Wendell Berry’s Port William novels depict a Kentucky farming community over the course of the 20th century. A Place on Earth was a relatively late entrant to the series, but is set during World War II and features both characters and plot elements from other novels. This is not in the least bit repetitive; instead it adds depth and new perspective. The most notable of these is the story of a young man serving overseas. An earlier novel is written from his wife’s point of view; this time, we see how his parents cope with his absence. This book also celebrates farm work in a less mechanized era, and the strength of a community that is truly there for one another.

The Port William novels are quiet, contemplative, and often moving. I’ve now finished the series, and will need to explore Berry’s short story collections to stay connected with Port William. ( )

There are few authors who can capture the feeling of a place and the nature of a people as well as Wendell Berry. His fictional place of Port William is achingly real and his recurring use of familiar characters to tell a new story makes you feel as if you are part of that community and have sat in Jayber’s barber shop or traded at Burgess’ store.

This is one of Berry’s sadder novels. It is an exploration of loss, in all its forms, through death and estrangement and longing. Every emotion that can be associated with love and loss is here, spread before us like a banquet, and there is a seat at the table for every man because this is the food of life and each of us must taste of it. The wisdom of Berry is a soft, human, heartfelt thing, however, never pedantic or condescending.

Seeing that the old man is saddened by what he said, Wheeler says kindly; “Nothing anybody can do, Uncle Jack.” But surely Wheeler knows better than to think that is any consolation. It is just the truth. And a man who is depending on the truth to console him is sometimes in a hell of a fix. To Old Jack, the sorrowful thing exactly is that there is nothing anybody can do.

He understands that the loss of any person you love is so personal that, for you, it is the only death that has ever occurred.

And there he sat in your granddaddy's chair, with his consolations and his old speech. Just putting our names in the blanks. And I thought; Preacher, he’s dead, he’s not here, and you’ll never know what it is that’s gone. The last words ought to say what it is that has died. The last words for Tom ain’t in the letter from the government, and they won’t be said by the preacher. They’ll be said by you and me and the rest of us when we talk about our old times and laugh about the good happenings. They won’t be said as long as we live.

But all is not sadness, for just as life can make us laugh through our tears, so Berry does as well. There are a couple of scenes in this novel that made me howl, and a thread of humor that runs through it beginning to end. When reading Berry, I seem to want to step inside the covers of the book and comfort, kiss or reassure these people, or at the least just crawl up on the porch and sit with Andy and Henry and listen to their stories and laugh at their antics.

Wendell Berry is a poet and a prophet and a farmer who understands this earth in a way that most of us cannot. He obviously knows the hard work, but also the satisfaction, that comes with a life of purpose that is tied to all of God’s creation. Coming from a family that once farmed, I can remember how much my grandfather knew and understood of nature and the cycle of life that is lost to me now and is beyond even the imaginings of my grandchildren.

If you have not ever read Wendell Berry, you cannot imagine what you have missed.


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Overall, Wendell Berry's fiction I've read centers around or is related to the community of a fictive small Kentucky town named Port William.

Set near the end of WW II this book is threaded around a farmer's struggles in dealing with the news that his son has been listed as missing in action. True to Berry's community approach, Port William serves as the central protagonist involving humorous, sweet, and sad tales of numerous other residents.

This book to me is an immersion course to Berry's fiction with multiple story lines of loss and redemption weaved together. Getting the most from this book requires concentrated reading, and can elicit a rollercoaster of emotions.

The extensively edited 1983 version of this book is the better to my mind. ( )

Berry is known for portraying the essence of a rural life, and this book reflects that. It moves slowly. A farmer will pause in the doorway after completing chores and look over the ridge tops, apreciating the sunset and the world's beauty.
Basically follows a few older men in a small Kentucky area as they cope with sons missing or killed in WWII and a disastrous flood.
Several of the men make observations on how the land is cared for, lauding those who keep it fertile and critical of those whose land develops gulleys. An elderly man makes a garden in his backyard as he doesn't know how to stop working, holds a handful of the rich black earth, admiring how well it crumbles.
A black grandma demonstrates sustainable wildcrafting in her zig-zag rambling:
" Why do you skip so much?" Andy asks her. "Why don't we go down there?"
"That ain't how you ramble," she says. "You got to be getting and going both at once. You ain't supposed to get everything, but just only enough. Take some and leave some."
While a male friend greatly admires Wendell Berry, I find that his portrayal of women is lacking any depth. Except for one harpy (not a local resident), all of the women are patient, accepting, and entirely focused on their husband. They might as well be cows.
1983 version reviewed. ( )

This is my third book by the author on his town of Port William. Let me be clear: if I could leave today to go live in his fictional town, I would go without hesitation. While it is fictional, it is not a fantasy. On the other hand, maybe it is. It is certainly not fantasy-like. There are no Hobbits about. There are not even any deeply quirky people like in the Northern Exposures TV show. These are very typically flawed "realistic" humans of various degrees. And yet, the world that the author creates is one of a level of tolerance and acceptance that just doesn't exist in the real world, and likely never will exist. And yet we, as human beings are so very close at times, without making any real effort to be so. (Sorry, I was about to go off on organized religions. Forgive me.) In this particular Port William chronicle, the author offers some of the most compellingly sad, touching, humorous fiction I've ever read. One particular sub-chapter is so intricately and enthusiastically humorous as to make Samuel Clemens, himself envious. Nevertheless, the author much too often goes off on highly esoteric ramblings off in the atmosphere that, to my mind, distract rather than enhance the rest of the narrative. More to the point, the author ends the book that way, letting all the other literary glory disperse. Apparently the author himself had some misgivings about this book. He originally had it published in 1967 (only his second of several Port Williams books) and then significantly revised it in the 1983 edition I am reviewing. Both of the books I liked much more than this one were written years later. ( )