Место, куда я вернусь

by Robert Penn Warren, Алексей Иорданский (Translator)

This is the story of Jed Tewksbury, an uprooted and alienated man - not uncommon in our time - told by himself in a style sometimes poetic, sometimes raunchy, an effective blend of his backwoods origin and his scholarly attainments. Jed is born just at the end of the First World War on a run-down farm near the little town of Dugton, Alabama. When he is nine his drunken father dies in a low-comedy accident that becomes part of the obscene folklore of the region. His semi-literate mother has a caustic wit, an iron character, and the determination that Jed will escape the South. As she puts it: "Git what's to git, then git. Git on."

A dedicated Latin teacher and Jed's football prowess combine to get him a scholarship at a jerkwater college, whence he enters the graduate school of the University of Chicago and excels in the field of classical and medieval literature. After fighting with the Italian Partisans behind the Nazi lines, Jed returns to the university and marries a woman who dies soon thereafter. He moves to a new job in Nashville and becomes involved in a torrid and ill-fated love affair, the central event of the novel, coloring all the subsequent action. He flees to Paris and then to Chicago; he marries again, fathers a son, and is soon divorced.

Middle-aged, and now a figure of world renown, Jed goes back to Dugton for a long-deferred visit to his mother's grave, and - in what must be one of the most moving passages ever written - is able to make some kind of peace with himself and with his past. (Book jacket)

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Literature, Southern, Novels, American

528 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.

Reviews

[Spiros Malamis · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

Δεν ξέρω εάν το "Όλοι οι άνθρωποι του βασιλιά" είναι όντως το αριστούργημα του Warren. Ίσως ναι. Σε τελική ανάλυση, όμως, δεν έχει και καμία σημασία αυτή η συγκριτική προσέγγιση. Το "Ένας τόπος για να επιστρέφεις" αποτελεί ένα αμιγώς υπαρξιακό μυθιστόρημα, που κατορθώνει να συγκινήσει βαθιά τον αναγνώστη. Και αυτό νομίζω είναι αρκετό.

Διαβάζοντάς το, ιδίως τις σελίδες που φαίνονται συνήθως βαρετές ή περιττές παρά την τεχνική τους αρτιότητα, μου ήρθε στο μυαλό ο έτερος σπουδαίος Αμερικανός λογοτέχνης ο Williams. Η σύνδεση αυτή, ωστόσο, δεν αφορά τον Stoner παρά την κοινή προβληματική και θεματολογία. Αφορά περισσότερο το "Πέρασμα του Μακελάρη". Και αυτό γιατί και οι δύο συγγραφείς κατορθώνουν να αναδείξουν πτυχές της ανθρώπινης φύσης και βαθιά υπαρξιακούς προβληματισμούς, αξιοποιώντας μικρά και φαινομενικά ανούσια στιγμιότυπα της καθημερινότητας. Πόσα μπορεί να πει, τι έχει να προσφέρει η περιγραφή της διαδικασίας κυνηγιού βουβαλιών στην περίπτωση του Williams. Και τι έχει να δηλώσει η περιγραφή της υπαίθρου του Αμερικανικού Νότου στην περίπτωση του Warren; Η απάντηση είναι απλή. Τίποτα και, συνεπώς, όλα.

"Ό,τι κι αν ήταν αυτό που είχα έρθει ν' αναζητήσω, ήτανε φως φανάρι πως δεν το είχα βρει. Και ας προσθέσω κάτι ακόμη, με όσες αυταπάτες κι αν είχα ξεκινήσει, τώρα δεν μου είχε μείνει ούτε μία. Είχα μονάχα εκείνη την αρχαία σοφία , την οποία όλοι παλεύουμε σκληρά να αποκτήσουμε και στο τέλος πάντα διαπιστώνουμε πως την είχαμε ήδη: κάθε άνθρωπος πρέπει να χαράζει τον δικό του δρόμο στη ζωή και, εν πάση περιπτώσει, ελάχιστες πιθανότητες έχει να γνωρίζει τι σημαίνει αυτό."

Αξίζουν πολλά συγχαρητήρια και ευχαριστίες στις Εκδόσεις Πόλις και τον Νίκος Α. Γκιώνης για την τριλογία του Warren. Πολλά συγχαρητήρια αξίζουν, επίσης, στις μεταφράστριες του έργου του, Αθηνά Δημητριάδου και Anna Maragaki για το άριστο αποτέλεσμα.

[Tasos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Είναι παρήγορο μέσα στον εκδοτικό οργασμό των τελευταίων χρόνων να κυκλοφορούν και άγνωστες και παραγνωρισμένες αφηγήσεις παλαιότερων δεκαετιών που όχι μόνο αξίζουν την επανεκτίμηση, αλλά διεκδικούν με τη δύναμη και τη στιβαρότητα τους τον χαρακτηρισμό του κλασικού, υπενθυμίζοντας στον αναγνώστη τις κορυφές μιας λογοτεχνίας άλλης εποχής, όπου οι λέξεις και τα νοήματα απλώνονται και ξεδιπλώνονται χωρίς την πίεση των σύγχρονων επιταγών για πρωτοτυπία και φορμαλιστικα πειράματα.

Το «Ένας Τόπος Για Να Επιστρέφεις» ήταν το τελευταίο μυθιστόρημα που έγραψε ο Ρόμπερτ Πεν Γουόρεν το 1977, μια εποχή στην οποία ίσως φαινόταν ακόμα και τότε παλιομοδίτικα παραδοσιακό, αλλά σήμερα πλέον αποκαλύπτεται σε όλη τη διαχρονική αξία του ως ένα χαμηλόφωνο (τουλάχιστον σε σχέση με το «Όλοι οι Άνθρωποι του Βασιλιά», το μεγαλεπήβολο αριστούργημα του Γουόρεν), αλλά κολοσσιαίο έργο για την συμφιλίωση του ατόμου με τις ρίζες του. Μια συμφιλίωση που είναι ταυτόχρονα φυλακή και απελευθέρωση.

Όχι απλώς ένα bildungsroman για το χωριατόπαιδο του αμερικανικού Νότου που κατάφερε να αποδράσει από τη white trash καταγωγή του και να γίνει ένας ακαδημαϊκός στοχαστής διεθνούς κύρους, το βιβλίο είναι η απόπειρα αυτοβιογράφησης του κεντρικού ήρωα και αφηγητή, που δεν μπορεί παρά να εξελιχθεί σε ένα ξακαθάρισμα λογαριασμών με το παρελθόν και την καταγωγή του, μια υπαρξιακή αυτοδιερεύνηση που είναι ταυτόχρονα εξομολόγηση, απολογία και μια ύστατη απόπειρα κατανόησης στη δύση της ζωής του.

Μέσα από την παρατεταμένη, συχνά κυκλική αναδρομή του ήρωά του, ο Γουόρεν πλάθει ένα πορτρέτο διανοουμένου που δεν έπαψε ποτέ να αναμετριέται με την παιδικό του τραύμα, με τη ντροπή αλλά και το αναπόδραστο παρελθόν ως βάρος αλλά και ως πυξίδα, με το μαγνητικό πεδίο ενός απόντα πατέρα και μιας περήφανης μέσα στην αγέρωχη λαϊκότητα της μάνας, η σχέση με την οποία δίνει στο βιβλίο την συγκινητική του κορύφωση.

Ο αμερικανικός Νότος δεν είναι μόνο ένας τόπος πραγματικός, ένας μικρόκοσμος με τους δικούς του αδυσώπητους κανόνες, αλλά αποκτά μεταφυσική βαρύτητα, γίνεται σύμβολο μιας ακεραιότητας που έχει χαθεί, ενός εαυτού που δεν επανέρχεται, ενός τόπου που επιστρέφεις για να διαπιστώσεις ότι ανάμεσα σε αυτά που κατέκτησες στην πορεία και σε όσα έχασες ανεπιστρεπτί δεν υπάρχει ισοζύγιο.

4,5/5 γιατί υπάρχει και το Όλοι οι Άνθρωποι του Βασιλιά

[Roula · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ξέρω ότι από όσα κάνω ,τίποτα δεν είναι σημαντικό . Δεν είμαι άλλο από φυρα της ιστορίας. Ίσως τίποτα από όσα κάνω δεν είναι καν αληθινό ,σε τελική ανάλυση . Όμως γεννήθηκα ακριβώς εδώ ,σε τούτο το παλιό σπίτι ,και κοιτάζω από το παράθυρο και ξέρω τι βλέπω ,βλέπω και μερικούς ανθρώπους που μου αρέσει να τα λέω μαζί τους και μου αρέσουν τα όσα κάνω μέσα στη μέρα μου και ίσως αυτό τελικά είναι η αληθινή ζωή ,σε τελική ανάλυση ."

Το βιβλίο αυτό είναι η ιστορία ζωής ενός άνδρα ,του Τζεντ ,για το πού ξεκίνησε ως ένας φτωχός νεαρός με ονειρα,για τις σπουδές του ,τα πρόσωπα που γνώρισε και τον επηρέασαν στη σκέψη του ,τις γυναίκες ,την οικογένειά του ,μα κυρίως πρόκειται για την ιστορία ενός άνδρα που έψαχνε ένα μέρος στο οποίο να ανήκει . Άλλωστε αυτό δεν είναι το ζητούμενο όλων μας ? Και τελικά νομίζω πως καταλήγουμε πώς αυτό δεν είναι μέρος ,αλλά οι άνθρωποι ,οι αναμνήσεις και η ιστορία μας .
Είναι ένα βιβλίο που αρχικά διαβάζοντας το με ενθουσίασε σε τέτοιο βαθμό με το ψυχογραφημα και τις ατάκες που σημείωνα-μιας και εδώ πρεπει να πω ότι θεωρώ πως το δυνατό σημείο του συγγραφέα είναι η γραφή του και όχι τόσο η πλοκή - ώστε πίστευα πως θα έχουμε ένα σίγουρο 5αρι .ωστόσο νομίζω πως οι λεπτομέρειες στις οποίες μπήκε ήταν πολλές και κάπου "ξεφουσκωσε " ο ενθουσιασμός . Παρ'όλα αυτα, βέβαια και το βιβλίο αξίζει ,βέβαια και ο ποιητικός λόγος του συγγραφέα είναι αξιοσημείωτος και με έκανε να θέλω να διαβάσω και άλλα δικά του βιβλία ,βέβαια και μας αποζημιωσε στη συναναγνωση με τα αγαπημένα κορίτσια , Έλσα και Αντζυ ,βέβαια και είναι ένα χαρακτηριστικό κλασσικό δείγμα αμερικανικού μυθιστορήματος.
🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 αστέρια

"Και καθώς κρεμούσα το ακουστικό ,φαντασιωθηκα ότι κουβέντιαζα με τον Καντ,ότι μπόρεσα να του τα πω όλα ,το ίδιο εκείνο απόγευμα, κι έτσι κερδήθηκε το όραμα μιας κάποιας ανακούφισης και μιας σοφίας ευλογημένης . Γι'αυτό ,γαμω το ,δεν τους θέλουμε τους φίλους;"

[Ned · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the good fortune of finding one of my favorite author’s first edition hardbacks in the local used bookstore. I started reading this on vacation in Hilton Head Island. With all the distractions I typically choose a book that I’m fairly certain I will love. And I did love this, perhaps slightly less than his other novels. I also bring a hefty set of other books for our extended family to read, but they usually sit there untouched, ever since my father-in-law passed away in Jan 2023. I guess he was my book buddy, and I miss him so. I finished this on the first day of summer, finally getting some heat from the sun after a very rainy spring. Now I’m on to tackle Chernow’s new book on Mark Twain, and excited for an event where I will hear him in person with 2 friends on 28 June.

I can’t help but believe this novel is autobiographical in many respects: A young boy in rural Alabama loses his father, a handsome and carousing drunkard who falls from his horse drawn buckboard and is crushed under the wheel, reportedly with his member in his hand. Apparently, his member (crudely referred to as his “dong’) was a most impressive one, and his greatest asset, and gets a great deal of attention. The boy is impoverished, and his mother moves him to a small, backward town of Dugston, and his odyssey begins – his acerbic but loving widowed mother doing all in her power to get her only son to “leave this backwater once and for all and never come back.” The boy, Jed, is a good student and does just that, going to a fine college and ending up in urban Chicago, becoming a professor of medieval literature. He’s a bumbling socialite, however, big and clumsy, but has a certain charm. The love interest is the one smart and pretty girl from his Alabama home, Rozelle, who is a nemesis of sorts, and with whom he has a number of dalliances over the course of his life. She’s a tortured soul who marries for money, yet never quite seems to measure up to the old money and customs of her new family. Much of the story is in Nashville, where the old family she married into is well known, and by coincidence Jed ends up in a teaching role. They have a torrid extramarital affair, which reaches a predictable crisis and explodes. There is a great deal of sexual content in this book, unusual for the 1950s, although Warren’s book takes us into the 1970s and the novel itself was published in 1977. We hear nothing of the politics or world events of the day. Jed lives in his insular academic world once he returns from WW2 where he fought initially with the partisans in Italy, and found he had the capability to hate and kill, for which he is forever changed for the worse, having remorse in later life for his personal atrocities.

This book is ambitious and erudite, full of latin phrases and literature (Jed is an expert in translating and teaching Dante and his predecessors). But Jed struggles to fit in, and doesn’t marry till later in life, forever searching for a “home” (the subject of the title), not seeing his own mother for decades, and their correspondence (his mother’s in broken, idiomatic English) is entirely through letters and an occasional phone call. Jed truly fulfilled her wish by literally not returning till after her death, when Jed buries her and finds the “home” is so changed as to be almost unrecognizable. Somewhat reminiscent of Wolfe’s novels, there is not actual physical home in any hoped for sense, and Jed seeks yet does not find it in family, marriage, work, or the university setting. He just can’t get comfortable. The “home” of family, love or friendship is always elusive, poor Jed, with all his successes, finds himself living in a rented attic room in Chicago, teaching and writing and forever musing over his past.

Warren writes in an odd style in this book, very poetic, but the point of view is the author’s writing about himself – we are always two steps removed. It creates tension since we see Jed’s blindness to his own foibles. He is a simple man, though highly educated, and this book is largely about the struggles to fit in of a man of humble means, who eventually despises the superficiality of the well-to-do, who find Jed’s upbringing delightful. He loves to tell an amusing version of his father’s death during parties, exaggerating the story for hilarious effect. I am guilty of this myself, having grown up on a small farm in Kansas, and amongst my higher education friends I would often regale them with embellished farm stories, trading in my roots for some cheap entertainment for my city-bred friends.

I enjoyed this more than The Great Gatsby, another story of rags to riches (wealth in Fitzgerald’s account). Warren’s characters are better rendered (his physical and psychological exposes of people are exceptional and highly nuanced and delightful). The old “sour mash” plays a major factor, a great deal of bourbon sipping, as I suspect the author himself was quite accustomed. The decaying old south is a major theme that always thrills me, having some direct experience myself. It’s a favorite genre, why I love Faulkner, Percy, O’Conner and many other more modern writers (Brown, McCarthy, Gay, Matthiessen, etc).

Warren staggers time, often teasing the reader with what is to come, then going back to tell the whole story in great detail. This device works well for me in a novel and was masterful here. Jed does have many encounters with ladies of all walks of life, but the frank sexuality is a pretext for his realization that there is no ultimate satisfaction in the joys of the flesh, just another failed attempt to find that “home” he so wants. He never actually achieves that deep love and connection, that “place” he yearns for – he realizes this in later life. Perhaps this is the burning drive of Warren, and his protagonist, to keep exploring to discover this paradox in his words through his novels. This is why I think it must surely be autobiographical.

I’m certain modern readers will find the paternalistic and chauvinistic characters throughout to be demeaning to women, but I have no doubt it is accurate to the author’s time and place. He’s writing authentically, and his literary skill and beautiful storytelling make this a meaningful book. It truly captures that time-honored tradition of a man trying vainly to find himself, that being ultimately unknowable as many of the philosopher’s tell us. The literary career, and conflict of art and life, reminded me somewhat of William’s Stoner, another book I greatly enjoyed. This book has a great deal of humor and worked wonderfully as an old-timey kind of story, but with many embedded flashes of brilliance and intelligence.

Warren wrote many books and poems and was well lauded in his life. If you’ve not read him yet, his exposes on race relations in the south are some of the best of their kind. I recommend A Robert Penn Warren reader for a sampling of this, if you’ve not yet read him.

[Έλσα · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ο τίτλος του βιβλίου είναι όλο το βιβλίο καθώς ο ήρωας κάνει τον δικό του κύκλο κ επιστρέφει στον τόπο του… εκεί που ξεκίνησαν όλα. Ο Τζεντ που μια ζωή ένιωθε μόνος κ αναζητούσε φροντίδα, κατανόηση κ μια οικογένεια δίπλα του. Ένας άνθρωπος με όνειρα κ ελπίδες για μια καλύτερη ζωή γεμάτη αγάπη.
Μερικές φορές σου έδινε την εντύπωση πως ένιωθε λίγος, ανίκανος, υποταγμένος στη μοίρα, υποταγμένος στους ανθρώπους. Μια καθαρή ψυχή που ανεχόταν, συγχωρούσε. Έψαχνε απαντήσεις.
Τον αγάπησα αυτόν τον ήρωα, με μελαγχόλησε πολύ αλλά μπόρεσα να καταλάβω την ψυχοσύνθεσή του. Ένιωθε μόνος κ ανασφαλής. Ζητούσε μόνο συντροφιά κ βοήθεια.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the opening sentences, I knew I was going to have a problem with this book. The reason was this adorable, cutesy, Southern, penis-caused death mishap.

I was the only boy, or girl either, in the public school of the town of Dugton, Claxford, Alabama, whose father had ever got killed in the middle of the night standing up in the front of his wagon to piss on the hindquarters of one of the span of mules and, being drunk, pitching forward on his head, still hanging on to his dong, and hitting the pike in such a position and condition that both the left front and the left rear wheels of the wagon rolled, with perfect precision, over his unconscious neck, his having passed out being, no doubt, the reason he took the fatal plunge in the first place. Throughout, he was still holding on to his dong.

At first this tale of a dong and a death in Dixie portends a booksworth of unbearable quirkiness. As you read it, you can actually see the author patting himself on the back for an opening paragraph like that. But the novel quickly becomes rigidly humorless. In succession, the narrator Jed Tewksbury survives his white trash Dugton upbringing (his mother encouraging him to "git"), escapes to college, further escapes to a graduate program in classics at the University of Chicago (his application was rejected but he shows up on campus anyway and talks himself into the class - I guess the forties were just a magical time), fights Germans in Italy in the Second World War, comes back and marries a fellow student who quickly dies of cancer, moves to Nashville to teach, falls in love with a married former high school crush, returns to Chicago, marries a former girlfriend, has a son, gets divorced, watches the son grow to adulthood, and runs into the Nashville girlfriend in Rome. There are a few more lovers thrown in there, edited out for brevity. Along the way he has father issues, mother issues, lady issues, and lots of solitude and moroseness. You are surprised reaching the end of the book when you see it's only 340 pages, because it felt like 740.

For genital balance, here's another annoying passage; the quirk is long gone and we're now focused on deadly serious coronas, wounds, and breeches:

Bemused in that sensation, I held the body pressed against my thigh, then, suddenly, pushed it from me, and looked down. First at that spot on my leg where the stab was and where dampness gleamed, then at what I supported in my hands, the thighs that, slowly and whitely, had fallen further apart to present, in the midst of the lush yet brambly-looking pubic corona of damp-curling, bronze-gold hair, the orchidaceous swell of the waiting sex. Staring down at it, what I was aware of was not the poetry of the yearning, anonymous wound with the faint gleam of light caught there to give some hint of the roseate inwardness, but for the first time in my life, of the true, archetypal ass, the unbolted breech so simplistically and brutally designed for its blankly abstract function and the plunge into depersonalized, and depersonalizing, darkness.

[Beck Henreckson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

When I was just starting the book, I read a review that said "from the first sentence, I knew-” and I interrupted (inwardly) "yes, me too! I knew from the first words I would love this book!" and then I kept reading and saw that they said "-knew this wasn't the book for me" lol

We both were self-fulfilling prophecies. The first, darkly comical, tragically bawdy words of this book were carried throughout. As the title promised, this novel was so strongly about PLACE — and it so deeply evoked all those places where the author lived his life that at the end I felt SO MUCH of that bittersweet, biting nostalgia for each and every one of those places.

There is a lot of sex in the book, certainly, though it is described in a cold, clinical, detached sort of way, rather than anything spicy or titillating.

It is very hard to get a picture of the narrator, as he never really places himself into the scenes he narrates — he often doesn't describe himself interacting or talking or even existing in group settings (I suppose because of his strong sense of being solitary), and yet (at least from Nashville on) from how everyone else interacts with and feels about him, you know he is always SUCH a strong presence (and generally always a pleasant and beloved and popular one?). It is a very strange reading experience.

I felt for much of it that I really disliked him, but I really think that's because of how much I was inside his own head, and he wasn't bothering to give me a rosy impression. By the end I felt so much fondness and heart wrenching pity.
And also he sometimes seemed so good at liking and appreciating people, that that makes me like him. I wish I could see him through other eyes.

I just feel like I went on such a journey, with him. I have very conflicted — mostly negative? — feelings about Rozelle. I wanted him away from her. I appreciate the nuance of that being presented as possibly the tragedy of his life, or more likely something that would have been miserable and broken down to something ugly and petty and small.

It is the writing that is just.... brilliant. Even when it is painful and vulgar and depressing. I cried at the end — not over anything specific, just this world.

I think I'd be scared to ever recommend this book to anyone lol.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

" Ό,τι κι αν ήταν αυτό που είχα έρθει ν' αναζητήσω, ήτανε φως φανάρι πως δεν το είχα βρει. Και ας προσθέσω κάτι ακόμη, με όσες αυταπάτες κι αν είχα ξεκινήσει, τώρα δεν μου είχε μείνει ούτε μία. Είχα μονάχα εκείνη την αρχαία σοφία , την οποία όλοι παλεύουμε σκληρά να αποκτήσουμε και στο τέλος πάντα διαπιστώνουμε πως την είχαμε ήδη: κάθε άνθρωπος πρέπει να χαράζει τον δικό του δρόμο στη ζωή και, εν πάση περιπτώσει, ελάχιστες πιθανότητες έχει να γνωρίζει τι σημαίνει αυτό."

Ο Τζεντ Τιούκσμπουρι, ο πρωταγωνιστής του Γουόρεν, είναι ένας άντρας που έχει διαμορφωθεί από το σκληρό έδαφος της αγροτικής Αλαμπάμα και τις πνευματικές αίθουσες της ακαδημαϊκής ζωής, πάντα διχασμένος ανάμεσα στο πού μεγάλωσε και στο πού κατέληξε. Διαβάζοντας το "Ένας τόπος για να επιστρέφεις" βυθίστηκα στις αναμνήσεις του -ειδικά στη σκληρή, σχεδόν γκροτέσκα σκηνή του θανάτου του πατέρα του-που φαίνεται να αντηχεί σε κάθε του απόφαση. Η αφήγηση δεν "τρέχει", αντίθετα, περιπλανιέται μέσα σε σκέψεις και μνήμες με τρόπο στοχαστικό και ήρεμα μελαγχολικό. Το μυθιστόρημα δεν βασίζεται στη δράση, αλλά στη γλώσσα· πλούσια, απολαυστική, γεμάτη εικόνες. Αυτό που με συγκίνησε περισσότερο ήταν η αίσθηση της μοναξιάς που υπήρχε διάχυτη στο βιβλίο του Γουόρεν και με έκανε να ταυτίσω τον ήρωά του με πρόσωπα οικεία. Υπήρχαν σημεία πολύ δυνατά, άλλα όχι και τόσο, αναμφισβήτητα όμως ήταν μια ιστορία που την έζησα αργά, αφήνοντάς την να με διαποτίσει.
4,5 / 5

[Ron Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has one of the best openings to a book I've ever read. It couldn't quite live up to that that initial promise, but that was nearly impossible.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And I gave one great fart like a bugle blast and I was out, and under me the night sky was full of floating bed sheets like God-a-Mighty had inadvertently kicked over the laundry basket of the whole god-damned Heavenly Hotel, and I was counting for the pull of the rip cord and I felt real. They had been honing us to mania and murder, and I felt real."

Spoken by another character on a wartime parachute jump, but the main character, Jed Tewksbury, stages a lifelong struggle to be real, too, in "A Place to Come To."

How many writers publish their second-best novel at age 72? I think Robert Penn Warren did. "A Place to Come To" (1977) is that, a very strong final novel from the multiple Pulitzer Prize winner. Certainly Warren's way with words was undiminished even 31 years after "All the King's Men" — his masterpiece.

Warren takes a more direct route than usual in "A Place to Come To." In many of his novels, it's not always clear just what he's getting at thematically, and he tends to spread things around to a few more primary characters. Here, it's Jed Tewksbury's first-person account from start to finish, from pre-World War II Alabama through his service in the war fighting with Italian partisans behind enemy lines, to his life in academia in Chicago, trips to Europe and tales of his on-again, off-again romance with former not-exactly high school sweetheart Rozelle.

You can't review this book without mentioning the opening. It's a tough act to follow when the first paragraph describes a death by wagon wheel as young Jed's father, drunk, pissing on a mule's hindquarters, falls off the wagon and his neck gets run over, twice, his manhood (his self-described "biggest dong in Claxford County — and what the hell good does it do me!") still in hand. Warren doesn't let us down after this memorable beginning. Jed, whose widowed mother wants him to get away from Dugton, Alabama, and gets her wish, is on a journey in search of himself, from one romance to another, each ending by inclination or chance, to a sobering (if briefly chronicled) wartime experience and his stateside career as a teacher.

It's not a riveting plot, but Warren's writing is. And while his always-strong prose has supported novels that can be a little knotty and not always emotionally impactful, "A Place to Come To" gets to the reader's heart like no other of his books, even the Great One. The story starts to wobble late but rights itself as Jed's life takes a heavy but meaningful turn, and he finally finds a kind of peace in an extremely moving and sensationally written conclusion.

Its rating rounded up here (no, it's not REALLY in the same class as "All the King's Men"), like all of Warren's "other" novels "A Place to Come To" deserves recognition it sadly doesn't get much of these days. Consider that "All the King's Men," as of this writing, has 48,536 Goodreads reviews. His other nine novels combined have 1,128, with five of them under 100 and "Meet Me in the Green Glen," which is quite good, has a lonely 46! A travesty, I say! Read more Warren, folks.

Writing this great (from late in "A Place to Come To") deserves to be treasured by more people:

"As long as you have a parent alive, you are the child; and mystically, the child is protected, the parent is an umbrella against the rain of fate. But when the umbrella is folded and laid away, all is different, you watch the weather with a different and more cunning eye, your bones ache when the wind shifts, all joy acquires a tinge of irony (even the joy of love for a child, for you feel yourself as the umbrella, or lightning rod if you will, and know the frailty of such devices.")

[Klint Kratzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is dense, flowing, bulging with memories, lived in one man's eternal pasts and present futures. It is, perhaps most succinctly put, wistful. It is the history of one man's life with all the monotony, the passions. It is of love and solitude- of a man who is lost yet stolid, and yet undetermined. It is a novel with pages that grow from some fecund soil, some humus. And yet there is not some great blossom, some burgeoning finale. There is something deeper and grounded, like some dense oak tree that will be absorbed again into the dirt from which it came.

Robert Penn Warren is fundamentally a poet. This novel, the literal plot, is secondhand to the pathos and the feeling exuding from this book into the heart of the reader. And so as I stare at this book now, this physical property overflowing with joyous and torn parts of another man, I think my eyes simply grow wistful.

[John Vibber · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Pat Conroy says that Southern authors are the best story tellers, I'm sure he had Robert Penn Warren in mind. I'll leave plot description to others and just say the writing is intense and powerful yet subtle and nuanced. This is not an easy read, but the patient reader will be well-rewarded.

[Maria Papageorgiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 (maybe)

In several parts I really enjoyed the writing. Unfortunately, in just as many parts I found it boring/tiring.

[Andrew Figueiredo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Penn Warren is a gifted author and like All the King's Men, this book was an enjoyable read. I liked it a bit less, but that's probably because this one isn't about Huey Long and politics in general. Oh, by the way, you will probably understand this better if you have read Inferno by Dante. I haven't, so take my review with that in mind.

To really oversimplify from my angle (and maybe this sounds dumb) but "A Place to Come To" reads like a crossover between Houellebecq and Southern Agrarianism (a movement which Warren was part of). Jed Tewksbery leaves home as a youth and goes off to find academic glory. Whether in academia in Chicago, at war, in Nashville, or in Paris, Jed just isn't himself and feels off. Like a Houellebecqian protagonist, he makes his way through various partners but gradually just loses himself in time and floats around in a certain anomic mentally homeless state. Time flows at a strange pace throughout the book, especially as it proceeds. Yet, Jed remains gravitationally pulled back to Rozelle, his passion since high school and one of his two links to home, the other being his mother's periodic, wholesome letters.

Jed fundamentally lacks the connection to a "terra" that he discusses with reference to the Italian partisans he fought with. He must come to terms with his own home and background (especially with his father having been a notorious alcoholic) and eventually does so through both Rozelle and his mother. Pretty good book. Would've been better if I had more of a classical background.

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This last novel from the author of what is arguably the Great American Novel (and a lot of great poetry, as well) is serious, intelligent, and structurally and sometimes linguistically clever. It's about different sorts of love and the lack thereof. It’s sad how someone (in this case the first-person narrator, a literature professor) with such an intelligent voice and such insight can act so stupid. His stupidity and passivity prop up the novel’s structure and make the plot work, but they are frustrating and keep the novel from being something greater, I think (the necessity of rushing through the end also undermines the novel’s balance). But such excellent writing!

[Daniel de la Pointe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong start with the dead drunkard father but couldn't keep my interest after the protagonist gets into grad school unconventionally.

[Dominique Gamache · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'est pas mal. C'est le dernier livre écrit par l'auteur américain du chef-d'oeuvre, les fous du roi. C'est le récit d'une vie, celui d'un professeur de littérature sorti de l'indigence du Sud des Etats Unis par une mère courage qui ne voit le salut de son fils que dans un départ sans retour. Il a dû mal à s'engager pleinement dans sa vie, revient dans le Sud pour vivre une liaison passionnelle avant de repartir dans le Nord sans jamais réussir à vivre pleinement. C'est assez finement écrit avec des passages d'introspection sans concession assez subtils. Mais on a parfois du mal à s'attacher à la vie de cet anti héros qui subit plus qu'il ne vit.

[John Rebrovick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dark tale but not without its redemptive qualities. It is not on the epic level of All the King's Men, but it is a worthy read. Warren is clearly one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and this novel, though flawed in spots, also excels in spots to prove it.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a new book by ant stretch, but what beautiful writing. Glad I had it on the shelf. The life of Jed Tewksbury is traced from age 5 to almost age 60, from Alabama to Chicago, to Italy, to Nashville and then back to Chicago.

[Kfiscus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just not what I want to read. It was gorgeously written, but the subject matter isn't what I would like to spend my time consuming.

[Matina Kyriazopoulou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Αφού απέκτησε παγκόσμια φήμη ως μελετητής της κλασικής και μεσαιωνικής λογοτεχνίας, είχε μια θυελλώδη ερωτική σχέση, παντρεύτηκε δύο φορές και απέκτησε έναν γιο, ο ξεριζωμένος και αποξενωμένος Τζεντ Τιούκσμπουρι επιστρέφει στην πόλη καταγωγής του στην Αλαμπάμα για να επισκεφτεί τον τάφο της μητέρας του και να συμφιλιωθεί με τον εαυτό του. Στο έργο αυτό, που ο συγγραφέας θεωρούσε ένα εκ των τριών καλύτερών του, παρακολουθούμε την πορεία ενός ήρωα που αγωνίζεται να ενταχθεί και δεν παντρεύεται παρά μόνο αργότερα στη ζωή του, αναζητώντας διαρκώς ένα «σπίτι», που δεν έχει ανταμώσει με τη μητέρα του για δεκαετίες και η επικοινωνία τους γίνεται εξ ολοκλήρου μέσω επιστολών και περιστασιακών τηλεφωνημάτων. Ο Τζεντ παραμένει ένας απλός άνθρωπος, παρά την ανώτατη μόρφωση του, συχνά τυφλός μπροστά στις δικές του αδυναμίες. Ο Robert Penn Warren περιγράφει τον αγώνα ενός ανθρώπου με ταπεινή καταγωγή και ελάχιστους πόρους να εξελιχθεί, να ενταχθεί, που εντέλει καταλήγει να περιφρονεί την επιφανειακότητα των εύπορων. Ο ήρωας του εκπληρώνει κυριολεκτικά την επιθυμία-προτροπή της μητέρας, τραβώντας διαρκώς μπροστά, μη σταματώντας πουθενά και μην επιστρέφοντας σπίτι παρά μόνο μετά τον θάνατό της, όπου και διαπιστώνει ότι το «σπίτι» που άφησε πίσω και αναζητούσε παντού τού είναι πια σχεδόν αγνώριστο. Ο παρακμάζων παλιός Νότος βρίσκεται πάντα εκεί, στο βάθος του κάδρου, ως και τα χρόνια του Β’ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου στον οποίο ο Τζεντ παίρνει μέρος και ανακαλύπτει τις σκοτεινότερες πτυχές του εαυτό του. Η ακαδημαϊκή καριέρα, οι απογοητεύσεις και οι ματαιώσεις, η σύγκρουση μεταξύ ζωής και τέχνης, κάποιες φορές μου έφεραν στο νου τον Στόουνερ του William, ένα βιβλίο που αγάπησα εξίσου πολύ. Με γλώσσα ωμή, μα και ποιητική, με ύφος που σε σημεία συγκινεί και σε άλλα διασκεδάζει, ο συγγραφέας αφηγείται μια ιστορία για την επιστροφή στις ρίζες, την αναζήτηση του εαυτού, τον έρωτα και την απώλεια. Η πένα (και η ματιά) του Warren, του συγγραφέα που υπέγραψε ένα από τα Μεγάλα Αμερικανικά μυθιστορήματα που έχω διαβάσει, μπορεί να μοιάζει εκ πρώτης όψεως ψυχρή, ωστόσο δημιουργεί στα κατάλληλα σημεία την απαραίτητα συναισθηματική φόρτιση και παραδίδει ένα φιλόδοξο, πυκνό, στοχαστικό μυθιστόρημα, γεμάτο λατινικά ρητά και λογοτεχνία, γεμάτο εσωτερική ένταση και λυρισμό.

[George K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Βαθμολογία: 9/10

Τρίτο βιβλίο του Ρόμπερτ Πεν Γουόρεν που διαβάζω, μετά το αριστουργηματικό "Όλοι οι άνθρωποι του βασιλιά" που διάβασα τον Μάιο του 2022 και το εξαιρετικό "Αγριότοπος" που διάβασα πέρυσι τον Φεβρουάριο, και για άλλη μια φορά δηλώνω μαγεμένος από την ολοζώντανη γραφή του Γουόρεν, που εδώ είναι πότε λυρική και πότε ωμή και άσεμνη, από το στιλ της αφήγησης, από τον τρόπο σκέψης και θεώρησης των πραγμάτων, από την όλη σκιαγράφηση των χαρακτήρων, της εποχής και της περιοχής όπου αυτοί κινούνταν, πραγματικά και πάλι εντυπωσιάστηκα από το επίπεδο ποιότητας του συγγραφέα. Βέβαια, για μένα, σε καμία περίπτωση δεν φτάνει το επίπεδο του "Όλοι οι άνθρωποι του βασιλιά" (φυσικά η θεματολογία των δυο βιβλίων είναι αρκετά διαφορετική), όμως αυτό δεν λέει τίποτα, μιας κι εκείνο το βιβλίο είναι από τα καλύτερα που έχω διαβάσει στη ζωή μου - και έχω διαβάσει πολλά βιβλία, έτσι; Σίγουρα, δεν είναι αυτό που λέμε καλοκαιρινό ανάγνωσμα, είναι αρκετά βαρύ, πυκνό, σύνθετο και χωρίς κάποια συγκεκριμένη πλοκή, χρειάζεται υπομονή και επιμονή, απαιτεί την ανάλογη όρεξη από τον αναγνώστη (π.χ. αν θέλεις κάτι γρήγορο, αυτό το βιβλίο δεν προτείνεται), όμως είναι από τα βιβλία που ανταμείβουν, που προσφέρουν εικόνες, συναισθήματα και τροφή για σκέψη, υπάρχει μπόλικο ζουμί για να απολαύσει κανείς. Είναι Λογοτεχνία, πώς να το κάνουμε. Ναι, μου άρεσε πολύ, και κάπως έτσι ο Γουόρεν γίνεται σίγουρα ένας από τους αγαπημένους μου συγγραφείς. Ελπίζω να δούμε και άλλα έργα του στα ελληνικά (πάντα από τις εκδόσεις Πόλις, που έχουν κάνει εξαιρετική δουλειά και με τα τρία βιβλία του), όπως π.χ. το "Band of Angels" και το "World Enough and Time".

[Radosław Magiera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Po genialnym „Gubernatorze” (1946) Roberta Penn Warrena (1905-1989), amerykańskiego pisarza, poety i krytyka, sięgnąłem po „Mieć dokąd wrócić” ciekaw, co to właściwie będzie. No cóż - okazało się że to obyczajówka - historia życia pewnego znawcy literatury. Obyczajówki nigdy nie były na mojej liście czytelniczych priorytetów, a tu zaskoczenie - okazało się, że uwielbiam powieść obyczajową. Pod warunkiem, że jest dobra.

Świetna rzecz, choć nie do końca łatwa w odbiorze. Trzeba umieć się wczuć, przenieść w świat przedstawiony. Ale gdy to się uda... Mistrzowski klimat, inne realia, przecudownie skontruowane i poprowadzone postacie, historie związków międzyludzkich, opowieści o literaturze. Na uwagę zasługuje wykreowanie z detalami bohaterów drugoplanowych, a postać matki protagonisty - rewelacja.

Udało mi się dzięki znajomemu odłsuchać audiobooka w oryginalnej interpretacji Krzysztofa Kolbelgera, która wielce przypadła mi do gustu. Może nie do każdej, ale do tej powieści to lektor idealny.

[Drew Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We lean over the book together, two deprived ones, two crippled ones, two wanderers in a world of shadows, each trying to set eye to a mystic peephole that may give on a bright reality beyond."

This is a fitting final novel, with themes of place, community, reality versus illusions, pleasure versus happiness. It can't be counted among RPW's best works though (and it is too bawdy and lewd for me). Jed Tewksbury, having left and rejected his homeland, his "terra," is seeking a true place to come to, but his purusits all fall short. They dissolve as all illusions must, as Jed suffers the "pangs of modernity…the death of the self which has become placeless." The "corp charmant" of this world--weather it be sex, intellectual achievements, or comfort--fall away and leave him alone with his yearning. The ending seems hopeful: a humble acceptance of place and the redemptive potential of love and duty, but I'm not entirely convinced. It could also be one more failed endeavaor for Jed to spend himself on.

[Taylor Leick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts SO strong, then devolves into a Twilight-like novel where every woman throws themselves at the protagonist, despite no positive traits (other than being a genius). But instead of Stephanie Meyer, the author is ACTUALLY the genius author of "All the King's Men", so you think... maybe this isn't just post-graduate vocabulary romance novel? And it's a little more than that, but not much. The bursts of beautiful prose are not worth the unlikeable characters, soap-opera plot, and weird erotica.

[Lena · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is written masterfully by all means. I've enjoyed a language the author used, simple and straight, but still full of tangible vivid images. I also like the idea of trying to find a home which permeates the book. Not a literal real home from wood or bricks, but rather a place where you feel your life has a sense. And finding the place at the very beginning. What I didn't like are characters. I've been almost feeling a hate and disgust to those cynical, indifferent, weak, lustful man and women.

[Stefania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ένα βαθιά υπαρξιακό βιβλίο που περιγράφει την αγωνία του ανθρώπου να ανήκει κάπου, τις προσπάθειες και τους συμβιβασμούς που μπορεί να κάνει για να το πετύχει, και την αποκάλυψη της αλήθειας της προσπάθειας του καθενός....
Βέβαια η αποκάλυψη για κάποιους μπορεί να είναι πιο δύσκολη, μπορεί να είναι αυτοί που στην ουσία δεν θέλουν να ανήκουν κάπου ή δεν μπορούν να συμβιβαστούν για να ανήκουν κάπου, και καταλαβαίνουν ότι σε όλη τους τη ζωή πάλευαν μάταια

[Kathleen Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For years, I have passed through his hometown of Guthrie Kentucky and always wondered what he wrote. The first part, where his father died, immediately reminded me of an ancestor that came home in a buggy, with his throat cut. After that I thought he went a little crazy with his writing but finally settled into, for me, making sense with the story line. There were parts that went on too long, like a half page of one sentence. All in all, it was okay.

[Lauren Gibbons · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to put this book down for a long while because my eyes were rolling so hard I thought they might fall out. It's too bad - I picked this up because I loved All The King's Men and thought I'd give some of Warren's other writing a try - but this one was a little too "woe is me, I'm a Southern white dude who is so smart and talented and good in bed but also lonely" for me.

[Tom Buske · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written but inconsistent effort by a fine Southern author, it makes some good points but tries to cover too many various issues. I did like the ending but there sure were a lot meandering conversations and pretentious descriptions of objets d' art that preceded it. It's Southen literature, sure, but it also tries to encompass other themes, to me, unsuccessfully.