The Need to Be Whole

Name: The Need to Be Whole
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Wendell Berry
ISBN: 9781705086797

Author: Wendell Berry

Narrator: Nick Offerman

Unabridged: 19 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 10/25/2022

Categories: Nonfiction, Social Science, Discrimination, Race & Ethnic Relations, Cultural & Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies

Synopsis

Wendell Berry has never been afraid to speak up for the dispossessed. The Need to Be Whole continues the work he began in The Hidden Wound (1970) and The Unsettling of America (1977), demanding a careful exploration of this hard, shared
truth: The wealth of the mighty few governing this nation has been built on the unpaid labor of others.

Without historical understanding of this practice of dispossession—the displacement of Native peoples, the destruction of both the land and land-based communities, ongoing racial division—we are doomed to continue industrialism’s
assault on both the natural world and every sacred American ideal. Berry writes, “To deal with so great a problem, the best idea may not be to go ahead in our present state of unhealth to more disease and more product development. It may
be that our proper first resort should be to history: to see if the truth we need to pursue might be behind us where we have ceased to look.” If there is hope for us, this is it: that we honestly face our past and move into a future guided by the
natural laws of affection. This book furthers Mr. Berry’s part in what is surely our country’s most vital conversation.

About Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry, an essayist, novelist, and poet, has been honored with the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry, the John Hay Award of the Orion Society, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, among others. In 2010, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama, and in 2016, he was the recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle. Berry lives with his wife, Tanya Berry, on their farm in Henry County, Kentucky.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Matt on December 13, 2022

I don’t think I’ve ever read a whole book of Wendell Berry’s non-fiction until now, but this was easily one of my favorite books I read this year. Berry is humble and wise and gracious and careful in his writing in ways I’ve rarely encountered. I may not agree with him at every point, but (as my wif......more

Goodreads review by Ken on August 26, 2022

A crucial book, truly. Written with a clarity and candor that can probably only come from 88 years on earth. No matter your political beliefs or cultural lens, something in here will feel like a record-scratch. Something we’re “not supposed to say”, which Berry freely acknowledges - saying that frie......more

Goodreads review by Sean on January 17, 2023

I am a devoted follower of Mr. Berry, although mostly confined to his essays and poetry. It pains me to say that this book disappointed me on many levels. I have no quibble with his general conclusions about the ills of the present day, all of which have been laid bare in his previous essays. But th......more

Goodreads review by Russel on February 25, 2023

I love Berry's fiction and I find much even in this worthy of contemplation, but it's a deeply flawed book. First, Berry's thought. As a celebration of community, as a reminder of our need to take care of the land, there is much to admire. And if one is to be a thinking Christian I believe one must......more

Goodreads review by Christian on January 28, 2023

A surprisingly, almost shockingly, good book. When I saw Berry had written on prejudice, I sort’ve rolled my eyes. However, this book is worth the read. You will be shaking your head in dismay one minute, and then nodding it in agreement the next. It is already receiving polarizing reviews, and it’s......more