You Can Go Home Again: Adventures of a Contrary Life

I *am* going home again. After nearly 20 years in Texas, my family is moving back to Ohio. We feel that call that Gene Logsdon describes so movingly, hilariously. Now, most people, considering the fact that we are doing it by going first and finding jobs later, think we are certifiable. How wonderful to read Gene's work and find encouragement in values that go beyond acquisition and comfort. We're college [over]educated and employable, and jobs are the least of our worries. Gene's book talks about home, care, a sense of place. When a place where eleven generations have called home calls you back, you have to listen, and that's why we're going. We have a "10-year plan" -- we're lucky enough to be starting out on some acreage on my Dad's farm. And will build from there. My child and my brother's children will be able to cross the pasture to visit each other and their grandparents. Will we be self-sufficient? Of course not. What does that mean anyway? People are too "self-sufficient" as it is. I want to live someplace where I can depend on people (in all the right senses of the word). We'll grow some vegetables and berries, raise some chickens and have a good time doing it. I dream grandiosely of a cow or maybe three goats (I want to name them Gina, Lola and Brigitta, but my husband is pushing for "Shot Clock I, II, & III" [he spends a lot of time statting basketball games!]) I pour over Lehman's catalogues. It's fun to plan.I think that's where reviewer "trailboss" below misses Gene's point. I've read everything of Gene's that I can lay my hands on (too much is out of print! ), and one point he repeatedly emphasizes is that this is not about subsistence farming. There's more than "survival" to it or it wouldn't be worth last week's supermarket strawberries.Gene never claims that you can find Total Peace, Contentment and Happiness and on a homestead. If you don't have some of that before you start, then disappointment is inevitable.Going home is about place, people, and good dirt. That's the saving grace of it. Not making a "profit" on it, not becoming Organically Pure, or worshipping Gaia. Of course, you can do all those things, but the home and the dirt is the start of it.And the softball. Former high school first-base ace here! Since we're moving to southern Richland County, Ohio, I hope we get to meet Gene and the boys in a softball tournament somewhere, sometime! In the meantime, Gene, keep pestering your publishers about reprints. :)

I just finished the book.Reading the other reviews, one gets the feeling that they were reading different books. It reminds me of the Indian folktale of the four blind men and the elephant. Actually, I like the Persian version better: where three men encounter the elephant on a very dark night. The fourth man brings a candle. Ultimately, the Persian story is a story of redemption and salvation. And so is You Can Go Home.This book is likely to cause discomfort to those have a very high need for order. Sometimes we (the Hecksel's) have guests on short notice. When that happens, we make the house suitable for company by taking all the clutter-of-life and pitching it into one of the bedrooms...the one with the lock, of course. Gene's book is a personal guided tour of that room. Great fun for those who love stories and antiques. Pain for those who crave a completely deterministic approach to life.Gene is gutsy because he talks about religion. Gene is doubly gutsy for talking about money. Americans are funny people. We will tell total strangers of our sexual conquests before ordering our second drink, but not tell our CPA the true extent of our wealth & earnings. Go figure.We are rich in proportion to what we do not need.

Trust your instincts - - this is the message that keeps returning in this story of one man's life filled with choices that would cause uncertainty for anyone. Gene's self-effacing narrative describes how uncertain life can be when faced with tough choices.These were very tough choices: Move from small-town USA to Metropolitan sprawl? Withdraw from something as precious as the priesthood? Steal some fresh-baked pies and risk the wrath of nuns?Somehow it is comforting to know that life can have an "undo" button. Gene illustrates that you can make a wrong choice and still recover. The message: You should always trust your instincts, and you can go home again.This is a wonderful, if brief, story of someone who bares his life and soul, so that others can see the common thread - - be true to yourself.

Mr. Logsdon goes a wonderful job of describing how it feels to "go home again" and why so many of us yearn for what we think is impossible. His stories and accounts of life at home are told in a warm and personal way; a way that touched and stirred my soul.