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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2008 > March > 17 > Entry
instant gratification (country style)
The great farm state of Iowa is the place where I grew up, but I was a city boy. My only encounters with field corn took place when I went to school in Delaware and we used ears of corn as missiles during canoe battles on the lake.
Ohio has changed me for the better - I live in the country now. Despite the best efforts of developers to mar my view with their concept of cookie cutter suburban architecture, when I look out toward the road all I can see is corn stubble running clear to the horizon. No houses, yet.
I rode my bicycle down this country lane today and I saw my neighbor going out to the roadside to check her mailbox. I always stop to chat with her. She has lived on this road longer than anybody around. To my mind she epitomizes all the finest traits of country folk. She’s smart. Even better, she’s wise.
She smiled as I pulled up. She said: “I just reserved the book that you reviewed yesterday!” Her excitement was palpable. Yesterday I had reviewed THE LAST OF THE HUSBANDMEN - A Novel of Farming Life (Ohio University Press) by Gene Logsdon. My neighbor told me that she had read several of Gene Logsdon’s books and she really liked them.
Her husband used to keep a pair of beautiful draft horses in the pasture nearby. Every time I would pass by they would glance over at me then resume their browsing. Majestic creatures, emblematic of a vanishing way of life. Logsdon pays tribute to that simpler country living in many of his books including this latest one.
That’s why I do it. Write book reviews, that is. I love sharing books with other readers. It’s like planting seeds and hoping something grows. Something beautiful.
If you missed my review, here it is again:
Gene Logsdon lives at what he describes as a “small-scale experimental farm” in north-central Ohio. He raises sheep, cultivates a variety of crops and writes books — more than two dozen thus far.
He imparts his wisdom in memoirs like “You Can Go Home Again” and “Adventures of a Contrary Life.” A passion for farm ponds led him to write “The Pond Lovers.”
A real Renaissance Man, Logsdon even writes fiction, most recently “The Last of the Husbandmen: A Novel of the Farming Life.” Set in an Ohio farming community, it traces the lives of two young men, Ben and Emmet. In 1940, as the story begins, they are embarking on very different paths.
Ben’s life is the central focus here. He is a husbandman, a follower of the old ways. He loves farming. His character is clearly a mouthpiece for the author’s viewpoints on agriculture. Ben’s family is poor. His father, Nat, a German veteran of World War I, came to this country after the war and scraped together the money to buy a farm by distilling moonshine whiskey.
Emmet, Ben’s best friend, is a spoiled rich kid. His family owns a huge farm and the bank. Their town bears his family name. WWII changes his luck. Emmet goes to war and experiences horrors.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, Ben is figuring out how he can come up with the cash to buy his own place. Logsdon weaves a complex tapestry of the intertwined relationships in this rural community during the next 45 years. He writes what he knows. His farmers shake the dust off their boots at the local cafe and bemoan commodity prices or the weather.
They battle over land at farm auctions. They gossip. They plot. They worry. Farmers are the biggest gamblers in the world. A record harvest usually translates into low prices. As they struggle to get an edge or even to make a profit, they see their margins dwindle, shredded by costs of chemicals and equipment.
While the farms around him get larger, Ben, the contrary farmer, spurns the new techniques. He plows with horses, fertilizes with manure and refuses to borrow money. His neighbors abandon their livestock to focus on raising grain. Ben insists on keeping his dairy herd.
“The Last of the Husbandmen” reads like a parable. Emmet is the grasshopper, fiddling with crazy schemes that lead to disaster. Ben is the ant, steady and industrious, storing away the fruit of his labors to keep him happy and warm all winter. Logsdon addresses his readers through Ben.
This uplifting book had a few surprises. A scary episode with the Ku Klux Klan morphs into slapstick. A murder occurs during a land dispute, and Logsdon pulls out all the stops for a drunken funeral that would do Lake Wobegon proud.
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: confessions of a galley slave
Comments
By Barbara Delaney
March 18, 2008 3:18 PM | Link to this
Gene Logsdon’s memoirs are wonderful, I’m sure a novel written by him will be as well. Vick, if you haven’t already done so, please read the magnificent, heartbreaking novel by Don Kurtz titled “South of the Big Four”. I think it’s the most accurate portrayal of contemporary small farmers and what they face plus it’s so beautifully written. It’s set in central Indiana, not too far from us, and is a book that is not to be missed.By Riverdale Ghost
March 17, 2008 6:08 PM | Link to this
Farms: a vanishing way of life because the law does nothing to insure that the state will be self-sufficient food-wise which in turn would prevent it from vanishing. If it were not for stupidity, not to mention much about things like greed, it would not be vanishing. To the contrary, see yesterday’s newspaper: the Jews have left the city. What’s vanishing is city life, and what will vanish with it is the social infra-structure without which many people cannot live even if food can be imported from elsewhere. Go agitate for restrictions on selling viable farmland. And, make plans to make room for those that can escape alive from the spoiled lands of the city.