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Country Cured Down Home Press There may not be many country stores left, and the ones that are still around have probably abandoned the pot-bellied stove in favor of central heat. But in Country Cured, Jerry Bledsoe carries on the storytelling, philosophizing tradition of that bygone institution. Like the fellows who were fixtures of country living, contemplating life from the corner housing those old black stoves, Bledsoe tracks the human condition to its source, the heart. What he finds there renews his spirit and informs his writing. In a style as easy-going and as pleasant to read as an afternoon on the front porch sipping iced tea and watching the cars pass by, Bledsoe writes about the territory common to us all. His town could be our town; his family, ours. For he is exploring universal themes: family, love, work, nature, community, change, tradition. Roaming hills and woodlands, seacoasts and sidewalks in Country Cured is like traveling widely in Concord with Thoreau, like hitching a ride with Charles Kuralt. Not since Lake Wobegon has an unfamiliar world been made so vividly known. The landscape Bledsoe explores encompasses humor and suffering, loss and renewal, eccentrics and the familiar pull of home and love. He speaks in a wise and soothing voice of a personal vision so alive and engaging that it turns small into large, the private into the universal.
Links Visit Jerry Bledsoe’s Web site at http://www.jerrybledsoe.com/. Also by Jerry Bledsoe:
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