Great ending. ( )

I could feel Berry's love for rural community, and hear the well-considered ethics and politics behind his words. ( )

Port Wiliam -- I've been there -- now, after reading this book -- and I am so eager to return when I read the rest of Berry's books. I understand Jayber's feeling when he says "I don't remember when I did not know Port William, the town and the neighborhood."

I love how each character comes to life like those ordinary folks in a Rockwell painting -- only better. When Jayber starts out on his journey, I wasn't sure I liked him (and I worried about the whole 'Dickensish orphan' idea). But Jayber was on a journey -- of development mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, and this book is the story of his journey as it relates to Port William, his "being in it and [his] absences from it."

Favorite quotes:

"the quieted river...is like a window looking into another world that is like this one except that it is quiet. Its quietness makes it seem perfect. The ripples are like the slats of a blind or a shutter through which we see imperfectly what is perfect. Though that other world can be seen only momentarily, it looks everlasting. As the ripples become more agitated, the window darkens and the world is hidden. As I did not know then but know now, the surface of the river is like a living soul, which is easy to disturb, is often disturbed, but, growing calm, shows what it was, is, and will be."

"I had ways of not allowing myself to be fully present in the classroom...I looked out the window...a window that looked out into a tree was a source of inexpressible happiness, for it permitted me to observe the foraging of the birds and the life history of leaves."

"I was preserving in myself a country and a life, steadfastly remembered...I belonged, even defiantly, to what I remembered, and not to the place where I was."

"...it hit me that Jesus' own most fervent prayer was refused: 'Father, if thou be willing remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.'...it means that your will and God's will may not be the same. It means there's a good possibility that you won't get what you pray for. It means that in spite of your prayers you are going to suffer. It means you may be crucified...where do you find the strength to pray 'thy will be done' after you see what it means?"

"You couldn't forget that all the people in Port William, if they lived long, would come there [to the graveyard] burdened and leave empty-handed...and would finally come and stay empty-handed. Seeing them come and go, and come and stay, I began to be moved by a compassion...I wanted to make my heart as big as Heaven to include them all and love them and not be distracted."

"I liked the sound of people [in church] singing together, whatever they sang, but some of the hymns reached into me all the way to the bone: 'Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,' 'Rock of Ages,' 'Amazing Grace,' 'O God, Our Help in Ages Past.' I loved the different voices all singing one song, the various tones and qualities, the passing lifts of feeling, rising up, and going out forever...I loved to hear them sing 'The Unclouded Day' and 'Sweet By and By'...and it times of sorrow when they sang 'Abide With Me,' I could not raise my head."

"I imagined all that the name [Father] would imply: the love, the compassion, the taking offense, the disappointment, the anger, the bearing of wounds, the weeping of tears, the forgiveness, the suffering unto death. If love could force my own thoughts over the edge of the world and out of time, then could I not see how the divine omnipotence might by the force of its own love be swayed down into the world? Could I not see how it might, because it could know its creatures only by compassion, put on mortal flesh, become a man, and walk among us...suffering our faults and our death?...I could imagine Port William riding its humble wave through time under the sky, its little flames of wakefulness lighting and going out, its lives passing through birth, pleasure, suffering, and death. I could imagine God looking down upon it, its lives living by His spirit, breathing by His breath, knowing by His light, but each life living also (inescapably) by its own will -- His own body given to be broken." ( )

http://eloisebythebookpiles.blogspot.... ( )

Among the finest novels I've ever read. Certainly the best of the Port William Membership stories. ( )