Jayber Crow
I’m not quite done, but this novel — Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry — has come at just the right time for me.
As I enmesh myself in this idea of “homesickness” for my own writing — hearing people’s stories, diving into academic research, reading the news (pick up any newspaper to read about any number of people who are not living where they were born, for myriad reasons) — this book provides a window into the thoughts of someone who poignantly explains what it means to be “homesick.” It turns out that Jonah Crow (aka Jayber), barber of Port William, has a lot to say about “membership,” “institutions,” and the dilemma of actually being “outside” while appearing to be “inside.” We might call that “fitting in” in contemporary parlance.
But not only does this book resonate with my work (just added a Jayber Crow quote to my manuscript!), it resonates with my personal life — particularly as we prepare to move to somewhere where there already exists a strong sense of welcome and “home” for us. What does “belonging” really mean? I think it’s a trickier proposition than people think. I hope people invested in the *idea* of community might pick up some work written by everyone’s favorite rural philosopher once in a while. He provides a fictious picture of what “membership” in a community might actually look like in its purest form.
{Jayber on Port William: “My relation to that place, my being in it and my absences from it, is the story of my life.”}
originally published on instagram