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From Publishers Weekly
Poet, novelist and critic Berry ( Remembering ) identifies himself as "a farmer of sorts and an artist of sorts," thereby indicating the scope of these 22 prodding, opinionated pieces. He touches on literary subjects as well as agrarianism, environmentalism and other political issues, his splendid writing infusing each topic with his sense of its urgency. Wallace Stegner is esteemed as a regionalist who protects the integrity of his literary terrain, unlike the many who write "exploitively, condescendingly, and contemptuously" of their milieus; and Edward Abbey is praised because he "does not simply submit to our criticism, as does any author who publishes; he virtually demands it." Shifting from art to farming in "Economy and Pleasure," Berry notes that, "More and more, we take for granted that work must be destitute of pleasure." In "Waste," he calls our attitude toward garbage the "symbiosis of an unlimited greed at the top and a lazy . . . consumptiveness at the bottom." And in the title essay, he wryly observes that agricultural economists say there are too many farmers--but not too many agricultural economists.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Even Berry's polemics reveal an underlying grace--and a most graceful prose--as he tries to heal the split between us and our work, our localities, and our communities. A poet and a farmer, Berry is a seasoned voice for the Whole Earth Vision--for a retrieval of household economies from a monstrous national economy. Yet while he has been pressing for a revived rural culture for many years, this ideal has been moving ever further out of reach. His grounding in literature eases a large burden of frustration. This book could go into almost any library, particularly those lacking Ber ry's earlier essays.
- Donald Ray, Mercy Coll. Lib., Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Donald Ray, Mercy Coll. Lib., Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
I have a steep wooded hillside that I wanted to be able to pasture occasionally, but it had no permanent water supply. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I have a steep wooded hillside that I wanted to be able to pasture occasionally, but it had no permanent water supply. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gentle voice for common sense,
By
This review is from: What Are People For? Essays (Paperback)
Berry hits another homerun in this collection. This Jeffersonian throwback offers us a vision of life far removed from the shopping mall mania that is stripping much of our countryside of its natural beauty. Berry, instead, suggests that a return to basics is the best way to ensure our independence, freedom and quality of life. Berry argues, as did T.S. Eliot, that a wrong attitude toward nature suggests a wrong attitude toward God. He introduces us to men whose greatness lies in being themselves -- a black farmer named Nate Shaw, a Kentucky environmentalist named Harry Caudill, and writer Edward Abby. He explores Huck Finn and A River Runs Through It, he suggests that an education that does not prepare us to take care of ourselves cannot be complete and argues that our educational system prepares us mainly to function as cogs in an industrial society. In short, Berry sustains his claim, made in most of his books, that we need to slow down our lives, rebuild human connections, value the land around us for its intrinsic worth, and cultivate our souls by cultivating our garden, if you will. As a previous reviewer points out, Berry does not fit easily into any political movement of today -- that is because there is no Jeffersonian movement to speak of, the democrats having abandoned local empowerment, the conservatives, too many of them, having embraced corporate power. Berry's is a voice that needs to be heard.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should Be Read By All,
By Gordon Couch (Danville, KY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: What Are People For? Essays (Paperback)
This book sits on my coffee table in the living room. I draw from Mr. Berry's philosophy and writings almost daily. This book should be required reading in colleges and universities. It speaks of the sensibilities most of us have forgotten. I have loaned my copy to many friends, all have read it, it has changed the way they approach their lives and how they look at how we all live.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Berry at his best and most contrary,
By
This review is from: What Are People For? Essays (Paperback)
Wendell Berry is a farmer, poet, novelist and literary critic. It is as an essayist of enormous acuity, however, that he has become best known. What Are People For? is an important collection of essays (and two 'poem essays') written between 1975 and 1989. The pieces here range from the literary and reflective - meditations on the work of writers such as Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner, to the empassioned and urgent. 'Why I am not going to buy a computer' is as cogent a rallying call for the neo-luddite movement as could be imagined! Berry is an advocate of the local, the real, the humane, that which is connected to the earth and which knows and loves its place. Essays such as 'Writer and Region', 'The Work of Local Culture' and 'Nature as Measure' display a deep-felt commitment eloquently argued. While Berry writes of the politics of farming, Hemmingway, Twain and Blake are never far away. Berry's aim is to recall his readers to the wasteland corporate, industrialised America is becoming and to offer an alternative vision, one of considerable hope. Too critical to be co-opted into the ranks of the acceptable voices, too contrary and complex to be labelled simply an 'environmentalist', Berry's writing is essential.
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