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A review by jwf
American Harvest: God, Country, and Farming in the Heartland by Marie Mutsuki Mockett
5.0
I have been thinking about my review of this book for several days and have not come up with a well organized way to present it, I apologize in advance for my haphazard and incomplete thoughts.
First of all, I was probably primed to love this book. I am a former farmer and lapsed Christian who works for a Mennonite in a predominantly Mennonite community. Also the 1972 National Geographic article about customer harvesting crews was probably one of the first magazine articles that I ever read.
Yes this is a flawed book. No combine head weighs 12 tons. There are no where near a billion grains of wheat per bushel. Also some of the author's statements about the Mennonite community miss the mark at times.
Having said all this, I still loved the book and recommend it. Immediately prior to reading this book I read Mary Trump's book, Too Much and Never Enough, which is similar to this book in as much as it is a flawed book about flawed people, and could only be described a soul crushing. In American Harvest, the author never finds the answers to her questions, never fully understands the people she is with and unintentionally seems to cause dissension within the harvesting crew; and yet the book for me was soul elevating. For me it was refreshing to read a book where the author saw that it is possible to tolerate, appreciate, possibly even befriend people who don't look like you or think like you.
First of all, I was probably primed to love this book. I am a former farmer and lapsed Christian who works for a Mennonite in a predominantly Mennonite community. Also the 1972 National Geographic article about customer harvesting crews was probably one of the first magazine articles that I ever read.
Yes this is a flawed book. No combine head weighs 12 tons. There are no where near a billion grains of wheat per bushel. Also some of the author's statements about the Mennonite community miss the mark at times.
Having said all this, I still loved the book and recommend it. Immediately prior to reading this book I read Mary Trump's book, Too Much and Never Enough, which is similar to this book in as much as it is a flawed book about flawed people, and could only be described a soul crushing. In American Harvest, the author never finds the answers to her questions, never fully understands the people she is with and unintentionally seems to cause dissension within the harvesting crew; and yet the book for me was soul elevating. For me it was refreshing to read a book where the author saw that it is possible to tolerate, appreciate, possibly even befriend people who don't look like you or think like you.