Wonderful as Berry's fiction always is. Like Remembering (the middle one) the best. ( )

Wendell Berry is a find. The three novels here are "Nathan Coulter", "Remembering", and "A World Lost", all somewhat connected, mostly centering around the farm denizens of a small community. "Nathan Coulter" is easily the best of the three, about a young boy around World War II who "struggles to grow up and understand the value of land and family". It is mainly a series of vignettes starring various characters of the extended family. One, about Nathan's Uncle Burley and a miraculously huge catfish he lands, is what might have resulted had Mark Twain written "The Old Man and the Sea". A humor masterpiece, that only reveals itself as such toward the end. The final paragraph brings the reader to a sudden shock of realization how the strength and gravity of adulthood has suddenly passed from his grandfather to Nathan. This novel is similar to and the equal of "Jim the Boy" and "The Lions Fed the Tigers". The second, "Remembering", is about the struggle of a man, Andy Catlett, to come to terms with the loss of his right hand in a farm accident, and is worthy, but more disjointed than the first story. It was a pleasant surprise to see a grown-up Nathan Coulter in a small part in this story. The final story, "A World Lost", is from the point of view of nine-year-old Andy, whose peaceful world of the fields and wildlife of Chatham Springs falls to pieces when his favorite Uncle Andrew is murdered. The author's masterful portrayal of Andrew through young Andy's eyes brings home the shock and unreality that this must have inflicted upon Andy. ( )