{"product_id":"hard-scrabble-john-graves-9781477309353","title":"Hard Scrabble: Observations on a Patch of Land","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"A kind of homemade book--imperfect like a handmade thing, a prize. It's a galloping, spontaneous book, on occasion within whooping distance of that greatest and sweetest of country books, Ivan Turgenev's \u003ci\u003eA Sportsman's Notebook\u003c\/i\u003e.\" --Edward Hoagland, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"His subjects are trees and brush, hired help, fences, soil, armadillos and other wildlife, flood and drought, local history, sheep and goats . . . and they come to us reshaped and reenlivened by his agreeably individual (and sometimes cranky) notions.\" --\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"If \u003ci\u003eGoodbye to a River\u003c\/i\u003e was in some sense Graves's \u003ci\u003eOdyssey\u003c\/i\u003e, this book is his [version of Hesiod's] \u003ci\u003eWorks and Days\u003c\/i\u003e. It is partly a book about work, partly a book about nature, but mostly a book about belonging. In the end John Graves has learned to belong to his patch of land so thoroughly that at moments he can sense in himself a unity with medieval peasants and Sumerian farmers, working with their fields by the Tigris.\" --Larry McMurtry, \u003ci\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHard Scrabble\u003c\/i\u003e is hard pastoral of the kind we have learned to recognize in Wordsworth, Frost, Hemingway, and Faulkner. It celebrates life in accommodation with a piece of the 'given' creation, a recalcitrant four hundred or so acres of Texas cedar brake, old field, and creek bottom, which will require of any genuine resident all the character he can muster.\" --\u003ci\u003eSouthwest Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e John Graves\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1477309357\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781477309353\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Texas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/09\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.81lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.65d","brand":"John Graves","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44049877696767,"sku":"9781477309353","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_38e0f1f4-6f30-495b-bb07-2630c62f58cd.jpg?v=1685003921","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/hard-scrabble-john-graves-9781477309353","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}