The Barber of Port Will

Posted by Ty Fischer on Jan 21, 2009 8:53:01 AM
January 21, 2009
 
Last night I finished Wendell Berry’s fine book Jayber Crow, I would recommend it to you. It is the story of a barber, a lost world and maybe, finally, love. As I finished the last page, I laid the book aside and sighed. My wife noticed my obvious melancholy and asked me what was going on. There are a lot of sad events at the end of the book. Upon reflection, however, I was not upset by the ending of the book—which is generally hopeful (I think). I was upset by the recognition that I personally resonate with both the hero and the villain in the book . . . . 

I felt an internal war. It was not comfortable. Without giving away too much (although I am transgressing close to sharing actual feelings), one character spends his life serving a community with the end of love, service and friendship and the other spends his life trying to prove that he is a worthy of the respect he thinks he deserves. To feel them both in my skin makes me sort of queasy.

I think that

Berry

’s vision of the world and of the local community is beautiful and deeply troubling. I can not dismiss it even though it is nostalgic (sorry Graham). I do see this and will write more later. 

Berry

presents men who are worthy of respect and admiration, but who are unable or unwilling to defend what is beautiful. The glory of the local community is always trumped by far away powers. The land is left desolate and the ties of love and friendship are broken. I feel awkward in loving

Berry

’s vision so much because it is loving a doomed thing. In its doom, however, I fear, the just sentence is visited upon all of us. Living here in
Lancaster

County
the questions

Berry

raises about maintaining community and love as loves in the world grow cold are pointed ones. I feel the point. My children will have to grow up here, so I want here to be beautiful. That said a local community that can not defend itself against the forces that rip communities apart is like a glorious mammoth oak or chestnut tree. It is beautiful, but no match for a chain saw. The queasy feeling is coming back again so I am going to stop writing. Read the book. It is a keeper.