{"product_id":"hard-scrabble-observations-on-a-patch-of-land-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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA meticulous observer of the natural world and an equally precise crafter of the written word, John Graves (1920-2013) is renowned for his Brazos Trilogy--\u003ci\u003eGoodbye to a River\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHard Scrabble\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eFrom a Limestone Ledge\u003c\/i\u003e. He is widely acknowledged as Texas's most beloved writer.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Texas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50662447579410,"sku":"9781477309353","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c06e0229-9944-4dbd-a0f5-f3bb8d26b60f.jpg?v=1733524211","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/hard-scrabble-observations-on-a-patch-of-land-9781477309353","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}