Hannah Coulter by Wendell BerryKansas Dad has been recommending Wendell Berry for years and I regret it took me so long to pick one up. Hannah Coulter may very well be one of my two favorite novels of all time (along with Anna Karenina). It is heartbreakingly beautiful from beginning to end and I wanted to start reading it again as soon as I had finished.
This is one of Berry's Port William "membership" books. Hannah Coulter, a widow with a baby after World War II, marries Nathan Coulter. This book is her story, and their story.
I've already posted some of my favorite quotes. As I read, I thought a lot about my own childhood and now my life as a mother, comparing it to that of Hannah. I was struck by her thoughts on education.
The way of education leads away from home. That is what we learned form our children's education.
The big idea of education, from first to last, is the idea of a better place. Not a better place where you are, because you want it to be better and have been to school and learned to make it better, but a better place somewhere else. in order to move up, you have got to move on. I didn't see this at first. And for a while after I knew it, I pretended I didn't. I didn't want it to be true.I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Read it.
