Jayber Crow

Rating:
Summary: down by the river
Review: "By order of the author" Mr. Berry has decreed that anyone attempting to analyze or deconstruct Jayber Crow will be "banished to a desert island". I will honor the author and Jayber Crow by simply accepting Jayber as he is. He is the proprietor of the Port William "underground barbershop" and the dearest of all the characters in the Port William membership. If you've never read anything by wendell Berry start with Jayber Crow! If you've read everything by Wendell Berry read Jayber Crow! Thankyou, Mr. Berry!

Rating:
Summary: Berry's Prose Reads Like Poetry
Review: A brilliant literary achievement! Berry is a storyteller of the highest order. This book will have you questioning yourself and society long after you have read the last page.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful. I wept
Review: A magnificent exploration of love and peace. It changed the way I look at my family and my life. If only I were half so wise as Jayber Crow...

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful. I wept
Review: A magnificent exploration of love and peace. It changed the way I look at my family and my life. If only I were half so wise as Jayber Crow...

Rating:
Summary: a faith-full pilgrimage
Review: a wonderful story of every-person's pilgrimage - of deliberate and not so deliberate choices along the path. beautiful words and images. a true challenge to walk on, and to consider that walking on may not be walking away in an age of mobility. thank you Mr. Berry.

Rating:
Summary: a faith-full pilgrimage
Review: a wonderful story of every-person's pilgrimage - of deliberate and not so deliberate choices along the path. beautiful words and images. a true challenge to walk on, and to consider that walking on may not be walking away in an age of mobility. thank you Mr. Berry.

Rating:
Summary: Berry at his best
Review: As a long-time fan of Berry's poetry and essays, I decided it was time to turn to his prose. And I shouldn't have been surprised to find that it was a mingling of those two - a beautifully poetic prose tinged with the instructiveness of an essay. Wendell Berry has proven himself a master storyteller and his tales are always compelling.

"Jayber Crow" tells the life story of Jonah Crow, a barber in the Port William Membership, who affectionately becomes known as Jayber. The novel builds slowly, dwelling on Jayber's youth and his misguided attempts to serve God through the ministry. Disillusioned with too many doubts and questions with no answers in sight, Jayber sets off on his own and eventually discovers his talent for cutting hair. He finds himself the barber of Port William for over thirty years, faithfully cutting hair and participating in the lives of those around him.

Initially, Jayber may seem like a lonely man. He is a confirmed bachelor, who lives in his small apartment above the barber shop. Yet he knows the deepest, fullest extent of love and passion, as yet unrequited by Mattie Keith (Chatham). (As he says, "I was married to Mattie Chatham, but she was not married to me...) He watches Mattie as she herself experiences love, marriage, loss and misery, never once able to express his true feelings for her. Even after he retires as barber, Jayber still remains the town's barber, and becomes an owner of property - a small cottage by the river where he can fish and reflect on the glories of nature. By and by, Jayber comes to find the answers to those doubts and questions he had long ago concerning God and he proves himself to be a faithful servant and steward of God's creation.

Wendell Berry creates a wonderful cast of characters whom he evokes with believability and wisdom. The town of Port William Membership becomes a real place on the Kentucky River, that watches as the land around it becomes more technological and industrial. Yet Berry maintains his focus on how this industrial progress can be just as destructive as others might deem it necessary. Berry shows this distinction in the story of the Keith family - the struggle between father and son-in-law - for the future of the family farm.

Berry's telling of Jayber's life is poetic and often elegiac. As he gives up his barber shop, the reader feels like they are saying goodbye to Jayber as well. We have lived with him through the peaks and valleys, and felt the sting of his unrequited love for Mattie. As industrial progress closes in on Port William, we feel the decrepitude and downfall of the small "backwater" town. We grieve for Jayber's losses; but Berry is not one to let the story die without a hopeful conclusion. His final paragraphs, to me, rank among some of the best conclusions in literature.

Rating:
Summary: Berry at his best
Review: As a long-time fan of Berry's poetry and essays, I decided it was time to turn to his prose. And I shouldn't have been surprised to find that it was a mingling of those two - a beautifully poetic prose tinged with the instructiveness of an essay. Wendell Berry has proven himself a master storyteller and his tales are always compelling.

"Jayber Crow" tells the life story of Jonah Crow, a barber in the Port William Membership, who affectionately becomes known as Jayber. The novel builds slowly, dwelling on Jayber's youth and his misguided attempts to serve God through the ministry. Disillusioned with too many doubts and questions with no answers in sight, Jayber sets off on his own and eventually discovers his talent for cutting hair. He finds himself the barber of Port William for over thirty years, faithfully cutting hair and participating in the lives of those around him.

Initially, Jayber may seem like a lonely man. He is a confirmed bachelor, who lives in his small apartment above the barber shop. Yet he knows the deepest, fullest extent of love and passion, as yet unrequited by Mattie Keith (Chatham). (As he says, "I was married to Mattie Chatham, but she was not married to me...) He watches Mattie as she herself experiences love, marriage, loss and misery, never once able to express his true feelings for her. Even after he retires as barber, Jayber still remains the town's barber, and becomes an owner of property - a small cottage by the river where he can fish and reflect on the glories of nature. By and by, Jayber comes to find the answers to those doubts and questions he had long ago concerning God and he proves himself to be a faithful servant and steward of God's creation.

Wendell Berry creates a wonderful cast of characters whom he evokes with believability and wisdom. The town of Port William Membership becomes a real place on the Kentucky River, that watches as the land around it becomes more technological and industrial. Yet Berry maintains his focus on how this industrial progress can be just as destructive as others might deem it necessary. Berry shows this distinction in the story of the Keith family - the struggle between father and son-in-law - for the future of the family farm.

Berry's telling of Jayber's life is poetic and often elegiac. As he gives up his barber shop, the reader feels like they are saying goodbye to Jayber as well. We have lived with him through the peaks and valleys, and felt the sting of his unrequited love for Mattie. As industrial progress closes in on Port William, we feel the decrepitude and downfall of the small "backwater" town. We grieve for Jayber's losses; but Berry is not one to let the story die without a hopeful conclusion. His final paragraphs, to me, rank among some of the best conclusions in literature.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best I've Read
Review: I agree with the reviewers who ranked the book a 5. While it contains several themes, it is first and foremost a spiritual book to me. It's beautiful prose captures the essence of friendship, the virtues of small-town America, the calm and terror of the river, the fragility of the land, and the tug of war between Heaven and Hell. It also details one of the most unusual love stories I have ever read. I have read it twice and am beginning it for a third time. I often go to sleep and wake up thinking about it and its meanings.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best I've Read
Review: I agree with the reviewers who ranked the book a 5. While it contains several themes, it is first and foremost a spiritual book to me. It's beautiful prose captures the essence of friendship, the virtues of small-town America, the calm and terror of the river, the fragility of the land, and the tug of war between Heaven and Hell. It also details one of the most unusual love stories I have ever read. I have read it twice and am beginning it for a third time. I often go to sleep and wake up thinking about it and its meanings.