Monday, March 14, 2016

Jayber Crow

"This is, as I said and believe, a book about Heaven, but I must say too that it has been a close call.  For I have wondered sometimes if it would would not finally turn out to be a book about Hell..."

Just finished reading Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry.  This is the life story of J. Crow who is forced as a child to grow up in an orphanage in 1920's Tennessee.  He spends his entire life within a small radius, but mostly in the small town of Port William.  Following the orphanage Jayber Crow finds himself in seminary where he wrestles with hard questions of faith and God.  In a conversation with a New Testament professor, Crow sets out on a life-long pursuit of finding out how God is working in the world.

Crow ends up as the bachelor barber of Port Williams.  He finds himself at home in this small town where things move and change slowly.  The book is about Crow observing and pondering the changes that happen through the decades.  He sees the old ways of living, saving, farming and business change.  He watches families in disputes.  He sees friends come and go.  He falls in love with Mattie Chatham.  The only problem with this love... she's already married.  Crow holds his feelings inside for decades, never betraying his feelings even during occasional meetings in the woods.

Through the novel Berry critiques the "progress" of the 20th century.  Berry criticizes the industrialization of the world and of farming.  The Economy and The War are the two forces which Jayber sees working against his little town.  He sees people repeatedly sacrificed for The War and sees numerous townsfolk fall under the pressure of The Economy.

This story reminded me of stories from my Grandpa growing up on a Depression farm.  I thought of how I've seen my own world transformed for the sake of The Economy.  I remember my Grandma Ulm's house torn down to be replaced by a corporate building.  The hill we always would go sledding on in Ohio was turned into a drainage pond a few years ago to accommodate the new housing development going in place of a farm.

Ultimately I think this story is about the importance of being rooted in a place and thinking critically about what "progress" does to the world around us.  Things change.  What we need to consider is how technology, inventions, The War and The Economy shape the world in which we live.

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