Our Only World

Starred review from January 26, 2015
âValid criticism,â poet, conservationist, and national treasure Berry (The Unsettling of America) declares in his latest collectionâs opening essay, âattempts a just description of our condition.â The book goes on to vivisect, with uncommon lucidity and common sense, the accruing damages of the âindustrial economy and its so-called free market,â as well as our âcommerce of violenceâ that profits from the âdestruction of land and peopleâ as shown in the essay âOur Deserted Country,â about the wastelands created by industrial agriculture. Berryâs crusade is not for conservation but repair, and in another selection, âLocal Economies,â he offers a âreasonable permanence of dwelling place and vocationâ as one remedy. Adhering to an uncompromising ethic that combines stern humility with compassion, Berry rallies a sense of hope (though âthe task of hope becomes harderâ) and responsibility for confronting growing physical and political problems, represented here by the tortured political rhetoric he unpacks in âCaught in the Middle.â Moreover, he offers a range of practical, âsmall solutionsââchanges of principle, not policyâthat both chasten the reader and inspire him or her to continue âour long, necessary, difficult, happy effortâ to protect âour only world.â These essays are classic Berry, balancing the fiery conservationist prophet with the lucid and thoughtful poet; the reflective farmer with the visionary writer.