- Paperback: 155 pages
- Publisher: David R. Godine; Reissue edition (Sep 7 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 087923282X
- ISBN-13: 978-0879232825
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #226,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The author reflects on his childhood days in New England, where he spent summers on his grandparents' farm.
Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
This is a collection of stories diverse in subject, but sutured together by the limitless affection the author holds for the land and the people of New England. Donald Hall tells about life on a small farm where, as a boy, he spent summers with his grandparents. Gradually the boy grows to be a young man, sees his grandparents aging, the farm become marginal, and finally, the cows sold and the barn abandoned. But these are more than nostalgic memories, for in the measured and tender prose of each episode are signs of the end of things - a childhood, perhaps a culture. In an Epilogue written for this edition, Donald Hall describes his return to the farm twenty-five years later, to live the rest of his life in the house of string. We take pleasure in bringing back into print this classic account of boyhood summers in old New England, with the addition of an Epilogue and an album of family snapshots.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer
This review is from: String Too Short To Be Saved (Paperback)
A very poetic and wise account of a fading world that the author was lucky enough to be a part of. Quite moving in places, funny in others. A very satisfying book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Celebration of life - present and personal history,
By
This review is from: String Too Short To Be Saved (Paperback)
Donald Hall is a writer beautifully tangent to and cognizant of the New England spine we all wish to immulate in our thoughts of the 'old American spirit', a spirit too seemingly on the wane at present -even on 4th of July celebrations this year. His most recent collection of short stories , WILLOW TEMPLE , was my introduction to this Whitmanesque, Robert Frost-like wonder boy of observation. In returning to his early work in the Nonpariel Books reissue of STRING TOO SHORT TO BE SAVED one wonders why he has remained in the background, and hasn't found the wide audience he deserves."STRING..." is a series of short stories of Hall's recollections of spending his summers with his beloved grandparents in New Hampshire. All phases of farming and maturing from a small child to a young adult are addressed in a wholly readable, poetic, illuminating fashion. Hall knows how to describe nature as well as anyone writing today. He also revives an appreciation for his roots that we could all study as journeys toward finding ourselves. "To be without history is to be forgotten" he writes."My grandfather did not know the maiden names of either of his grandmothers. I thought that to be forgotten must be the worst fate of all." Hall invites us to accompany him on his memories of haying, picking blueberries, visiting the odd group of people who have become indelible American daguerreotypes for him. "The farm was a form: not a set of rules on the wall, but like the symmetry of winter and summer, or like the balance of day and night over the year, June against December. My grandfather lived by the form all his life, and my summers on the farm were my glimpse of it." Simple gifts, these. And the simplicity of Donald Hall's writing is what makes it so readable and so memorable. The book stands solidly on its own as a definitive New England memoir. In this new reissue there is an added Epilog which traces Hall's return to his Hew Hapshire memories and farm after many life changes. This Epilogue is worth the price of the book. If only this edition weren't tainted by the crudely inappropriate pen and ink pictures imposed on the pages of each new chapter. But that is the only unnecessary clutter in this otherwise tender book.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Celebration of life - present and personal history,
By Grady Harp - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: String Too Short To Be Saved (Paperback)
Donald Hall is a writer beautifully tangent to and cognizant of the New England spine we all wish to immulate in our thoughts of the 'old American spirit', a spirit too seemingly on the wane at present -even on 4th of July celebrations this year. His most recent collection of short stories , WILLOW TEMPLE , was my introduction to this Whitmanesque, Robert Frost-like wonder boy of observation. In returning to his early work in the Nonpariel Books reissue of STRING TOO SHORT TO BE SAVED one wonders why he has remained in the background, and hasn't found the wide audience he deserves."STRING..." is a series of short stories of Hall's recollections of spending his summers with his beloved grandparents in New Hampshire. All phases of farming and maturing from a small child to a young adult are addressed in a wholly readable, poetic, illuminating fashion. Hall knows how to describe nature as well as anyone writing today. He also revives an appreciation for his roots that we could all study as journeys toward finding ourselves. "To be without history is to be forgotten" he writes."My grandfather did not know the maiden names of either of his grandmothers. I thought that to be forgotten must be the worst fate of all." Hall invites us to accompany him on his memories of haying, picking blueberries, visiting the odd group of people who have become indelible American daguerreotypes for him. "The farm was a form: not a set of rules on the wall, but like the symmetry of winter and summer, or like the balance of day and night over the year, June against December. My grandfather lived by the form all his life, and my summers on the farm were my glimpse of it." Simple gifts, these. And the simplicity of Donald Hall's writing is what makes it so readable and so memorable. The book stands solidly on its own as a definitive New England memoir. In this new reissue there is an added Epilog which traces Hall's return to his Hew Hapshire memories and farm after many life changes. This Epilogue is worth the price of the book. If only this edition weren't tainted by the crudely inappropriate pen and ink pictures imposed on the pages of each new chapter. But that is the only unnecessary clutter in this otherwise tender book. 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hails For Hall,
By Jay Dee - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: String Too Short To Be Saved (Paperback)
If you claim to like poetry or writing where the ink squiggles can actually allow you the experience of feeling the grist and sand of a place between your toes...take out any work by Donald Hall and you'll feel the tide of the New England coast coming in over your feet...Often mislabled with the churl quip, "regional writer", Mr. Hall is much more....a master of making you feel you are where he wants to take you...His characters come with the authenticity of having either been known, met, or viewed by Hall, or conjured from his collective memories and boiled down like a fine cider from actual sips of experience he's had with like individuals in his native New England... ...And what individuals he finds and has found in the ernest incredibly delicious confines and environs of the North East...In "String Too Short", Hall takes on the not inconsiderable task of fleshing out the rich hues of his own New England ancestory..You can smell his grandmother's kitchen, taste the dusty hay from his grandfather's barn, and feel the New Hampshire sun on your face via his entrancing and detailed prose... Mr. Hall? Are you out there? As a one time correspondent known to him as "John-Tom" I hope all is well with the venerable "Don" of Eagle Pond...Mr. Hall has taken himself off the pony express of fans he has deservedly developed over the years...and as one who has come across his work and spent pleasant minutes and hours in fine examples of his work, recommended to other readers here such as " Their Bright And Shining Eyes", " Without", " Here At Eagle Pond", and lately, " The Painted Bed", Mr. Hall has well earned praise and a rest in the bright sun of poetry and masterful observations on life around us he has picked up through his well lived adventures and travel...ALL OF HIS WORK..highly recommended! 8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: String Too Short To Be Saved (Paperback)
A very poetic and wise account of a fading world that the author was lucky enough to be a part of. Quite moving in places, funny in others. A very satisfying book.
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