Recommendations
Farm City - Novella Carpenter 2009
Novella Carpenter is, I think, the Laura Ingalls of my adult life.
Just released this year, Novella Carpenter's almost Dada-esque tale of life and farming (yes, farming) in quiet
and under-used but filmic parts of Oakland carves a unique space in the reading life of anyone who has even breathed in
the past fifty years.
This means pig-rearing and farming on urban plots she squats just because she can. Her neighbors rise up
like clip art from a fantastical array of characters that would remain flat - completely - in almost any other text.
But from the pig-slaughtering Northern California bleached blond with a heart of steel to her neighbor across the street who
just doesn't happen to live in a house, Carpenter, I would argue remodels our very souls with
her uncanny vision of what is possible in urban america today.
Thomas Jefferson would love this book. It speaks to the hope and vision of those who really make change -- who
see urban "blight" and see flower and pigs and Italian salame by the armful.
Ma and Pa would see a kindred spirit in Novella Carpenter's kind of anarchic creativity. She would
earn a choice seat in the sod cabin, scarfing up Ma's hotcakes with butter and syrup, wiping her mouth and asking for seconds.
Grab this book and I guarantee, you will be up nights until Carpenter's indigo charm and chutzpah has knocked
your socks right off.
