The Rural Life
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The former member of the New York Times editorial board offers a collection of essays that illuminate the beauty of the American landscape.
With an eloquence unmatched by any other living writer, Verlyn Klinkenborg observes the juncture at which our lives and the natural world intersect. His yearlong meditation on the rigors and wonders of country life—encompassing memories of his family's Iowa homestead, time spent in the wide-open spaces of the American West, and his experiences on the small farm in upstate New York where he lives with his wife—abounds with various pleasures for the readers as it indelibly records and elaborates the everyday beauty of the world we inhabit.
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A Book Sense 76 Pick
"Captivating, subtle, and splendid . . . . Klinkenborg really is a Thoreau for today . . . . Nonfiction storytelling at its highest: unflaggingly lovely, with scope, profundity, and power achieved through a mastering of the delicate." —Kirkus Reviews
"In a voice reminiscent of E. B. White, Klinkenborg paints a picture of a fading world in colors that are solid and authentic. His joy is evident throughout." —Los Angeles Times
"Arresting, even profound, forcing us to look at the world in a new way." —Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Klinkenborg's third book (after Making Hay and The Last Fine Time) is a selection of columns originally appearing on the New York Times editorial page under the heading "A Rural Life." They document in vivid detail the daily challenges of life in the country, and on a farm in particular. Though the columns are drawn from seven years of writing, the book is organized into a single year 12 chapters starting in "January" and ending in "December" and flits from topic to topic, relying on a few short passages of news or descriptions of holidays to mark the passage of time. Likewise, the author never sticks to one place for long, but ranges across the continent of the U.S. and glimpses events in dozens of country towns from Wyoming and New Hampshire to Minnesota and New Mexico. Some episodes are emblematic of contemporary American culture: a high school football game, President Clinton's dedication of Walden Pond, the disquiet in the days following September 11. Others are more intimate passages discussing the author's family and the solace he finds in keeping bees, stacking hay or simply turning earth. Though this highly personal chronicle lacks any narrative arc other than the changing of the seasons and the author's emotional reaction to them, nothing in the prose is accidental, and the deliberate, finely hewn sentences convey, above all else, the seriousness with which Klinkenborg takes the task of watching the world around him. A heady meditation on our relationship to nature, echoing the works of the transcendentalists Thoreau and Emerson, the writing is much closer to poetry than essay.
