“I began to trust the world again, not to give me what I wanted, for I saw that it could not be trusted to do that, but to give unforeseen goods and pleasures that I had not thought to want.”

Oh, how I loved this book. Wendell Berry is truly a national treasure. While I've previously read many of his poems and essays, [b:Hannah Coulter|146198|Hannah Coulter|Wendell Berry|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442893723s/146198.jpg|1033718] represents my first experience with Berry's fiction.

"Coulter" is one of the last installments of Berry's novels which are set in the fictional town of Port William, KY. This book stands alone, as I imagine the others do. In this narrative, Hannah Coulter, now in her late 70s, looks back on her life, her family, her friends, and the town in which she spent her entire life. This is a "quiet" and reflective book, powerful in its imagery, sense of place, prose, and meaning. Fans of [a:Elizabeth Strout|97313|Elizabeth Strout|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1361387789p2/97313.jpg] and Anna Quindlen's [b:Miller's Valley|26131641|Miller's Valley|Anna Quindlen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447962407s/26131641.jpg|46081985] will feel right at home in the pages of Berry's book.

Hannah Coulter is a woman who hasn't had an easy life. She is never defiant, but she certainly has not been defeated by life either. With dignity, she stands as a symbol of the changing American economy -- and culture -- from the 1930s through the 1970s.

While Berry writes of simpler times in Port William, he doesn't stray into cloying sentimentality. It took me a long time to make my first visit to Port William, and I'll be making a return visit soon.


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While Berry is a revered writer, this was my first read of his books. I found the lack of events almost boring. The day-to-day life was interesting to read, but I didn't really identify with any of the characters to make me enjoy this book and want to read more of his works. His style is too calm and plain. While a quote or two might be useful for me to think about, the entire read was not exceptional. ( )

Hannah Coulter reminisces about her life living on a farm in rural Kentucky during the middle of the 20th century. (fiction)

I had never heard of Wendell Berry or his Port Williams series so I had no expectations about this book. He writes in a way that seems like he is summarizing a thought or action. I kept waiting for him to change the tone of it. I am not explaining this well but it was odd for me.

This quote I can totally relate to. It is timeless. Quote from Hannah - "To be the mother of a grown-up child means that you don’t have a child anymore, and that is sad. When the grown-up child leaves home, that is sadder. I wanted Margaret to go to college, but when she actually went away it broke my heart."
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I am making a gift to myself, a promise to read all of Wendell Berry’s novels. Hannah Coulter is my latest stop on that journey though Port William, and, as always, I am sitting after closing the book with misty eyes and a full heart.

How can one be so wise and yet so human? I felt inclined to mark every other passage, but in the end, I didn’t want to step outside the story even long enough to drag the yellow marker across the page. As is so often the case with Berry, this is not a plot driven story, so much as a tribute to life and the life of Hannah particularly. It is a tribute to the resilience of the human soul and the beauty of existence itself.

Hannah profoundly understands love--that it has a scent, an electric touch, a shape, and that it comes in as many varieties as there are people.

Love in this world doesn’t come out of thin air. It is not something thought up. Like ourselves, it grows out of the ground. It has a body and a place.

She understands the nature of resentment and forgiveness:

But I knew at the same instant that my resentment was gone, just gone. And the fear of her that was once so big in me, where was it? And who was this poor suffer who stood there with me? ‘Yes, Ivy, I know you,” I said, and I sounded kind. I didn’t understand exactly what had happened until the thought of her woke me up in the middle of the night, and I was saying to myself, “You have forgiven her.” I had. My old hatred and contempt and fear, that I had kept so carefully so long, were gone, and I was free.

And, she understands loss:

I was changed by Nathan’s death, because I had to be. Our life together here was over. It was life alone that had to go on. The strand had slackened. I had begun the half-a-life you have when you have a whole life that you can only remember.

Throughout the novel, she gives good advice to anyone who might be listening, but perhaps the most valuable advice is this:

You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this: ‘Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.’ I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.

I know why I keep wishing to return to Port William. It is the same impulse that makes you want to go visit an old friend and rock on the porch and share some memories and laughs that only the two of you can ever share. It is the reason you take out the picture books and stare at the faces of the past, the ones that are gone forever, and think, “but they aren’t gone, they are alive in me, they cannot wholly die until I die as well.”

Some authors give you characters, Wendell Berry gives you friends. ( )

Not Berry's best novel, but still an enjoyable and thought-provoking read about life in a small community. ( )