not so much a traditional novel or a collection of short stories as it is a series of vignettes. The vignettes take place in Port William, Berry's fictional Kentucky town near the Kentucky River. The vignettes portray such everyday matters as serious conversations between spouses; silly conversations between friends; an empty country store in a rainstorm; an old man's room in a boarding house; clouds moving across the sky on a windy day; mist rising from the fields at dawn.A Place on Earth is also different in that it is imbued with sadness. The vignettes take place against the backdrop of World War II and the waiting and worrying, the hoping and fearing, that accompany war. In that sense -- the sense of time suspended between a vanished past and an unknowable future -- the vignettes stir echoes of our own sense in a time of pandemic and a time of war. The sadness is particularly poignant because one of the town's sons is missing in action. That aspect reminds me of my Mom's memories of the years when her brother was away fighting in World War II and the family sat at home, silently waiting for "the telegram." (It never came.)The lead character in the book is the town itself. The townspeople refer to themselves as "members" of the town, and refer to their community as "the Port William membership." Although Berry never says so, it occurs to me that the community is in its essence a congregation and the town a church.The townspeople flourish and age and die, generations pass through the town, and the Port William membership wonders a lot about Heaven. Here is how one member describes Heaven:"The difference between people is what has got to be taken notice of. There's the preacher who has what I reckon you would call a knack for the Hereafter. He's not much mixed with this world. As far as he's concerned there's no difference, or not much, between Tom Coulter and Virgil Feltner. Their names fit into the riddle he thinks he knows the answer to. I wouldn't try to say he ain't right. I do say that some people's knack is for the Here. Anyhow, that's the talent I'm stuck with. For us it's important to keep in mind who Tom was. And for Mat and them I judge it's important to know who is meant when they speak of Virgil. We don't forget them after somebody who never knew them has said 'Dead in the service of his country' and 'Rest in peace.' That's not the way these accounts are kept. We don't rest in peace. The life of a good man who has died belongs to the people who cared about him, and ought to, and maybe itself is as much comfort as ought to be asked or offered. And surely the talk of a reunion in Heaven is thin comfort to people who need each other here as much as we do.I ain't saying I don't believe there's a Heaven. I surely do hope there is. That surely would pay off a lot of mortgages. But I do say it ain't easy to believe. And even while I hope for it, I've got to admit I'd rather go to Port William."Wendell Berry's knack is "for the Here." And his writing, which combines stately poetic rhythms with old-timey country talk, is like beautiful music, or the wind blowing through the leaves, or the rain falling on the roof, or water flowing down a creek bed.

Reviewer: Hannah
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great introduction to Wendell’s world
Review: This is an excellent book. I bought it for my father as a present to help introduce him to the Port William world! All of the characters are well developed and you can identify with each at some point in the book. Highly recommend!

Reviewer: Kyle
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Slow Build But Solid
Review: I started reading Wendell Berry with Jayber Crow, and so as I started reading this book, I had some familiarity with the author.In the beginning of the book, the quick shifts and use of present tense were off-putting, but as I settled in to the book I figured out what Berry was trying to accomplish and the story became easier to follow.This book is a solid addition to the Port William series, if you can sink into it a little bit.

Reviewer: Placeholder
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A typically beautiful Berry creation.
Review: As always, poignant, incisive, and vivid. Can't imagine anyone capturing the angst and beauty of normal life better than Wendel Berry.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Savor the simplicity of rural America
Review: Beautiful writing as simple and as complex as the land it is written about. Berry captures the feeling of the land, its people and the culture. I love that the place is the main character. Common people, common times but very insightful about life and the land that sustains it. Not a fast read - requires a slow pace that savors the simplicity of rural America.a few seconds ago ·

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Another poignant masterpiece from the hand and imagination and heart of the great Wendell Berry, continuing his narrative of the membership of Port William. When a man writes in such a way as to create characters so familiar and so endearing as this, the reader is compelled to listen to what the man is saying through them and around them. There is love and light in this book.

Reviewer: E. Holmans
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The man himself explains his simple life in a beautiful style. It will appeal to all folks who want to leave the noise of civilization behind, in a peaceful and thoughtful way.

Reviewer: stuke
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great item, well packaged and swiftly sent. Thank you!!