|
|
Living With Lincoln: Life and Art in the Heartland
Dan Guillory. Living With Lincoln: Life and Art in the Heartland.
Stormline Press (1989)
ISBN: 093515311X
Dan Guillory has taken the time, the good time, to do the job
right. This rich and varied collection of essays about Illinois
makes it much easier to accept the broken, the uneven, the weathered
out of line in our Midwestern landscape (and in ourselves). This
Millikin University professor from Findlay has worked carefully
to give us this fine version of ourselves.
--John Knoepfle
From Library Journal
Originally published in the Illinois Times , most of these 26
uneven but generally witty and finely crafted essays by a New
Orleans native now teaching at Milliken University are of more
than purely local interest. In search of the soul of the heartland,
Guillory writes lyrically of Illinois's barns, windmills, Amish
community, restored houses, even the Comet automobile, manufactured
in Decatur from 1917 to 1924. No armchair enthusiast, he writes
knowingly and lovingly--with an eye on their aesthetic value--about
his ventures into gardening and restoring a 1958 Chevy Bel Air.
Exuberant, never stuffily academic, these essays radiate a feeling
for what endures in Midwestern life. Generally, a pleasurable
collection.
-- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
From Independent Publisher
Dan Guillory, as a transplanted Louisianian, sees an Illinois
that many natives might have missed or thought uninteresting.
For the most part, Guillory uncoveres places and people that come
to life in language that makes them three-dimensional and lively.
The focus here is rural. Guillory writes about his travels through
small towns, his own life in an ancient farmhouse in a small town,
and his interactions with rural folks. But these aren't quaint
essays; most have something to say about our way of life.
The best essays relate Guillory's introductions to acquaintances
or friends or his observations about rural life or nature. For
example, in "Goodbye, Proud Barns" he laments how the
farmer's lifestyle is changing and leaving behind the best symbol
of farming; in "The Zen of Truck Repair" he introduces
the reader to an almost mythic truck mechanic who completely rebuilds
a truck for Guillory-body and all. Some of these essays do fall
short, however, and come across as forced or stuffily academic.
His "Mansions and Carriages: A Walking Tour of Historic Old
Decatur" sounds like a weak attempt at local PR and doesn't
excite the reader the way "Bel Air: The Automobile as Art
Objecet" does.
The most interesting symbol to follow through this book, though,
is Abe Lincoln: To Guillory, he comes to mean Illinois. He quotes
a friend as saying "'If you turn up a rock in central Illinois,
you're bound to find something about Lincoln under it."'
Give n Guillory's southern heritage, his choice of Lincoln to
embody much of this book is intriguing. Overall, these essays,
most of which appeared in Illinois Times and Rural Life,
among other places, work as small reminders of what rural life
really means, especially to people who discover it as newcomers
to the Midwest.
|
