Nathan Coulter

By: Wendell Berry

Narrated by: Paul Michael

Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

This, the first title in the Port William series, introduces the rural section of Kentucky with which novelist Wendell Berry has had a lifelong fascination.

When young Nathan loses his grandfather, Berry guides listeners through the process of Nathan's grief, endearing the listener to the simple humanity through which Nathan views the world. Echoing Berry's own strongly held beliefs, Nathan tells us that his grandfather's life "couldn't be divided from the days he'd spent at work in his fields".

Berry has long been compared to Faulkner for his ability to erect entire communities in his fiction, and his heart and soul have always lived in Port William, Kentucky. In this eloquent novel about duty, community, and a sweeping love of the land, Berry gives listeners a classic book that takes them to that storied place.

©2009 Wendell Berry (P)2009 christianaudio.com

Critic reviews

"The Coulter family, like the rest of the people who dwell in this tiny farming community...are caught on the wheel of nature, which is at once blindingly beautiful and unwittingly cruel....The narrative is stunning, the natural scene is beautifully evoked." ( Los Angeles Times)

A perfect picture

A beautiful, gentle, but uncompromising portrait of a place and a time we won’t see again.

I read Jayber Crow first

After having read Jayber Crow, this seemed not as good. If I’d read this first, I’m not sure I would have gotten to Jayber Crow and I’d hate to have missed it!

Good story for 200 mile trip

I’m reading Berry’s book, Jayber Crow, which I think I’m going to be so sad to finish; it’s that kind of story.. As I browsed Audible for an audio book for a 200 mile trip, serendipity brought me this one. This too is a lovely story, and just the right length.

Hometown memories

Wendell Berry weaves a bittersweet story that takes me back to my own hometown. I know these people as I love them.

Another beautiful work...

Wonderful slice of life by Mr. Wendell Berry. He's a master at telling the slow story and keeping you hooked the entire time.

Loved the book

A very poetic book about the simple life of yesteryear. A life when your worldly possessions where very few but your life was not about fortune but about working to survive . The purity of purpose is a beautiful thing.

Beautifully written and narrated, but...

Mercy, this was a depressing book. I’m not suggesting our expectations of life should be all roses and pleasantry, but I guess I often look for that escapism in books. Anyway, I’ll say that Berry’s writing and weaving together if this story is fantastic. The language and descriptions are beautiful, and I’m not sorry I listened to this book. But if anyone reads this review for the negative points, I’ll lay them out:

1) The story - of a boy and his life growing up in KY - is a depressing one, with many characters who just don’t have redeeming qualities. You keep waiting for the “climax” of this story, or for the morose tone to shift a bit, but it never comes.

2) There are quite a few stories of cruelty to animals. I don’t mind stories of hunting and such, but it is difficult to listen to the outright awfulness that goes on (3 or 4 times) in this book.

So now you know. I don’t want to deter anyone from listening if these things won’t bother you. It just wasn’t for me. The narrator does a fantastic job, sounding very much like Sam Elliott.

an okay start.

I enjoyed the book. it was a little slow for me but maybe that's the point.

Kentucky Men Tougher than Pine Knots

I met the men of my grandpa’s era in this book, the men who rubbed every nickel until the buffalo ‘bout wore off it. Men who split wood, stacked it along the fence, and ricked it before breakfast. Men to whom hard work was a religion, a means to an end, and the land they worked was their treasure, their inheritance, and their bequest to their children. And I was the oldest of many grandchildren, just so happened to be a girl, who grew up next to grandma and grandpa, on a limestone filled, farm on the Nolin River in Kentucky. Tobacco raisin’, garden growin’, huntin’, fishin’ and hard work, dusk to dawn . . . that’s what rural life in Kentucky was all about. And there was a glue, a love that goes beyond description, a fierceness that burned in grandpa, that held it all together. I saw him madder than a wet hen . . . too mad . . . and as a kid, I didn’t understand how it could flare up so fast and hot . . . listening to Nathan Coulter made a light go off in my head, and made me see clearly why grandma never challenged grandpa, how she kept loving him, accepting him, and how their complete opposite natures meant harmony. People, country people, without PhDs and big degrees, learned a lot more than we do now; accepted what they couldn’t change; and were better for it. I loved hearing all the old sayings that I heard growing up. It was an adventure, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes full of insight. An absolutely glorious listen.

This takes me back!

Great story, and characters. At times, I found myself reliving my childhood through their tales.