Wright Morris: The Home Place

HomePlace

The latest addition to my website is Wright MorrisThe Home Place. This is an affectionate though not too sentimental autobiographical portrait of the return of Clyde Muncy to his home place, Lone Tree, Nebraska, with his wife Peggy and their two children. The story takes place on their first day there and every page has an accompanying photo, taken by Morris. Like, Morris, Clyde is now a writer and wants to move away from New York and settle back home, not least because he does not want his children to grow up as New Yorkers. We follow their introduction to the farm where he grew up. He feels a great sense of nostalgia and belonging, while the children are curious and eager and, of course, unaware of the difficulties faced for the farmers, most of whom are old, with the young people having moved to the cities. His wife, though born on a farm herself, is unsure, and is most concerned with finding somewhere suitable for the family to live. Morris tells his story well and clearly with considerable love for the home place, admitting that most people will not understand his feelings. The novel is now a classic of US literature.

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