Overview

The beloved memoirist and bestselling author of Population: 485 reflects on the lessons he's learned from his unlikely alter ego, French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne. ""The journey began on a gurney,"" writes Michael Perry, describing the debilitating kidney stone that led him to discover the essays of Michel de Montaigne. Reading the philosopher in a manner he equates to chickens pecking at scraps--including those eye-blinking moments when the bird gobbles something too big to swallow--Perry attempts to learn what he can (good and bad) about himself as compared to a long-dead French nobleman who began speaking Latin at the age of two, went to college instead of kindergarten, worked for kings, and once had an audience with the Pope. Perry ""matriculated as a barn-booted bumpkin who still marks a second-place finish in the sixth-grade spelling bee as an intellectual pinnacle . . . and once said hello to Merle Haggard on a golf cart."" Written in a spirit of exploration rather than declaration, Montaigne in Barn Boots is a down-to-earth (how do you pronounce that last name?) look into the ideas of a philosopher ""ensconced in a castle tower overlooking his vineyard,"" channeled by a midwestern American writing ""in a room above the garage overlooking a disused pig pen."" Whether grabbing an electrified fence, fighting fires, failing to fix a truck, or feeding chickens, Perry draws on each experience to explore subjects as diverse as faith, race, sex, aromatherapy, and Prince. But he also champions academics and aesthetics, in a book that ultimately emerges as a sincere, unflinching look at the vital need to be a better person and citizen.

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9780062230560

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Reviews

Readers will laugh out loud frequently while taking in this very funny memoir, as this reviewer did, yet it's a profound laughter, the kind that gets you thinking.... One couldn't hope for a better introduction to the work of Perry or Montaigne. --Library Journal, starred review The two writers are clearly long-lost comrades, separated by centuries. Perry reflects, The guy would write about anything --which will remind readers of Perry himself, tackling issues with sincerity and humor, analyzing life, and evolving from self-exploration to self-improvement. You read Montaigne, you feel like you have a friend. Perry's readers will say the same of him. --Booklist Perry's refreshing candor, the essence of the personal essay, serves him well.... 'You read Montaigne, you feel like you have a friend, ' writes the author, and so readers are likely to feel about Perry. --Kirkus -Part portrait of a place, part rescue manual, part rumination on life and death, Population: 485 is a beautiful meditation on the things that matter.---Seattle Times on Population: 485 -A delightfully quirky account of a year in a mid-American life spent restoring a 1951 International Harvester, cultivating a garden, and falling in love.---USA Today on Truck -Drop whatever you are doing and sit down to read Michael Perry's Visiting Tom....Perry is a craftsman of the highest order....When you go back to doing what you were doing when you picked up this book, you might just see your world with a broader, more humane perspective.---New York Journal of Books on Visiting Tom -Displays Perry's charming penchant for nurturing things to life-be it a truck or a garden, a community or a baby-while, at the same time, nodding to the past. . . . Perry can take comfort in the power of his writing, his ability to pull readers from all corners onto his Wisconsin spread, and make them feel right at home among the chickens.---Seattle Times on Coop -A fun commentary on small-town America and today's insatiable appetite for goofy stories to fill the Web.---New York Post (Required Reading -- lead pick) on The Jesus Cow Part portrait of a place, part rescue manual, part rumination on life and death, Population: 485 is a beautiful meditation on the things that matter. --Seattle Times on Population: 485 A delightfully quirky account of a year in a mid-American life spent restoring a 1951 International Harvester, cultivating a garden, and falling in love. --USA Today on Truck Drop whatever you are doing and sit down to read Michael Perry's Visiting Tom....Perry is a craftsman of the highest order....When you go back to doing what you were doing when you picked up this book, you might just see your world with a broader, more humane perspective. --New York Journal of Books on Visiting Tom Displays Perry's charming penchant for nurturing things to life-be it a truck or a garden, a community or a baby-while, at the same time, nodding to the past. . . . Perry can take comfort in the power of his writing, his ability to pull readers from all corners onto his Wisconsin spread, and make them feel right at home among the chickens. --Seattle Times on Coop A fun commentary on small-town America and today's insatiable appetite for goofy stories to fill the Web. --New York Post (Required Reading -- lead pick) on The Jesus Cow

Drop whatever you are doing and sit down to read Michael Perry's Visiting Tom....Perry is a craftsman of the highest order....When you go back to doing what you were doing when you picked up this book, you might just see your world with a broader, more humane perspective. --New York Journal of Books on Visiting Tom A fun commentary on small-town America and today's insatiable appetite for goofy stories to fill the Web. --New York Post (Required Reading--lead pick) on The Jesus Cow A wonderful blend of Dave Berry-esque humor and E.B. White's reflective essays.... Don't be fooled by Perry's 'aw shucks' demeanor. He dives deep into not only the works of the 16th century French nobleman-essayist, but also into his translators, devotees and critics, flipping through each and finding the humor and wisdom for consideration in each encounter. --Lincoln Journal Star Perry's poignant, balanced, achingly funny prose is more than an ode to or critique of Michel De Montaigne. Instead, Perry uses the original essays to better understand his own life and bring a bit more humanity to an increasingly divisive world. --Los Angeles Review of Books The two writers are clearly long-lost comrades, separated by centuries. Perry reflects, 'The guy would write about anything'--which will remind readers of Perry himself, tackling issues with sincerity and humor, analyzing life, and evolving from self-exploration to self-improvement. 'You read Montaigne, you feel like you have a friend.' Perry's readers will say the same of him. --Booklist Of the recent books extolling and commending French essayist Michel de Montaigne, Michael Perry's new one might be the Montaignest. --Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Readers will laugh out loud frequently while taking in this very funny memoir, as this reviewer did, yet it's a profound laughter, the kind that gets you thinking.... One couldn't hope for a better introduction to the work of Perry or Montaigne. --Library Journal, starred review Perry's refreshing candor, the essence of the personal essay, serves him well.... 'You read Montaigne, you feel like you have a friend, ' writes the author, and so readers are likely to feel about Perry. --Kirkus Part portrait of a place, part rescue manual, part rumination on life and death, Population: 485 is a beautiful meditation on the things that matter. --Seattle Times on Population: 485 A delightfully quirky account of a year in a mid-American life spent restoring a 1951 International Harvester, cultivating a garden, and falling in love. --USA Today on Truck Displays Perry's charming penchant for nurturing things to life-be it a truck or a garden, a community or a baby-while, at the same time, nodding to the past. . . . Perry can take comfort in the power of his writing, his ability to pull readers from all corners onto his Wisconsin spread, and make them feel right at home among the chickens. --Seattle Times on Coop

-Part portrait of a place, part rescue manual, part rumination on life and death, Population: 485 is a beautiful meditation on the things that matter.---Seattle Times on Population: 485

Author Information

Michael Perry is a humorist, radio host, songwriter, and the New York Times bestselling author of several nonfiction books, including Visiting Tom and Population: 485, as well as a novel, The Jesus Cow. He lives in northern Wisconsin with his family and can be found online at www.sneezingcow.com.

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