Helpful Score: 3
This book was required reading for me in a graduate class, and I was surprised to find that I loved it.
Set in the ending months of WWII, this book is almost as much about a place - Port William - as it is about the characters. It is written beautifully and should be enjoyed, read slowly, to pick up all the details throughout. The ties between family and friends are so realistic, it is like living in your own small town. I really enjoyed the gentle humor at times and the strong sense of "place" that came when reading. Not action-packed and not quick to read, this is wonderful writing about a wonderful community, almost poetry.
Set in the ending months of WWII, this book is almost as much about a place - Port William - as it is about the characters. It is written beautifully and should be enjoyed, read slowly, to pick up all the details throughout. The ties between family and friends are so realistic, it is like living in your own small town. I really enjoyed the gentle humor at times and the strong sense of "place" that came when reading. Not action-packed and not quick to read, this is wonderful writing about a wonderful community, almost poetry.
The New York Times book review calls "A Place On Earth" 'a masterpiece'. Wendell Berry's genius, in writing this book (and in his willingness to go back and significantly edit the first edition in order to achieve this revised edition), is seen in his love for, and intimate knowledge of the land about which he writes with the passion of a lover and of the people whose live are intimately bound to it. His keen insight into human nature takes the reader deep into the heart and soul of his characters; he stirs the reader's emotions as we gaze, voyeur- like, into the lives, the triumphs, the tragedies and the follies of the people of Port William. This truly is a book to savor.
For me, personally, it takes its place as part of a trilogy of favorites alongside Bruce Chatwin's "On The Black Hill" and Harry Middleton's "The Earth Is Enough".
For me, personally, it takes its place as part of a trilogy of favorites alongside Bruce Chatwin's "On The Black Hill" and Harry Middleton's "The Earth Is Enough".
You can tell Wendell Berry loves this place called Port William. He knows the people of Port William intimately, and he writes their stories beautifully.
