Finished reading: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry đź“š
Finally got around to this one. As good as everyone says, but different than what I was expecting. Sadder. Less idealistic. Kept thinking of paralletls with Far from the Madding Crowd. Loved the ending.
@calebgreene Right? Sense of the tragic there that’s not usually associated with Berry. I haven’t read Far from the Madding…
@ablerism it first came to mind because there is a “Sergeant Troy” in it that is much like Troy Chatham. He also marries a woman he doesn’t deserve and nearly ruins her inherited farm because of his reckless ambition. And there is a man who loves her through thick and thin from a distance.
@ablerism and I missed this when I was reading it, but Jayber is reading The Woodlanders by… Thomas Hardy. Now I’m wondering if “Mattie” isn’t another reference…
If you don’t have time to read it, the 2015 film with Carey Mulligun is quite beautiful.
@calebgreene Oh wow! I’ll read it. So glad to know this. (And also that, like mortals such as me, WB was surely sometimes writing in part as homage to other people’s work…)