Making Hay

Klinkenborg is a writer of great sensitivity, no matter what his subject. I have read a number of his books and am always on the alert for his New York Times columns. He is a master of the English language and is a keen observer of man and nature.

As a suburban housewife with no experience and little interest in hay, I enjoyed it and would recommend it with some reservations. I spent a fair amount of time googling the terms/machinery (windrow, buckrake etc.). If you're curious about haymaking and/or curious about whatever Mr. Klinkenborg's curious about (that's why I read it), then what the hay! It was pretty good and I learned about hay.

Klinkenborg knows this topic is off the beaten track. No puns, metaphors or euphemisms intended, it is literally a book about the production of hay in the vast fields of Minnesota and Iowa. His fascination perplexes no one more than the author's relatives, who make a living at it and observe his enthusiasm for the work with benign bemusement. Of course in the process of learning the family trade, Klinkenborg learns something about his own heritage, but he presents this as mere incidental observations, like an old friend waved to at the end of a row just before turning the combine around to get back to business. The writing is superb. I'd give it a 10, but he does tend to go a tad overboard with loving descriptions of the machinery.