I have known about Wendell Berry for a while and finally got to listen to one of his books (The book was from Christian audio which offers a free monthly audio book. The narrator of the audio book, Susan Denaker did a great job of keeping my attention). Hannah Coulter begins in a very simple manner and I thought it would be a story without much fanfare and in a way it is. It doesn’t do it with lots of plot twists and developments. The author does a great job bringing out the voice and thoughts of Hannah as she tells her simple story. Wendell Berry is known for being a critic of the culture especially how industrialization has done away with the agrarian life. This story does it through Hannah’s life. Not only this but her life expresses thoughts about life, its stages that all of us will experience some day. Wendell does it in a simple yet powerful way. I found myself tearing up as I heard Hannah tell her story about life, her first and second husbands, her children growing up, her town changing, her sentiments on war and looking forward to the resurrection of the dead.
