Jayber Crow

By: Wendell Berry

Narrated by: Paul Michael

Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

From the simple setting of his own barber shop, Jayber Crow, orphan, seminarian, and native of Port William, recalls his life and the life of his community as it spends itself in the middle of the 20th century.

Surrounded by his friends and neighbors, he is both participant and witness as the community attempts to transcend its own decline. And meanwhile Jayber learns the art of devotion and that a faithful love is its own reward.

©2001 Wendell Berry (P)2008 christianaudio.com

A book about heaven... "a good thing that came"

Wendell Berry, with simple, almost poetic prose captures the beauty of and yearning for a lost people, place, and time in a way that is reminiscent of the departure of the Tolkien's Elves from Lothlorien and Middle Earth, of Jeremiah's laments over the loss of Jerusalem, and of Tristan Ludlow's final encounter with his bear in Legends of the Fall. While fictional in the specifics it could hardly be any more authentic to the 20th century rural American experience. A small Kentucky town, Port William, plays host to a barber, returned as a young man to the place of his birth. It is told through Jayber's point of view as his barber shop acts as a sort of living room for the town where "talk is drawn as water to low ground". Progress, machinery, war, economy, pride, and hate slowly, but unstoppably, put to death a way of life that feels known and like home. Berry penetrates deeply as very few authors can to explore the hubris, fears, insecurities, and wonders of men and our struggles with God, time, love, and hate.

It is a book about heaven. About the tastes we can get of it here with family life, friendship, beauty, and working to grow, build, and sustain things. These are like "good thing[s] that came" and then fade away leaving satisfaction and a mysterious longing that ensures us that we were not made for this place.

Jayber Crow is an immanently quotable book. Less than an hour in I decided I had to buy the ebook as well so that I could find and underline passages. I underlined more in this than in any other book I've read.

The narrator does an excellent job of capturing the pacing and steady emotion as Jayber's voice, but the editing of the recording could have been better. There were many occasions when an extra second or two pause between tales Jayber is relating would have helped the listener avoid confusion.

Overall this is highly recommended!

Wonderful Story with a Great Message

Where does Jayber Crow rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

As an entertaining 'read' this is a great book. Had never heard of Wendell Berry but a friend guoted Jayber Crow and that was the beginning. I may be different than some in that I enjoy audio books but would prefer a Kindle book read to me so that I might stop, look and listen or read a section again, esp. when the subject matter has depth.
This said I listen to two or three audio books most months.
Jayber Crow is in the top 10.

What other book might you compare Jayber Crow to and why?

Berry has a style somewhat similar to Twain but to me - easier to read. The words of farmers, poor people and business owners of the time is spot on but not cumbersome.

Have you listened to any of Paul Michael’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Well done - inflection and character 'seperation' was good.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My reaction was to 'remember' farming as it once was and unfortunately never to be again. My reaction was strong enough that I did some research on Mr. Berry and would love to sit on his front porch and listen.

Any additional comments?

We all must, as Mr. Berry teaches, 'Take an active interest and responsibility in the food we eat.'

Nothing short of beautiful.

Though I am an avid reader, regrettably, I have never written a review. Once in a while I come across a book that touches me so deeply that it alters the way I view life. This is one of those books. Nothing short of beautiful.

Pretty good story, distracting reader

This was a pretty good story. I did finish it. Didn’t really care for the main character. The reading was very distracting to me. The story needed a rural Kentucky voice, but the reader used the common fake Southern accent you hear, with the unpronounced R’s, like Scarlet O’Hara.

life insights abound

Berry's wisdom shines. Great story! Reminder of the beauty of life and the world. It will refine your definition of "the good life."

great but...

the reader was super. the book was too long for this reader. l like a book leaving me wanting more.

The Book I Recommend Most to my Friends!

The most authentic, most beautiful, most moving book I have ever read. I re-read it now once or twice a year because I long for it. I am not sure anything I say here can do justice to just how good this book is. If you have a read a negative review or you are just not sure if this book is for you, stop now and go listen. Give it a few chapters. You are welcome....

Beauty Can Be Plain. Plainness Can Be Beautiful.

What made the experience of listening to Jayber Crow the most enjoyable?

Wendell Berry's writing could be described as "spare". "Careful" might be a better word. Dealing with the depth and complexity of human lives, Berry writes with straightforward delicacy. A novelist, essayist, and poet who has examined and known what it is to be human, he gives us Jayber Crow, inviting us to observe, to sit beside, the truth... without saying too much.

Sublime!

This is such a beautiful book. My heart is too full right now to say more.

A fictional memoir of a small town barber

I have been more interested in fiction lately, so I decided to pick up Jayber Crow, the book that most people I know suggest is the best book to start with for the Port William series. I have previously only read Hannah Coulter. A different member tells each book of the series of the community. There are eight novels and dozens of short stories.

I am reading this soon after reading Eugene Peterson’s biography, A Burning in My Bones, for the second time. Eugene Peterson was born in 1932, a few years before the fictional Jayber Crow started being the barber at Port William (at 23 years old). So there were about 17 years between them. Jayber dropped out of seminary, and although he took some classes at a college, he was not really enrolled to get a degree. So when he, on a whim, quits his job and starts walking in a rainstorm, he eventually returns to the home where he lived before he went to an orphanage (his parents both died, and then his uncle and aunt died before he was 10.)

Port Wiliam is a realistic book that details the cultural changes of the 20th century. When Jayber moved to Port Wiliam, he purchased a barbershop that had been abandoned to the bank by the previous barber. Jayber lived above the one-room shop in a one-room apartment. There was no running water or bathrooms. There was electricity, but there was no reason for it other than his razors. For 30 years, Jayber has been the town’s bachelor barber. There are not enough people in the town for Jayber to earn enough money to support a family. He has to become the church janitor and the town gravedigger even to support himself. The story is being told from the view of a retired Jayber in 1986.

Wendell Berry is an agrarian author. He writes nostalgically about a time when farms were fairly self-sufficient and limited by the number of animals the land could support and the number of crops the animals needed to eat to use the animal fertilizer. Even though Berry does not idealize the people, there is real tension, bad behavior, and humanity, but life is still idealized.

Eugene Peterson was a fan of Berry’s fiction. And I am too. Berry can write stories that I want to read. But when I read Peterson or about Peterson, I see a real-life attempting to grapple with a world that wants to encourage us away from a human-focused world and church. Berry is trying to remind the reader of the need for humanity to live at a pace and style that supports the limits of being human. While the two authors fit together in many ways, I think the genre matters. Fiction always idealizes because it is not a real-life being discussed. The biography or memoir may only tell part of the story, but it is still attempting to tell a real story.

I enjoyed Jayber Crow. But I could never get wholly past the nostalgia. Many novels that I enjoy are about ideas and ideals. Jayber Crow is a story about what it means to be a part of a community, a real part, and how that community supports life, including a life of faith.