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Letters from the Country Carol Bly |
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An enchanting exploration of the place of a small town in a big world—with a new preface by the author! Letters from the Country, one of Bly's best-known and best-loved books, is a collection of essays as fresh today as when they were originally published in Minnesota Monthly. This contemporary classic welcomes readers to the small town of Madison, Minnesota (population 2,242), a rural community struggling to place itself in the new American landscape. "Carol Bly cares passionately about the quality of life and has the wit to write her criticisms without a hint of condescension. These are well-crafted essays in which vigor combines with good humor." —Newsweek "A spirited and inspiring book. A very readable mixture of sociology, secular sermons, and good stories." —New York Times Book Review "These now-classic essays examine life in the small towns and farmland of rural Minnesota. Bly is a maverick who has laid claim to a rigorous intellectual territory outside the conventional urban mainstream. She refuses to mock her subjects-the 'lost Swedes' of small-town USA. Bly is critical of many aspects of rural life, such as neighbors' disinclination to speak plainly or disagree. But she writes with exacting logic, she points a moral direction for the countryside" —Minnesota Monthly "No one in this country writes of rural life with more understanding, love, and anger than Carol Bly. To know what life in the farmlands and towns in the United States feels like, this book is essential." —Thomas McGrath "If Bly is not quite the Joan Didion of Duluth and surrounding areas, it is because her concerns are much more crucial." —Jackson Daily News "Fierce and funny. She's the best thing to come out of rural Minnesota since Sinclair Lewis left Sauk Centre." —Country Journal Carol Bly teaches ethics at the University of Minnesota, where she is the 1998-99 Edelstein-Keller Author of Distinction. She is the author of The Passionate, Accurate Story (1990), The Tomcat's Wife and Other Stories (1991), Changing the Bully Who Rules the World (1996), and Backbone (1985). 208 pages | 5 7/16 x 8 1/2 | 1999 |
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$16.95 Paper