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A review by bobbo49
The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership by Wendell Berry
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Well, now I'll have to get started with the multi-volume Port William series. These six stories are little windows into the multi-generational family farming and living near the Kentucky River, from the 1930s to the mid 1960s. Filled with thoughtful insights into family, friends, neighbors, and life on and off the farm, beautifully written and flowing like the poetry for which Berry is equally revered.
A snippet, when a central character has helped a friend and neighbor buy the farm he has been working, but refuses the suggestion that he is owed something in return: "Everything about a place that's different from its price is a gift. Everything about a man or woman that's different from their price is a gift. The life of a neighborhood is a gift."
Or, as an old man tries to hike out of a streambed at the bottom of a hillside to make his way home as darkness descends, unsure if he can survive the approaching cold darkness, and sees a hawk on a limb over his head: "'Wonders,' he thinks. 'Little wonders of a great wonder.' If a man eighty years old has not seen enough, then nobody will ever see enough. Such a little piece of the world as he has before him now would be worth a man's long life, looking and listening."
A snippet, when a central character has helped a friend and neighbor buy the farm he has been working, but refuses the suggestion that he is owed something in return: "Everything about a place that's different from its price is a gift. Everything about a man or woman that's different from their price is a gift. The life of a neighborhood is a gift."
Or, as an old man tries to hike out of a streambed at the bottom of a hillside to make his way home as darkness descends, unsure if he can survive the approaching cold darkness, and sees a hawk on a limb over his head: "'Wonders,' he thinks. 'Little wonders of a great wonder.' If a man eighty years old has not seen enough, then nobody will ever see enough. Such a little piece of the world as he has before him now would be worth a man's long life, looking and listening."