Wendell Berry

出版者:Library of America

作者:Wendell Berry

页数:1018

出版时间:2018-1-30

价格:USD 40.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9781598535549

具体描述

Library of America inaugurates its edition of the complete fiction of one of America's most beloved living writers

Port William, Kentucky, is one of the most fully realized settings in American literature. For more than fifty years, in novels and stories that combine a Faulknerian sense of place with the wry characterization of Mark Twain, Wendell Berry has told its history from the Civil War to the present day. This agrarian world is populated with memorable characters collectively known as the Port William Membership, women and men whose stories evoke a time when farming, faith, and family were the anchors of community and the ligaments that bound generation to generation. Now, for the first time, in an edition prepared in consultation with the author, Library of America is presenting the complete story of Port William in the order of narrative chronology. This first volume contains twenty-three stories and four novels that span from 1864 to 1945, as a town that sees itself as rooted in its past faces the forces of mechanization and the looming possibility of its own disappearance. Throughout, the stories that Port William tells of itself, repeated between friends and among fellow workers, turn wit and gossip into proverbial wisdom. All the stories reveal the ways that ordinary men and women strive to achieve right relationship with themselves, with Creator and Creation, through small acts that combine, over time, to foster a sustainable community imbued with hope and wonder.

作者简介

WENDELL BERRY (b. 1934) is a novelist, poet, farmer, and environmental writer and activist. He earned an MA in English at the University of Kentucky in 1957 and in 1958 joined Stanford University's creative writing program as a Wallace Stegner Fellow, studying under Stegner and with Edward Abbey, Larry McMurtry, Ernest Gaines, Tillie Olsen, Robert Stone, and Ken Kesey. In 1961 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship to spend a year in Tuscany. From 1962-64 he taught English at NYU before returning to the University of Kentucky, where he taught creative writing from 1964 until 1977 and then again from 1987 to 1993. He has published over 50 books, including over 25 books of poetry, 16 essay collections, and 8 novels. In 2010 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama, and in 2013 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2016 he received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle. He has made his home with his wife, Tanya Berry, in Henry County, Kentucky, for the last 50 years.

JACK SHOEMAKER is the Editorial Director of Counterpoint Press, publishing the work of Gary Snyder, M.F.K. Fisher, Evan Connell, Robert Aitken, Anne Lamott, Jane Vandenburgh, and many others. He has worked with Wendell Berry for more than forty years.

用户评价

这本书的叙事节奏极其缓慢，如果你期待的是快节奏的冲突或戏剧性的转折，那很可能会感到失望。但正是这种缓慢，构建了一种独特的阅读体验，它强迫你进入一种近乎冥想的状态。贝里的文字像是一位经验丰富的老农，他不会轻易告诉你收成如何，而是会详细描绘每一颗种子在土壤中挣扎发芽的过程，描绘光线如何以特定的角度照射在谷仓的木板上。他的句子往往很长，结构复杂，充满了并列和从句，这模仿了自然界本身的复杂性，拒绝了信息时代的扁平化表达。我花了很长时间去适应这种“不赶时间”的写作方式，但一旦适应，便觉如沐春风。它教会了我，重要的事物往往需要时间去培育、去理解。那些关于家庭、关于信仰、关于土地的哲学思考，不是一蹴而就的结论，而是日积月累的观察和沉淀。读完后，感觉自己的内心世界也被这缓慢的节奏整理了一番，变得更加有条理，也更耐得住寂寞。

从文学技巧上看，这本书展现出一种返璞归真的力量。它摒弃了花哨的辞藻和刻意的雕琢，语言风格朴素得如同他所描绘的农舍墙壁，但在这朴素之下，却蕴藏着惊人的密度和张力。作者擅长运用对立统一的意象——比如生命与死亡、丰饶与贫瘠、忍耐与反抗——并将它们和谐地编织在一起，形成一种古典式的张力。他的幽默感也是内敛的，不张扬，总是在最严肃的论述中，不经意地流露出一丝带着智慧的自嘲。这种平衡感，让整本书读起来既有学术的深度，又不失人文的温度。它成功地将一个区域性的、看似小众的议题，提升到了关乎全人类生存状态的宏大命题。我必须承认，这本书需要我多次重读才能体会到全貌，因为它不像流行读物那样提供即时的满足感，它提供的是一种需要时间去消化的营养，是能真正滋养灵魂的养分。

阅读这本书的过程，更像是一次精神上的长途跋扎，充满了对现代文明弊端的深刻反思，但这种反思却带着一种几乎是宗教般的虔诚。作者对于工业化生产模式的批判，并非简单的技术否定，而是上升到了伦理和存在的层面。他似乎在质问，当我们的一切都被标准化、被快速迭代的潮流裹挟时，我们是否正在失去作为“人”的完整性？那些关于食物来源、关于社区凝聚力、关于地方知识的论述，字里行间都透露着一种近乎悲壮的坚持。每一次翻页，都仿佛能听到一声悠长的叹息，那是对失落的田园牧歌的缅怀，也是对未来可能走向的深切忧虑。我感受到的不是抱怨，而是一种沉甸甸的责任感，作者将自己定位成了一个记录者和守望者，试图用文字为那些正在消亡的生活方式留下坚实的印记。这种文风，凝练、有力，偶尔会迸发出如同古老谚语般的智慧，需要读者放慢呼吸，才能真正领会其深意。

这本《温德尔·贝里》的书，初读时总感觉像是在一片宁静的、被精心耕耘过的土地上漫步。那种泥土的芬芳、清晨薄雾中传来的鸡鸣声，甚至连老旧木栅栏上苔藓的触感，似乎都能透过文字扑面而来。作者的笔触是如此细腻而富有耐心，他似乎并不急于抛出什么惊世骇俗的观点，而是沉浸在对日常、对土地、对社群的细致观察之中。我特别欣赏他处理时间的方式，那不是线性的、急促的前进，而更像是一种循环往复的季节更替，充满了对传统技艺和生活节奏的尊重。读完一个章节，我总会不自觉地停下来，去回想自己生活中的一些被忽略的细节，那些我们为了追求所谓的“进步”而匆匆丢弃的，似乎在这本书里被重新拾起，擦拭干净，放回了它们应有的位置。这不仅仅是一部关于农业或乡村生活的记录，它更像是一份对“如何更好地生活”的温柔辩护书，让人不禁反思自己与脚下这片土地的关系，以及我们正在向后代传递的究竟是什么样的遗产。那种深沉而又平和的力量，是如今浮躁世界里难得一见的清泉，让人读后心绪久久不能平静。

这部作品的魅力在于它对“地方性”的极致捍卫。在如今全球化浪潮几乎要抹平所有文化差异的时代，作者坚守着对特定地域的深度依恋和研究。他笔下的每一个地名、每一种农作物、甚至每一种工具，都仿佛被赋予了鲜活的生命和厚重的历史感。这让我对“根”这个概念有了全新的认识——根不仅仅是生物学的连接，更是一种文化和精神上的锚定。我常常会思考，我自己的“地方”在哪里？我的生活是否也建立在足够坚实、足够了解的基础上？书中对具体劳作的描述，详尽到近乎是技术手册的程度，但这绝非枯燥，反而展现了一种对专业精神的极致推崇。这种对细节的执着，体现了一种深刻的爱：爱你的工作，爱你的社区，爱你所居住的地方，并愿意为之付出艰苦的努力。它不是空泛的口号，而是脚踏实地的实践精神的体现，令人深受鼓舞。