Andy Catlett (about whom Berry has written another book) is nine years old when his Uncle Andrew dies. This story weaves together all his memories (and discoveries) of his beloved uncle's life. As he ponders these things,he comes to understand other members of the family and their own bouts with suffering and doubt.
Andrew's grandmother had several wild, wayward sons. This is how Berry describes their relationship:
They divided her mind; they troubled her without end. She could see plainly what a relief it would have been if she could have talked some sense into their heads, and straightened them out. It would have been a relief to her, too, if she could have waved them away and forgotten them.
In fact, she could do neither. They were incorrigable and they were her own. In their various ways and styles, they had worried and vexed and grieved her nearly to death. And they also charmed and amused and moved her. They were not correctable because of the way they were. They were not dismissable because of the way she was. She loved them not even in spite of the way they were, but just because she did. With them she enacted the parable of the lost sheep who is to be sought and brought back without end, brought back into mind and into love without end.
Death was no deterrent. Futility no bar. And so she suffered.
This was a stunning addition to the Port William canon.
Do you have a favorite Wendell Berry novel?
