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ljcostel's review against another edition
5.0
Really compelling. The audio book reader is excellent.
myspiace's review against another edition
5.0
Imperfetto, ombroso, fallibile... Wendell Berry ha generato un'altra Grande Anima
tracystan's review against another edition
5.0
This is a loving tribute to a generation long gone, and barely remembered.
In 1952, Jack is 92. Through the book, he is remembering his life, warts and all. He was a farmer in Kentucky, and honest, but not perfect.
I loved this- I learned of history and old farming techniques, but the theme of looking back over one's life is timeless. Jack's reveries put the reader in the time and place in a way only Wendell Berry can.
In 1952, Jack is 92. Through the book, he is remembering his life, warts and all. He was a farmer in Kentucky, and honest, but not perfect.
I loved this- I learned of history and old farming techniques, but the theme of looking back over one's life is timeless. Jack's reveries put the reader in the time and place in a way only Wendell Berry can.
samuelblakey's review against another edition
5.0
Wendell Berry’s work is always top notch. In this book, he is able to draw you into the life and legacy of Old Jack Beechum, showing the wide influence even one life can have. Jack’s life is neither perfect nor even ideal, and yet his memory lives on in the lives he touches. Also, listening to Paul Michael read the audiobooks of Berry’s novels makes me want to live in Port William.
nimrodel's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
andrealisabeth's review against another edition
3.0
I can't give this as high of a rating as my other Wendell Berry favorites. For some reason, Old Jack does not resonate with me in the same way as Hannah Coulter, Jayber, and even Andy Catlett. But there is something magnetic about any kind of character reflecting on a long life, whether he is endeared to you or not. So the memory of Old Jack was worth reading and hearing.
radiodarrenfm's review against another edition
5.0
With every Wendell Berry/Port William book I read, I’m more surprised that I’d never heard of him until I read Nick Offerman’s ‘Paddle Your Own Canoe’ a few years back, in which he wrote effusively of Berry’s work, and the stories of the fictional town.
In this, we learn of the world through the eyes of Jack Beechum. In 1952, he’s an elderly, ailing man, reliving his life through a fog of dementia. We follow his memories as he looks back on his triumphs and disasters, often without celebration or despair, more in the knowledge that these events shaped him into the man we meet here.
This is such an indescribably beautiful piece of work, a stunning rumination on the aspects of life that truly are important: namely, being true to yourself and not trying to live up to others’ expectations, and getting into debt that you must work your way out of.
Once again I find myself wishing that I could live in Port William, helping to bring in the tobacco harvests on Elton Penn’s farm, catching up on the gossip with Jayber Crow, or just talking farming with Andy Catlett. Berry has brought life to a fictional community that makes me yearn for that simpler time, a time before endless distractions.
In this, we learn of the world through the eyes of Jack Beechum. In 1952, he’s an elderly, ailing man, reliving his life through a fog of dementia. We follow his memories as he looks back on his triumphs and disasters, often without celebration or despair, more in the knowledge that these events shaped him into the man we meet here.
This is such an indescribably beautiful piece of work, a stunning rumination on the aspects of life that truly are important: namely, being true to yourself and not trying to live up to others’ expectations, and getting into debt that you must work your way out of.
Once again I find myself wishing that I could live in Port William, helping to bring in the tobacco harvests on Elton Penn’s farm, catching up on the gossip with Jayber Crow, or just talking farming with Andy Catlett. Berry has brought life to a fictional community that makes me yearn for that simpler time, a time before endless distractions.
unionmack's review against another edition
4.0
This is my second Wendell Berry book, but it's also the one to cement my desire to read every single one of his novels eventually. His prose, moral voice, and subtle characterization are top notch—he sort of feels like a 20th century American George Eliot with a bit of Steinbeck thrown in. This is the story of how someone can relive their entire lifetime, all the highs and lows, in a single day without anyone around them knowing. I've rarely seen the power of memory—both its expansive real estate in our own minds and how its wounds and boons compel us to act with others—more clearly depicted as it is here. It's a really terrific tale well told.
tangowhiskyman's review
5.0
Until recently I had never heard of Wendell Berry. I started reading The Memory of Old Jack at the same time as my wife started reading Jayber Crow. Our house was silent for days.
I immediately became immersed in the final day of Jack Beechum, reflecting upon his life, for better or worse. Critics may argue that there is little plot in this book, but that’s missing the point. This is tapestry weaving and what makes it so sublime is the language, which elevates it to dizzy heights.
A couple of the narratives stuck in my mind, one of them was Jack’s memory of being a young boy and watching his two elder siblings ride off to fight the Yankees
‘’This is not simply the knowledge of retrospect; because the vision of their departure met the knowledge of their deaths in the anachronistic mind of a child, the two have fused, so that it seems to him, in his vision, that he watches them depart with the clear foreknowledge that they will not return. They did not.’’
Or when Jack stands by the grave of the lover he took to escape his loveless marriage
‘’And always near him was the thought of the dead woman who had loved him as he was, and of the living one who could not.’’
This is just a beautiful book. Wendell Berry is a masterful story teller, in a class by himself.
I immediately became immersed in the final day of Jack Beechum, reflecting upon his life, for better or worse. Critics may argue that there is little plot in this book, but that’s missing the point. This is tapestry weaving and what makes it so sublime is the language, which elevates it to dizzy heights.
A couple of the narratives stuck in my mind, one of them was Jack’s memory of being a young boy and watching his two elder siblings ride off to fight the Yankees
‘’This is not simply the knowledge of retrospect; because the vision of their departure met the knowledge of their deaths in the anachronistic mind of a child, the two have fused, so that it seems to him, in his vision, that he watches them depart with the clear foreknowledge that they will not return. They did not.’’
Or when Jack stands by the grave of the lover he took to escape his loveless marriage
‘’And always near him was the thought of the dead woman who had loved him as he was, and of the living one who could not.’’
This is just a beautiful book. Wendell Berry is a masterful story teller, in a class by himself.