‎‏‎‎‎‎‎‏‎‏‏‎‏‏‎‎‎‎‏‎‎‏‎‎‎‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‏‎‏‎‏‎‎‏‎‎‏‎‎‏‎‎‏‏‏‎‎‏‎‎‎‏‏‎‎‏‎‏‏‎‎‏‏‎‏‏‎‎‎‏‎‏‏‏‎‎‏‏‏‎‏‏‎‎‏‎‏‎‎Jayber Crow

張貼日期：Oct 19, 2009 3:12:10 PM

Jayber Crow

by Wendell Berry

published by Counterpoint Press, Washington, D. C., 2000

Recommended by Mrs. Terry Wu

When one reads something by Wendell Berry (a poet, essayist, novelist, a philosopher), one is reminded of Emerson and Thoreau who yearned to live in the simplicity of nature. Berry’s novel, Jayber Crow, is a true modern gem. The story is narrated by Jayber Crow himself who was born in a rural community in Kentucky (USA) and orphaned twice before the age of 10. He tries to seek answers to his plight by becoming a minister but has a faith crisis. Later, he returns to his hometown where he was born and sets up a barbershop and spends the rest of his adult life making a living there.

This is not only a narration of Jayber Crow’s unrequited love for Matti, but it is also a story about an ideal, even utopian community where almost everything could be lost because of the many changes in the name of “social and economic progress.” From his listening post at the barbershop, Jayber learns of the old farming methods being taken over by “modern” machinery, chemicals and buying on credit, assuming that this is the way to making life on the little farms better and easier in the twentieth century. He listens to the complaints of Athey Keith, an old farmer whose son-in-law Troy has other plans for the land. Slowly but surely, an agribusiness is in the making where the bigger farm will eventually want to compete for available land. It is clear that Jayber is on the side of the little farmers who, having taken pride and pleasure in working on their land, are gradually disappearing because of the new modern farming methods.

We hear Berry's distinctive voice through Jayber Crow. He makes us wonder if it is possible to reverse all the damage we have done to the earth. No longer are there the family farms, beautiful landscapes or the small caring communities that once covered America. Instead, it has been replaced by genetic engineering in foods, big factory farms poisoning our waterways, widespread use of chemicals and needless expansion of the great urban cities.

Somehow, Berry is saying to us that the ecological crisis is at hand, that the only solution is to begin making a conscientious shift in our awareness of what has taken place and doing something about it. For the grim reality is that we no longer depend on local farms or neighbors for our needs. In fact, we do not even know the people in our own neighborhoods. The type of life that Berry laments can be restored by living simply, respecting and loving the earth and caring for one another in one’s own community. This easy-to-read novel sends a very urgent message to all of us at a time when many of us have lost our ability to communicate at a fundamental personal level.