Third Person Rural - by Noel Perrin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Essays on rural life that not only address the many how-to questions that bedevil country dwellers, but also the larger direction that life is taking on this planet.

Perrin, a transplanted New Yorker and now a "real" Vermonter, candidly admits his early mistakes while giving concrete advice on matters such as what to do with maple syrup (other than put it on your pancakes), how to use a peavey, and how to replace your rototiller with a garden animal.

Review Quotes

Praise for Noel Perrin and his Person Rural series

"No writer since E.B. White can make puttering around a small farm sound more satisfying... Perrin is always deft, droll, and thoroughly civilized."--Washington Post Book World

"This is a dangerous book. It almost made me decide to go ahead and get pigs."--Roy Blount, Jr. New York Times Book Review

"For those of us who have no particular desire to pick up and move to the country, these essays are an excellent way to get a taste of what it's all about... Like the maul with which he splits his winter wood supply, his prose is finely sharpened and wielded with great precision, and it strikes in just the proper place."--Christian Science Monitor

"You have to admire how Perrin lets the language break down into little fragments, hard stones left by a receding glacier. It isn't easy to talk about the soul, and New Englanders have as hard a time as anyone. Perrin's writing mirrors that difficulty, that ingrained reticence."--Alex Hanson, Valley News