A review by jamesbuscher
Andy Catlett: Early Travels by Wendell Berry

4.0

This short addition to the Port William stories follows nine-year-old Andy Catlett on a short trip just before 1943 tips over into 1944. It's a simple story, in that not a whole lot happens, but, as with most of Wendell Berry's writing, things don't necessarily need to happen. This is another glimpse into the place of Port William, as occupied by the people of Port William. Sometimes while reading this novel I wondered where it was going, but then on the final page, it all culminated in a beautiful moment of introspection. It wasn't a climactic moment or an especially dramatic one, just an honest one. Berry does this over and over again in his writing. Within his grounded realism, he delivers these moments of quiet magic. He finds transcendent meaning in the everyday and the ordinary. These moments keep me coming back to Berry's work.