Joy of Man's Desiring

This book, and Giono's "Song of the World," are the two of the most beautiful, wise, transformative works of fiction that I know -- even in translation. The human characters in these novels are entirely a part of the breathing earth that enfolds them. And conversely there is no aspect of the land that is not alive; the wind, the forest, animals, the ground itself are all active participants in the unfolding of events. The translations are excellent, yet Giono's writing, and his vision, are among the most ecological and eloquent to be found in any language. These books that gave me the impetus to be a writer. If you care for nature, and the prospect of humankind living in genuine participation and reciprocity with earthly nature, these are your books. An essential tonic for our collective ecological insanity...

Jean Giono french novelist from Provence;father a cobbler. His work falls into two main sections;the pre-war novels (the best) and the post-war romances.This novel is from the former period and is rightly considered his masterpiece.It is a mysterious,ambiguous,lyrical account of the lives of simple folk, a story that must be told.In Bobi, the con-man saviour, Giono found a perfect surrogate for himself and his pastoral project.This book is alive with an epic sense of people living under the spell of and living in accordance with, the laws of nature. Bobi arrives in a small country community and through his prophetic homolies, distilations of the genuinely important aspects of daily life around them, brings forth their spiritual awakening .Seasons, and the changes wrought are exquisitly rendered in prose of great beauty.The act of eating with friends is described as an almost religious ritual, of communal empathy and staggering enlightenment. This is a book that will bind you in its own magic circle of seasonal change and renewal. Highly recommended.

It's not hard to see why Giono was one of Henry Miller's favorite writers. This opera of rural life looks into the selves of people and animals; even the weather is an active character in the narrarative. The story meditates on the dependence of man on nature, which saddles him with the responsibility of joy on its own terms no matter how opposed they are to culture and modernity. There is a climactic battle between joy and death. All the while, it remains a readable, compelling, deceptively straightforward story.Full of wisdom and humanity, The Joy of Man's Desiring is one of my favorite books of all time, and its return into print after a long absence is cause for gratitude.