I’m sure the rest of his books are great and all, but I’ve only read his fiction.
Our society is becoming more and more intertwined with technology. AI is making huge gains, and every business seems to think it HAS to include AI in its business model. So, what is a nice antidote to this?
Why, reading of course!
At the time of this writing, I have read Hannah Coulter and Jayber Crow. Both take place in a small fictional town in Kentucky called Port William. Both have overlapping character lists. Both are written in the first person. I cannot recommend them highly enough.
So, what is it about Mr. Berry that will benefit your life?
First, the concept of membership. Who are your people? What makes them your people? What does it look like to love a place and its people? I have learned to look differently at the people I see regularly since reading about Berry’s idea of membership. I want to serve them better and enjoy them more.
Next, he’s writing about a simpler time. A time before screens were everywhere. A time where people were more content with what they had, who they spent time with, and how they spent that time. Reading about the folks in Port William has made me want to put down my phone even more than I already did. I would have no phone if I thought I could swing it.
Lastly, before a sample, Berry keeps the important things important. His values are spot on and it really comes through in the characters he writes. He doesn’t shove death to the side like we do in modern culture. He honors the parts of their lives that were admirable, while not letting them off the hook for their faults. Hard work, determination, and joy all play a huge role in the goings on in Port William. Shouldn’t they also play a role in our lives as well?
This is from Jayber Crow. A few background notes, since I can’t quote as much of a copyrighted work. Mat had a son Virgil who died in WWII. Jayber is the barber in town, writing an account of a time Mat came into his shop.
Mat said, “The mercy of the world is you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
And then after a pause, speaking on in the same dry, level voice as before, he told me why he had been up walking about so late. He had had a dream. In the dream he had seen Virgil as he had been when he was about five years old: a pretty little boy who hadn’t yet thought of anything he would rather do than follow Mat around at work. He looked as real, as much himself, as if the dream were not a dream. But in the dream Mat knew everything that was to come.
He told me this in a voice as steady and even as if it were only another day’s news, and then he said, “All I could do was hug him and cry.”
This was just a taste. There’s so much more, I promise.
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