The novel and story of Hannah Coulter begins with a quotation from her second husband to their children: "I picked him up in my arms and I carried him home" (Berry 3). The reader soon learns a few pages in that Nathan Coulter's last story of his childhood is at the age of 16, he picked up his grandpa Dave as they were walking home from the fields. Hannah as narrator says, "Nathan though of that, I am pretty certain , as the last day of his boyhood. past that day de told no more stories about himself" (Berry 4).
A question that I have not thought of before and it took a second reading of Wendell Berry's Hannah Coulter and a four hour discussion among friends to even consider it: When did my childhood end?
The novel and story of Hannah Coulter begins with a quotation from her second husband to their children: "I picked him up in my arms and I carried him home" (Berry 3). The reader soon learns a few pages in that Nathan Coulter's last story of his childhood is at the age of 16, he picked up his grandpa Dave as they were walking home from the fields. Hannah as narrator says, "Nathan though of that, I am pretty certain , as the last day of his boyhood. past that day de told no more stories about himself" (Berry 4).
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Below are a few quotations from the beginning of Wendell Berry's novel Hannah Coulter. The novel begins at the end, takes you to the story's middle, beginning and end all within its first pages...and by then the reader is enthralled. |