The Hidden Wound
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Book Overview
An impassioned, thoughtful, and fearless essay on the effects of racism on the American identity by one of our country's most humane literary voices. Acclaimed as "one of the most humane, honest, liberating works of our time" (The Village Voice), The Hidden Wound is a book-length essay about racism and the damage it has done to the identity of our country. Through Berry's personal experience, he explains how remaining passive in the face of the struggle of racism further corrodes America's great potential. In a quiet and observant manner, Berry opens up about how his attempt to discuss racism is rooted in the hope that someday the historical wound will begin to heal. Pulitzer prize-winning author Larry McMurtry calls this "a profound, passionate, crucial piece of writing . . . Few readers, and I think, no writers will be able to read it without a small pulse of triumph at the temples: the strange, almost communal sense of triumph one feels when someone has written truly well . . . The statement it makes is intricate and beautiful, sad but strong." "Mr. Berry is a sophisticated, philosophical poet in the line descending from Emerson and Thoreau." ―The Baltimore Sun " Berry's poems] shine with the gentle wisdom of a craftsman who has thought deeply about the paradoxical strangeness and wonder of life." ―The Christian Science Monitor "Wendell Berry is one of those rare individuals who speaks to us always of responsibility, of the individual cultivation of an active and aware participation in the arts of life." ―The Bloomsbury Review " Berry's] poems, novels and essays . . . are probably the most sustained contemporary articulation of America's agrarian, Jeffersonian ideal." ―Publishers Weekly
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1582434867
ISBN13:9781582434865
Release Date:May 2010
Publisher:Counterpoint LLC
Length:160 Pages
Weight:0.37 lbs.
Dimensions:0.4" x 6.5" x 7.9"
Customer Reviews
3 ratings
Uncovers one cause of our current challenges
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
"The Hidden Wound," by Wendell Berry Wendell Berry searches through the beginnings of American history, for the root cause of our current challenges, and discoveries a hidden and festering wound. He finds that no matter how rich or poor we each may be, we likely carry a manifestation of this wound. The symptoms include ecological illiteracy, pollution and climate change, water and food shortages, civil and international unrest, as well as economic decline. "The Hidden Wound" points, not only to the cause of these current issues, but the path we can take towards healing. This book is both enlightening and easy to read. I highly recommend it.
The discussion which still needs to happen
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Wow, Wendell Berry wrote this book when he was only 34. At the Wisconsin Book Festival, Rick Bass said it was his favorite Wendell Berry book. It is an amazing chronicle of a man looking honestly at his beliefs and his culture regarding racism and trying to wipe away the cob webs and face the real life effects on blacks and whites alike. This book was published in 1970 and I don't think our culture has yet faced the "wound" as Berry tries to in this book as illustrated by the reaction to Barack Obama's "Racism" speech. By chance the next book I picked up to read is a compilation of essays about the state of America, "These United States: Original Essays by Leading American Writers on Their State Within the Union" edited by John Leonard. The first essay is by Diane McWhorter as she discusses these same issues in present day Alabama. It is subtitled "The Past is Still Not Past". I highly recommend it as a continuation of the issues discussed in "The Hidden Wound".
Wendell Berry confronts the burden of racism in this book
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
Wendell Berry, English professor at the University of Kentucky and farmer of his family's farm in Kentucky, comes to grips with the burden of being the descendent of slave owners. Like so many white Americans, he wants racism to end and does not want to pass either the guilt or the racism on to the next generations. Here he tries to address the many complex issues of racism in this country. People of all races will be engaged by his fine writing and sensitivity. You might want to look at some of his other books as well. Fidelity is a series of gracious short stories exploring the relationships between individuals and families in a small Kentucky town called Port William. He has picked up this theme in several other books as well. He is well known for his poetry which is published in collections and in another one of my favorites, Sabbath.
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