The Memory of Old Jack - a review

The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a depressing book, but also with a blessed encouragement near the end.

Jack Beechum’s life was full of disappointments. His marriage. His ambition in work. His children following after him. All were failures in his mind, and objectively. His memory of it all as an old man paralyzed him, literally and physically. Yet he left behind a small group of men who respected him and sought to carry on his legacy.

The title has a double meaning, only revealed at the end. While most of the book is Jack remembering his past life and woes, the last few chapters are Jack’s “adopted sons,” those he has mentored and have adopted his values and way of life, remembering HIM, and carrying on his farm, his way, his harvest, his memory.

Wendell Berry is a compelling author, and I commend anything he writes. (Ironically, he was introduced to me by someone who hurt me much, while Berry’s writings have healed me much.) He values the land, work, and the community of the older faithful, probably in that order, above anything else. Including family and church. So his priorities aren’t exactly aligned with a Christian worldview. You could even call it idolatrous of ancestors and place, tradition and soil. But there’s enough overlap with Biblical truth to make it a very worthwhile read. Much of it is “Christ-haunted,” as Dorothy Sayers might say.

Much of his writing is a lament for a bygone age – nostalgic. But as I look ahead to being the oldest generation alive in a decade or three, I’m starting to see the problem Berry presents: some of those up and coming attain the wisdom needed, yet many do not. Sometimes I’m one of those that misses it.

There is a striking lack of God’s sovereignty in Wendell Berry’s picture – He only appears once or twice in the whole book. It’s more a modern-day Ecclesiastes.

But Berry’s books are drenched with salt-of-the-earth wisdom that will edify you deeply.

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