A review by scrabblerz
Fidelity: Five stories by Wendell Berry

5.0

5 stars without a moment's hesitation.

I'm glad Mr. Berry has a whole catalog of novels and stories I can treat myself to now that I have finally taken the time to read some of his work. Karen Merriam put his Port William novels on my radar years ago, but they never bubbled up to the top of the pile. Nick Offerman's book Gumption, which I read last month and thoroughly enjoyed, has a chapter on Wendell Berry, which contains the following passage:

"Because I am such a student and adherent of Wendell Berry's writing, this chapter, and hopefully this entire book, will contain much less hyperbole that I would sophomorically like to apply to it. Wendell, if you have so run out of useful things to do as to be reading this, I must warn you to prepare yourself to endure some compliments, but, out of the respect for economy that I am very slowly learning from your own work, I will do my best to refrain from over-egging the pudding.

Wendell Berry is the greatest writer ever to have sharpened a pencil. Dang it. That was not a good start. But you are stuck with me, such as I am, so let's just press on with best intentions."

Offerman goes on to say of the stories collected in Fidelity, that he was "simply gobsmacked at...their beauty and humor and emotional specificity."

This collection of five stories is stunning and goes on my short shelf of 5-star books to treasure and read again one day.