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Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy – A Midwestern Memoir on Faith, Race, and Living Well
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.
"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.
240 pages, Paperback
First published November 7, 2017
76 people are currently reading
629 people want to read
About the author
Michael Perry
25 books607 followersMichael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist and radio show host from New Auburn, Wisconsin.
Perry’s bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom. Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then wound up writing by happy accident. He lives with his wife and two daughters in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire and rescue service and is an amateur pig farmer. He hosts the nationally-syndicated “Tent Show Radio,” performs widely as a humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has recorded three live humor albums including Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow and The Clodhopper Monologues, is currently finishing his first young adult novel, and can be found online at www.sneezingcow.com.
Perry’s essays and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Backpacker, Outside, Runner’s World, Salon.com, and he is a contributing editor to Men’s Health magazine. His writing assignments have taken him to the top of Mt. Rainier with Iraq War veterans, into the same room as the frozen head of Ted Williams, across the United States with truckers and country music singers, and—once—buck naked into a spray-tan booth.
In the essay collection Off Main Street, Perry wrote of how his nursing education prepared him to become a writer by training him in human assessment, and he credits singer-songwriters like Steve Earle and John Prine with helping him understand that art need not wear fancy clothes. Above all, he gives credit to his parents, of whom he says, “Anything good is because of them, everything else is simply not their fault.” His mother taught him to read and filled the house with books; his father taught him how to clean calf pens, of which Perry has written, “a childhood spent slinging manure – the metaphorical basis for a writing career.”
Perry has recently been involved in several musical collaborations, including as lyricist for Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer, and as co-writer (with Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon) of the liner notes for the John Prine tribute album “Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows.” Perry also collaborated with Vernon and Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne on a project that began when Vernon approached Perry and said, “Say, you’re a nurse…” The results were bloody, but then that was the point.
Of all his experiences, Perry says the single most meaningful thing he has ever done is serving 12 years beside his neighbors on the New Auburn Area Fire Department.
Mike says:
If I had to sum up my ‘career’ in one word, it would be gratitude. I get to write and tell stories all around the country, then come home to be with my family and hang out at the local feed mill complaining about the price of feeder hogs. It’s a good life and I’m lucky to have it.
Perry’s bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom. Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then wound up writing by happy accident. He lives with his wife and two daughters in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire and rescue service and is an amateur pig farmer. He hosts the nationally-syndicated “Tent Show Radio,” performs widely as a humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has recorded three live humor albums including Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow and The Clodhopper Monologues, is currently finishing his first young adult novel, and can be found online at www.sneezingcow.com.
Perry’s essays and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Backpacker, Outside, Runner’s World, Salon.com, and he is a contributing editor to Men’s Health magazine. His writing assignments have taken him to the top of Mt. Rainier with Iraq War veterans, into the same room as the frozen head of Ted Williams, across the United States with truckers and country music singers, and—once—buck naked into a spray-tan booth.
In the essay collection Off Main Street, Perry wrote of how his nursing education prepared him to become a writer by training him in human assessment, and he credits singer-songwriters like Steve Earle and John Prine with helping him understand that art need not wear fancy clothes. Above all, he gives credit to his parents, of whom he says, “Anything good is because of them, everything else is simply not their fault.” His mother taught him to read and filled the house with books; his father taught him how to clean calf pens, of which Perry has written, “a childhood spent slinging manure – the metaphorical basis for a writing career.”
Perry has recently been involved in several musical collaborations, including as lyricist for Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer, and as co-writer (with Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon) of the liner notes for the John Prine tribute album “Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows.” Perry also collaborated with Vernon and Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne on a project that began when Vernon approached Perry and said, “Say, you’re a nurse…” The results were bloody, but then that was the point.
Of all his experiences, Perry says the single most meaningful thing he has ever done is serving 12 years beside his neighbors on the New Auburn Area Fire Department.
Mike says:
If I had to sum up my ‘career’ in one word, it would be gratitude. I get to write and tell stories all around the country, then come home to be with my family and hang out at the local feed mill complaining about the price of feeder hogs. It’s a good life and I’m lucky to have it.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews
June 17, 2020
Very personal... and universal. Fans of Perry the man will find much insight into his character here. Fans of his writing will find more of what they've loved. Ppl who know nothing or just a bit about Montaigne will probably, indeed, want to read more after this tantalizing 'sampler' (I know that I do!). And, according to other reviewers, it doesn't actually matter if this is your first Perry or not.
What put this over the top of four to five stars for me was the analysis of humility. Perry has a signature move of self-deprecation. And in fact there seems, at the beginning of this, to be enough of that to be truly annoying. But. With the help of Montaigne, and over the course of his explorations, the journey he takes us on through this book, he & we both come to understand why he is so self-effacing, and what the value, if any, of it is. I won't spoil it for you, but the summary that I appreciated is on p. 156 of the hardcover.
Also I want to check out Bendigo Shafter because Louis L'Amour put a copy of Montaigne: Essays in the MC's saddlebags.
Also I want to buy my own copy (despite the fact that I convinced both of my larger local library systems to pick it up) so I can highlight all the heck over the place. For example, Perry quotes M. "I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly," and then claims that to be "breezily specious."
See, that's the thing with Perry: He's wise enough to use his vocabulary when the right word is a fancy one, but only then, sticking to the vernacular most of the time. And he's respectful of his reader, whether said reader is tree-hugger, NPR-listener, fundamentalist Christian, and/or Trump supporter... he knows we can look up 'specious' and figure it out. And he's willing to admit that he is vulnerable to the natural tendency of having more admiration for Montaigne when he (Perry) feels empathy, and less when their opinions diverge.
And of course I want to look up several of the books referenced. The other thing about Perry is that he spends a lot of time on Twitter and surfing blogs etc. More power to him and his smartphone, but I've turned into an old dog sooner than he has (I'm about one year older than him, btw, and grew up only a couple counties west) and can't imagine learning the new trick of spending so much energy online... so, yeah, I'll read those books, and reread this, and of course read everything else Perry writes, but I won't get a Twitter account....
Btw, not only is this the most intimate & revealing book that Perry has written so far, but it's the most vulgar. If you blush easily about sex & language, suck it up and read this in private.
Anyway. This is not a very good review. Mostly what I really want to say is: Highly Recommended to All! Thank you.
(Squee!!:
https://sneezingcow.com/product/pre-o...)
What put this over the top of four to five stars for me was the analysis of humility. Perry has a signature move of self-deprecation. And in fact there seems, at the beginning of this, to be enough of that to be truly annoying. But. With the help of Montaigne, and over the course of his explorations, the journey he takes us on through this book, he & we both come to understand why he is so self-effacing, and what the value, if any, of it is. I won't spoil it for you, but the summary that I appreciated is on p. 156 of the hardcover.
Also I want to check out Bendigo Shafter because Louis L'Amour put a copy of Montaigne: Essays in the MC's saddlebags.
Also I want to buy my own copy (despite the fact that I convinced both of my larger local library systems to pick it up) so I can highlight all the heck over the place. For example, Perry quotes M. "I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly," and then claims that to be "breezily specious."
See, that's the thing with Perry: He's wise enough to use his vocabulary when the right word is a fancy one, but only then, sticking to the vernacular most of the time. And he's respectful of his reader, whether said reader is tree-hugger, NPR-listener, fundamentalist Christian, and/or Trump supporter... he knows we can look up 'specious' and figure it out. And he's willing to admit that he is vulnerable to the natural tendency of having more admiration for Montaigne when he (Perry) feels empathy, and less when their opinions diverge.
And of course I want to look up several of the books referenced. The other thing about Perry is that he spends a lot of time on Twitter and surfing blogs etc. More power to him and his smartphone, but I've turned into an old dog sooner than he has (I'm about one year older than him, btw, and grew up only a couple counties west) and can't imagine learning the new trick of spending so much energy online... so, yeah, I'll read those books, and reread this, and of course read everything else Perry writes, but I won't get a Twitter account....
Btw, not only is this the most intimate & revealing book that Perry has written so far, but it's the most vulgar. If you blush easily about sex & language, suck it up and read this in private.
Anyway. This is not a very good review. Mostly what I really want to say is: Highly Recommended to All! Thank you.
(Squee!!:
https://sneezingcow.com/product/pre-o...)
January 4, 2018
This is my first book by Michael Perry, but I loved Sarah Bakewell's book on Montaigne, How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer, and have enjoyed the essays by Montaigne that I've read, and... it looked fun. But I was a little concerned that it would be too much “aww shucks humor” and too little about what Montaigne has to offer modern readers. And, in fairness, Michael Perry does take the spotlight a bit more than Michel Montaigne. But for me the balance between personal anecdote (a kidney stone attack led Perry to Montaigne) and philosophical pondering was just right. And I was delighted to find that his impetus in studying Montaigne is a desire to be a better person so that he can help make the world a better place – as he says, “jolting me out of my absentminded musing and into the recognition that through the examination of my imperfections I can better serve my obligations to others.”
A quick read, this is often laugh-out-loud funny, but also touching and thoughtful. And though he repeatedly reminds us that he is Not an “expert,” Perry's clearly read widely and deeply about Montaigne. Thanks to his references I've now added Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist and James Miller's Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche, but, probably most valuably (and certainly most economically), I'm eager now to dive again into Montaigne's The Complete Works. I don't suppose I'll ever read them all, but Perry's descriptions of a number of the essays are irresistible!
A quick read, this is often laugh-out-loud funny, but also touching and thoughtful. And though he repeatedly reminds us that he is Not an “expert,” Perry's clearly read widely and deeply about Montaigne. Thanks to his references I've now added Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist and James Miller's Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche, but, probably most valuably (and certainly most economically), I'm eager now to dive again into Montaigne's The Complete Works. I don't suppose I'll ever read them all, but Perry's descriptions of a number of the essays are irresistible!
January 18, 2018
I'm an intellectual, so of course the detail that will most stick with me is the fact that Montaigne had a woefully small penis.
November 3, 2018
It all started with a kidney stone. Riding on a hospital gurney, in pain, author Michael Perry somehow turns to the centuries old writing of philosopher Michel de Montaigne.
Montaigne is a prodigy. At age two, he began speaking Latin. Who needs elementary school when you can go right into college? Yes, that was Montaigne. Montaigne led a very interesting and full life which included working for kings, and even a meeting with the Pope.
I have read Perry's other books. He is great at penning humor. For example, in comparing himself to his hero Montaigne, he writes:
"...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."
You just have to appreciate his wit! In the end, Montaigne, dead for centuries helps make Perry a better man in his own.
Montaigne is a prodigy. At age two, he began speaking Latin. Who needs elementary school when you can go right into college? Yes, that was Montaigne. Montaigne led a very interesting and full life which included working for kings, and even a meeting with the Pope.
I have read Perry's other books. He is great at penning humor. For example, in comparing himself to his hero Montaigne, he writes:
"...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."
You just have to appreciate his wit! In the end, Montaigne, dead for centuries helps make Perry a better man in his own.
April 8, 2017
https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/159352...
…”The worst of my actions and qualities do not appear to me so evil and base not to dare to own them, “ wrote Montaigne. “If a man does all for honor and glory what does he think he gains by appearing before the world in a mask, concealing his true being from the people’s knowledge?”
The most rewarding and exciting thing I do as a reader is in discovering a writer I never knew existed. And what makes that even better is then realizing by finding this guy results in not only a singular book of first-rank interest, but several more he has already penned for me in which to engage. This is not to say his earlier work will reach the same pinnacle of delight as this Montaigne book did, but based on the way Michael Perry writes and what he puts pen to paper, my bet is his previous work might even be better. Hard to stay new and original after already composing so much and making oneself so publicly available. But there is much to be admired in Perry’s courageous and heart-felt expressions on the page. Michael Perry lives on a farm but should not be branded the stereotypical pig-farmer and country bumpkin so often discounted in our writerly world, but instead considered a well-read and reflective man examining every facet of his life. But he speaks like most of us whose hands in life get dirty. He isn’t perfect either, and has no pretensions to that effect.
…I can do no one else any good if I pretend some perfection…
To this day it still amazes me how wrong we sometimes get our words. One small example is bistro. Last week I was reading a book by Lily Tuck, her first novel actually, and her character Molly was offering an anecdote, a digression in the conversation between two women on the phone over how these Russians were getting impatient in a French cafe during the war of 18-something and yelling at the servers to hurry. The Russian word for hurry is bistro and since then, in that part of the world, the word stuck. I never knew that bit of etymology. And I am still not sure if what Tuck was having Molly relate to her friend in her novel was even true. But Lily did teach me something I did not know and possibly had wrong all these years. I always thought a bistro was a French cafe. And it turns out Lily was right. I looked it up. According to an entry in Wikipedia the word bistro derived from the Russian bystro (быстро), "quickly". It entered the French language during the Battle of Paris (1814). Russian officers or cossacks who wanted to be served quickly would shout "bystro". I cannot tell you how often this has happened to me, finding out about a word I for years took for granted. And I credit this to wanting to learn everything I can, and to check out what I think I already know, or was taught, perhaps wrongly, so many years ago.
Listen long enough to the man yelling from a distance and you come to trust him more than the man in the boat beside you.
In our socio-political environment these days it is obvious the people are listening to the loudest voices. On the radio and TV, pundits are spreading their doctrines and the masses are believing them. For years I have observed the religious ones among us enlisting volunteers to promote their guilt and fears until these stains become permanent marks upon us. Serving and doing the Lord’s work becomes paramount to just being true to oneself and getting by unscathed while simply treating others as you would yourself. Life is, instead for many, an unhealthy following of a herd mentality. Citizens no longer satisfied to learn about life from those who came before and had honestly examined it, but rather receiving their instruction from a screaming pontificating interpreter of verse from a book they claimed was the word of God. Frightening to think of the damage that book has done in the long run. And now today it seeps into the tenants of our government. Seems everybody is flying their flags now, similar to the wave of mothers and fathers resorting to having bumper stickers made touting the honor roll achievements of their sons and daughters. Sickening to think of ways this makes our country greater.
In my day-to day interactions with the world, I comport myself with reliable restraint. In fact, I have been told by those who love me that I am overly laid-back in this respect and get run over in the process, but I have no appetite for fighting. Even when cut off in traffic I opt for the sardonic aside over cursing and flying the bird. During blood pressure-busting customer service phone calls I choose dispassion over harangue. But when the idiot is within, I am merciless.
Not me. But obviously I can relate to Michael Perry. The way he can’t remember things just after he hears them, and if I do not take notes I am sure to forget what it was I heard or read forever. And the way I remember really dumb things, which in fact makes me a most valuable player on a traveling Trivial Pursuit competitive team as I can recall the stupid shit nobody pays any attention to and couldn’t care less about. I harbor long-forgotten songs in my head, and their singers. Long discarded home and business phone numbers and telethons that featured Jerry and that number to call SW34500.
I once termed an offensive action I made with my hand as flying a double bird. And to think Perry called it the very same thing in this book, back in his footnotes, even though he also claims he rarely conducts himself as inappropriately as I generally do. I did not flip off that awful woman driving her dangerous car beside us on the expressway like Perry did in his example, using both hands and his knees holding the steering wheel. Instead, I aggressively gave her the single hand bird at the exact same moment my son in the passenger seat beside me flipped her off with one hand as well. And both of us giving our singular birds a vigorous pump action. Hence, the term of what I called my version, a more appropriate and astounding double bird. But I mean to not cloud nor take anything away from Perry’s use of Montaigne to explain much of his thinking and behavior. His examples are impressive and vastly more intelligent than what I come up with typically. I was constantly thinking as I read this how clever Michael Perry is as I connected his digressions to the quotes lifted from his studies due to the many translations of the works of his subject Montaigne. No matter how odd Perry might have considered his personal thoughts and feelings regarding so many matters, there is a Montaigne quote available to support the idea he is not alone in his thinking. And that is comforting, especially to someone like me who struggles with the same self-doubts that Perry ascribes to. I, perhaps delusional, consider myself a scholar based on the sheer numbers of philosophical and literary pages consumed by my voracious reading. But I have no official credentials in which to prove I know anything. I am self-taught and always learning. So there are times when I too might come across as daft, or even I might add, a bit stupid. And the more I learn convinces me that in the grand scheme of things I really know next to nothing.
…If Montaigne reveals his aesthetic preferences through a filter of self-deprecation, as an “ordinary” guy, he does so in part and in the hope that he might speak to an audience wider than just the self-appointed arbiters…
Glad to have finally been introduced to the musings of Michael Perry. And I am looking forward to reading all he has to say.
…”The worst of my actions and qualities do not appear to me so evil and base not to dare to own them, “ wrote Montaigne. “If a man does all for honor and glory what does he think he gains by appearing before the world in a mask, concealing his true being from the people’s knowledge?”
The most rewarding and exciting thing I do as a reader is in discovering a writer I never knew existed. And what makes that even better is then realizing by finding this guy results in not only a singular book of first-rank interest, but several more he has already penned for me in which to engage. This is not to say his earlier work will reach the same pinnacle of delight as this Montaigne book did, but based on the way Michael Perry writes and what he puts pen to paper, my bet is his previous work might even be better. Hard to stay new and original after already composing so much and making oneself so publicly available. But there is much to be admired in Perry’s courageous and heart-felt expressions on the page. Michael Perry lives on a farm but should not be branded the stereotypical pig-farmer and country bumpkin so often discounted in our writerly world, but instead considered a well-read and reflective man examining every facet of his life. But he speaks like most of us whose hands in life get dirty. He isn’t perfect either, and has no pretensions to that effect.
…I can do no one else any good if I pretend some perfection…
To this day it still amazes me how wrong we sometimes get our words. One small example is bistro. Last week I was reading a book by Lily Tuck, her first novel actually, and her character Molly was offering an anecdote, a digression in the conversation between two women on the phone over how these Russians were getting impatient in a French cafe during the war of 18-something and yelling at the servers to hurry. The Russian word for hurry is bistro and since then, in that part of the world, the word stuck. I never knew that bit of etymology. And I am still not sure if what Tuck was having Molly relate to her friend in her novel was even true. But Lily did teach me something I did not know and possibly had wrong all these years. I always thought a bistro was a French cafe. And it turns out Lily was right. I looked it up. According to an entry in Wikipedia the word bistro derived from the Russian bystro (быстро), "quickly". It entered the French language during the Battle of Paris (1814). Russian officers or cossacks who wanted to be served quickly would shout "bystro". I cannot tell you how often this has happened to me, finding out about a word I for years took for granted. And I credit this to wanting to learn everything I can, and to check out what I think I already know, or was taught, perhaps wrongly, so many years ago.
Listen long enough to the man yelling from a distance and you come to trust him more than the man in the boat beside you.
In our socio-political environment these days it is obvious the people are listening to the loudest voices. On the radio and TV, pundits are spreading their doctrines and the masses are believing them. For years I have observed the religious ones among us enlisting volunteers to promote their guilt and fears until these stains become permanent marks upon us. Serving and doing the Lord’s work becomes paramount to just being true to oneself and getting by unscathed while simply treating others as you would yourself. Life is, instead for many, an unhealthy following of a herd mentality. Citizens no longer satisfied to learn about life from those who came before and had honestly examined it, but rather receiving their instruction from a screaming pontificating interpreter of verse from a book they claimed was the word of God. Frightening to think of the damage that book has done in the long run. And now today it seeps into the tenants of our government. Seems everybody is flying their flags now, similar to the wave of mothers and fathers resorting to having bumper stickers made touting the honor roll achievements of their sons and daughters. Sickening to think of ways this makes our country greater.
In my day-to day interactions with the world, I comport myself with reliable restraint. In fact, I have been told by those who love me that I am overly laid-back in this respect and get run over in the process, but I have no appetite for fighting. Even when cut off in traffic I opt for the sardonic aside over cursing and flying the bird. During blood pressure-busting customer service phone calls I choose dispassion over harangue. But when the idiot is within, I am merciless.
Not me. But obviously I can relate to Michael Perry. The way he can’t remember things just after he hears them, and if I do not take notes I am sure to forget what it was I heard or read forever. And the way I remember really dumb things, which in fact makes me a most valuable player on a traveling Trivial Pursuit competitive team as I can recall the stupid shit nobody pays any attention to and couldn’t care less about. I harbor long-forgotten songs in my head, and their singers. Long discarded home and business phone numbers and telethons that featured Jerry and that number to call SW34500.
I once termed an offensive action I made with my hand as flying a double bird. And to think Perry called it the very same thing in this book, back in his footnotes, even though he also claims he rarely conducts himself as inappropriately as I generally do. I did not flip off that awful woman driving her dangerous car beside us on the expressway like Perry did in his example, using both hands and his knees holding the steering wheel. Instead, I aggressively gave her the single hand bird at the exact same moment my son in the passenger seat beside me flipped her off with one hand as well. And both of us giving our singular birds a vigorous pump action. Hence, the term of what I called my version, a more appropriate and astounding double bird. But I mean to not cloud nor take anything away from Perry’s use of Montaigne to explain much of his thinking and behavior. His examples are impressive and vastly more intelligent than what I come up with typically. I was constantly thinking as I read this how clever Michael Perry is as I connected his digressions to the quotes lifted from his studies due to the many translations of the works of his subject Montaigne. No matter how odd Perry might have considered his personal thoughts and feelings regarding so many matters, there is a Montaigne quote available to support the idea he is not alone in his thinking. And that is comforting, especially to someone like me who struggles with the same self-doubts that Perry ascribes to. I, perhaps delusional, consider myself a scholar based on the sheer numbers of philosophical and literary pages consumed by my voracious reading. But I have no official credentials in which to prove I know anything. I am self-taught and always learning. So there are times when I too might come across as daft, or even I might add, a bit stupid. And the more I learn convinces me that in the grand scheme of things I really know next to nothing.
…If Montaigne reveals his aesthetic preferences through a filter of self-deprecation, as an “ordinary” guy, he does so in part and in the hope that he might speak to an audience wider than just the self-appointed arbiters…
Glad to have finally been introduced to the musings of Michael Perry. And I am looking forward to reading all he has to say.
January 5, 2018
Michael Perry is a paradox; he comes from conservative roots in the American heartland and is now a professional writer with an academic air. He takes on Montaigne, an essayist who is also similarly paradoxical, raised among peasants yet given an exceptional education. Perry talks about everything that comes into his mind, from kidney stones to sex, and ties everything to that old philosopher in fascinating and clever prose. By his own example and by the example of Montaigne, he urges us to carefully examine the world and to set aside the judgment of the right and the left, of the rich and of the poor.
March 3, 2018
Being a fan of Montaigne and Perry, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Montaigne is considered tbhe inventor of the essay and Perry works in that tradition on paper and with the spoken word. I was impressed with the research he did and the number of citations by many authors he used. If you haven't been exposed to either author, I suggest you dip your nose into their work. They write with a candor that is both shocking and amusing. I highly recommend this book.
November 18, 2017
While I will read almost anything, two words that rarely make me want to pick up a book are philosophy and Montaigne -- except that this particular book was written by Michael Perry and he is one of my favorite authors. Somehow he was able to make the musings of a French philosopher from the 1500's seem relevant and immediately related to day to day life. Perry lives in a small town in Wisconsin, raises chickens on his small farm, is the parent to a couple of kids, drives what he refers to as a "fambulance" (because he swore he'd never drive a mini-van), and serves on his volunteer fire department -- in short, he is just like the people you see everyday and that is what comes through in his writing. He gets me to stop and think, to appreciate and to question, and to value the things that it is easy to dismiss or not to notice at all. And he's funny -- he can tug on a heartstring and make you laugh out loud all within a single paragraph. Pick this one up -- it's worth every minute you will spend with it.
November 23, 2017
Michel de Montaigne hasn't been on my radar since my undergrad French literature courses, but I was glad to have this brief re-introduction to his work. I honestly don't recall Montaigne having been so "low-brow," but Perry certainly brings him into a pastoral sphere (and not in a capital "R" Romantic sort of way, but in an actual midwestern pasture sort of way).
November 24, 2025
Impressively delivered
Although I think he plays up what his banjo player bandmate says is Perry's "bootscuff-act" in his trademark (this being his fifth memoir and he was in 2016 all of just past fifty) schtick, hearing this told by him on audio, and then highlighting Kindle passages that stuck with me after on my walk with ear buds benefited my appreciation. I picked this up after reviewing Donald Frame's translated ed. and Sarah Bakewell's How to Live, and those helped ground myself. It's more Barn Boots than Montaigne, as an earlier GR commentator opined. It's certainly in the Garrison Keillor NPR mode of presenting blue-state sensibilities from a red-state resident who's really leaning towards the "co-exist" coasts or at least flyover college towns and public libraries where he hawks his books and unspools his yarns.
So, like many critics in the 430-odd years since these pioneering Essays appeared, Perry from his bonafide Wisconsin dairy farm-raised, chicken-feeding day job, and fire department sideline falls hard for his sly subject: early-retirement country gentleman after a mayoral stint and diplomatic career in religious-riven France, as if (of course) one of us "bien-pensant" right-thinking (if left-leaning to a judicious degree given 16c thought police) in inventing (early) modern broadmindedness.
A pattern Bakewell explores: Perry makes it up close and personal in themed chapters integrating his eclectic experiences. He's my generation's go-between: he finds in Montaigne's digressive, arch, querulous, erudite, evolving, funny, earnest, frank, painful, intimate disclosures of maladies, shame, farts, sex solo and dual, diet, mortality, privilege, erectile dysfunction, marriage, skepticism, and kidney stones a guide. Balancing disclosure and reticence, Perry's self-examination, from a restrictive Christian upbringing, working-class outlook, and inheritance of embarrassment into a quirky midlife embrace of openness, moral uplift, and suspension of judgment mirrors (partially) his genteel model.
As I happen to share his formative traits and most of his latter aspirations, and as he's not that much younger than me, I recognized in his quest familiar settings. So this alignment influences my reaction and colors my appreciation. However, he sometimes emphasizes tolerance as if paramount among all virtues, which while Montaigne labored to sustain both his head and his estate amidst sectarian and political threat, I aver Perry (as we his contemporaries) enjoys liberal expression denied our ancestors.
Perry's a skilled reader and exacting writer. He employs fresh metaphor, refuses facile grandstanding, and expresses tact and revelation both judiciously. I think he relies on his chuckling, avuncular, public persona as heartland but progressive philosopher a bit too slickly, but as he's akin to a Will Rogers a hundred years on, maybe even a rehearsed Mark Twain, he's an avuncular performer in lyrics and lectures who makes his living on the road at Super 8 offramp hotels: in this decreasingly literate era, more power to him and whichever rig he saunters from in ice-ready lumberjack boots after dealing with the non-spill fuel nozzle, which takes up a detour equestrian Montaigne never prognosticated.
Although I think he plays up what his banjo player bandmate says is Perry's "bootscuff-act" in his trademark (this being his fifth memoir and he was in 2016 all of just past fifty) schtick, hearing this told by him on audio, and then highlighting Kindle passages that stuck with me after on my walk with ear buds benefited my appreciation. I picked this up after reviewing Donald Frame's translated ed. and Sarah Bakewell's How to Live, and those helped ground myself. It's more Barn Boots than Montaigne, as an earlier GR commentator opined. It's certainly in the Garrison Keillor NPR mode of presenting blue-state sensibilities from a red-state resident who's really leaning towards the "co-exist" coasts or at least flyover college towns and public libraries where he hawks his books and unspools his yarns.
So, like many critics in the 430-odd years since these pioneering Essays appeared, Perry from his bonafide Wisconsin dairy farm-raised, chicken-feeding day job, and fire department sideline falls hard for his sly subject: early-retirement country gentleman after a mayoral stint and diplomatic career in religious-riven France, as if (of course) one of us "bien-pensant" right-thinking (if left-leaning to a judicious degree given 16c thought police) in inventing (early) modern broadmindedness.
A pattern Bakewell explores: Perry makes it up close and personal in themed chapters integrating his eclectic experiences. He's my generation's go-between: he finds in Montaigne's digressive, arch, querulous, erudite, evolving, funny, earnest, frank, painful, intimate disclosures of maladies, shame, farts, sex solo and dual, diet, mortality, privilege, erectile dysfunction, marriage, skepticism, and kidney stones a guide. Balancing disclosure and reticence, Perry's self-examination, from a restrictive Christian upbringing, working-class outlook, and inheritance of embarrassment into a quirky midlife embrace of openness, moral uplift, and suspension of judgment mirrors (partially) his genteel model.
As I happen to share his formative traits and most of his latter aspirations, and as he's not that much younger than me, I recognized in his quest familiar settings. So this alignment influences my reaction and colors my appreciation. However, he sometimes emphasizes tolerance as if paramount among all virtues, which while Montaigne labored to sustain both his head and his estate amidst sectarian and political threat, I aver Perry (as we his contemporaries) enjoys liberal expression denied our ancestors.
Perry's a skilled reader and exacting writer. He employs fresh metaphor, refuses facile grandstanding, and expresses tact and revelation both judiciously. I think he relies on his chuckling, avuncular, public persona as heartland but progressive philosopher a bit too slickly, but as he's akin to a Will Rogers a hundred years on, maybe even a rehearsed Mark Twain, he's an avuncular performer in lyrics and lectures who makes his living on the road at Super 8 offramp hotels: in this decreasingly literate era, more power to him and whichever rig he saunters from in ice-ready lumberjack boots after dealing with the non-spill fuel nozzle, which takes up a detour equestrian Montaigne never prognosticated.
November 27, 2018
More Barn Boots than Montaigne, Michael Perry's folksy meditations on his literary relationship with the Renaissance-era French philosopher and essayist is worth a read if you like folksy mediations a la the Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger (or further to the north, maybe even Garrison Keillor) or if you have a budding interest in Montaigne. Once I scorned the first and had little time for the other, but as I grow older I find my interests broadening and many of my prejudices dwindling. And although I left Iowa behind for the vapid western suburbs of Chicago long ago, I realize there's way more Iowa in me than sprawling exurbia, and so I appreciate Perry's small-town Wisconsin perspective, although his stories can grow tiresome. As for Montaigne, well, I have thus far not experienced the torture of passing a kidney stone, but Perry makes a strong case for the Frenchman's relevance to his middle-aged Midwestern life and as Perry and I seem to share a great deal of common ground, I am hoping to explore The Essays sometime in the not-so-distant future.
This book was a gift to me from Tom Yates, a man who has helped inform my reading for many, many years.
This book was a gift to me from Tom Yates, a man who has helped inform my reading for many, many years.
April 15, 2024
Eigenlijk 3,5.
Wellicht geen literair meesterwerk, en het Amerikaanse taalgebruik wist mij dikwijls te storen maar droeg inherent ook bij aan het boek.
Perry schrijft als een hedendaagse, Amerikaanse, plattelandse Montaigne. Zijn titel dekt de lading compleet en hij doet dit op een komische en eigenzinnige wijze erg leuk. Meermaals ontglipt een grinnik mij in de stilteruimte van de bibliotheek en herken ik mij ook in zijn woorden, minder dan bij Montaigne weet hij mij te roeren maar het weet mij meer te laten lachen.
Door het boek zou ik hem graag ontmoeten, de handschudden en laten blijken dat ik me op vlakken herken in zijn woorden. En wellicht is dat een perfect effect van dit leuke boek.
Wellicht geen literair meesterwerk, en het Amerikaanse taalgebruik wist mij dikwijls te storen maar droeg inherent ook bij aan het boek.
Perry schrijft als een hedendaagse, Amerikaanse, plattelandse Montaigne. Zijn titel dekt de lading compleet en hij doet dit op een komische en eigenzinnige wijze erg leuk. Meermaals ontglipt een grinnik mij in de stilteruimte van de bibliotheek en herken ik mij ook in zijn woorden, minder dan bij Montaigne weet hij mij te roeren maar het weet mij meer te laten lachen.
Door het boek zou ik hem graag ontmoeten, de handschudden en laten blijken dat ik me op vlakken herken in zijn woorden. En wellicht is dat een perfect effect van dit leuke boek.
July 19, 2018
My favorite things are almost always high brow and low brow at the same time. That is why I love Shakespeare and Michael Perry. Thanks for explaining the philosophy with a lively living spin!
November 20, 2023
This is a fairly short book in which the author shares his opinions and observations on several of Montaigne's essays. The writing is often humorous and self depreciating. The writing also has an honest and conversational tone to it and I found many of my own flaws brought out for examination. It's an enjoyable read on a worthwhile topic, one's own beliefs and conduct.
May 28, 2023
I've read several of Michael Perry's books, and as much as one can claim to like an author based one what one sees of him in his books, I like Michael. I think it's because of that, not in spite of it, that this book makes me want to take him by the shoulders and give him a good shaking. Michael loves Montaigne because of their shared love of uncertainty. Who's to say? We can't really be sure, so no sense being dogmatic, eh? Well, buddy, here's something you need to be a little more unsure about: the neutrality of uncertainty. There are some things we can know, and to refuse to know them and live in the light of that knowledge isn't aw-shucks humble, it's bloody arrogant. Refusing to believe true things isn't remaining indecisive, it's deciding not to live be truth. I think Michael really knows that and is just trying to rationalize his refusal to submit to reality. Go back to your parents' faith, Michael. I'm sure they didn't get everything right, but have the integrity and courage to go on your face before your Maker and say, "If You show me who You are, who I am in relation to You, and how You want me to live in this world, I will submit my life to You." You say you admire Christlikeness. What do you mean by that? Do you mean being like the Christ who honored and obeyed his Father every day of His life — even to the point of death? Or do you mean being like some B.S. Christ of your own imagination, shaped to your liking and conveniently possessed of the qualities that happen to measure up to your own standards? OK, that's enough shaking from me, but while I've got my hands on your shoulders, I'm going to pray that the real Christ makes Himself known to you. That you will come to know His love and joy and peace...with not a shred of Montaignian uncertainty!
December 26, 2017
If you enjoy Michael Perry I think you'll enjoy his newest book. If you're looking for a primer on Montaigne -- this is not it! The author, as it is in his other books, is trying to bridge his rural roots and pig fencing abilities (NOT!) with his NY Times Bestselling Author status and this time using the study of Montaigne as a backdrop. I thoroughly enjoyed his ramblings, some are humorous, others vulnerable and touching. He always seems himself and human!
Some thoughts that struck me: on roughneck intersectionality he is advocating compassion and reflection. On aging elders he says "I have now watched many of them grow brittle of thought and bitter of mind". And his summary "Montaigne is the pig fencer, jolting me out of my absentminded musings and into the recognition that through the examination of my imperfections I can better serve my obligations to others".
Some thoughts that struck me: on roughneck intersectionality he is advocating compassion and reflection. On aging elders he says "I have now watched many of them grow brittle of thought and bitter of mind". And his summary "Montaigne is the pig fencer, jolting me out of my absentminded musings and into the recognition that through the examination of my imperfections I can better serve my obligations to others".
November 21, 2017
Michael Perry draws parallels between Montaigne's life & his own. It is evident a lot of research went into this book although the author plays that down. An extensive bibliography is available. I also strongly suggest reading the author's Population 485.
December 3, 2017
I couldn’t put this down. Perry shows us intersectionality at its finest. The valunerablity and beauty of this book was well balanced with humor and grace. I also loved the Wisconsin Jokes. Check out my review in LA Review of Books here.
http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/revie...
http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/revie...
November 21, 2020
I don’t want to write a review. I want to write a letter of thanks.
February 25, 2023
Usually I like Mr Perry’s books, but this was a bit of a rambling mess. Did not win me over to being interested in Montaigne at all. Some good points and interesting stories, but the self-deprecation he’s so know for gets frustrating after a while. And it‘s never fun for me to read about marriages where the man is like “my wife is amazing, how does she do it, she’s the grown up and I’m just a dumb guy! idk how she puts up with me!!” It’s one thing to be grateful for your wife’s contribution to your family but another to paint yourself as some grumpy asshole who does nothing for the family except work on his own projects and skip all chores. Now he’s 51 and this “my wife’s the adult!!!” act is getting more eye-rolling. Every book I read of his, his relationship sounds more and more depressing and I miss bachelor Perry more and more.
While there is some new material covered here, there’s a lot of retreading old ideas and retelling old stories. A few things, like dealing with aging and illness, were novel and interesting, but the stuff about his religious upbringing and family didn’t feel like they added much to whats he’s written previously.
I do relate to and find his writing interesting when it covers the struggle of belonging when where you’re from doesn’t always align with who you are. All places have their problems and problematic people, and seeing Perry struggle with that throughout his books is engaging. The struggle in identity is especially relevant when he wrote this and now where there is such polarization in political views and it’s hard to feel like you fit in anywhere where your views aren’t extreme.
While there is some new material covered here, there’s a lot of retreading old ideas and retelling old stories. A few things, like dealing with aging and illness, were novel and interesting, but the stuff about his religious upbringing and family didn’t feel like they added much to whats he’s written previously.
I do relate to and find his writing interesting when it covers the struggle of belonging when where you’re from doesn’t always align with who you are. All places have their problems and problematic people, and seeing Perry struggle with that throughout his books is engaging. The struggle in identity is especially relevant when he wrote this and now where there is such polarization in political views and it’s hard to feel like you fit in anywhere where your views aren’t extreme.
September 9, 2018
I love this line: "here I sit, reading at face value, with a limited capacity for judgment, continually suspicious of my own conclusions, philosophizing at freshman dorm stoner level without the weed." I can relate to that description perfectly!! Nailed it, Mr. Perry.
I don't know if it's a trick of geography, but everything Michael Perry seems very relatable to me. From old trucks to philosophers, everything is accessible through his lens.
I don't know if it's a trick of geography, but everything Michael Perry seems very relatable to me. From old trucks to philosophers, everything is accessible through his lens.
February 21, 2019
Michael Perry is hilarious, but also thoughtful and sentimental and smart.
February 1, 2018
3.8, I really liked the author's humor and most of his life observations. Sometimes a little more self absorbed than I might have liked. I look forward to reading another M. Perry book in the future and would be interested in hearing him if he is ever in the area. I also enjoy the fact that Montaigne's essays provided the shim (sp?) for the Count's table/desk in A Gentleman in Moscow which I enjoyed earlier in December. As I recall the heroine of the book rescues the essays and absorbs them.
April 13, 2020
Connecting relatively obscure philosophy to modern, rural life, Perry offers up his usual charming discourse on everything from gas nozzles and banjo players to fatherhood, politics, and religion. This book is a nice, contemplative ramble. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys dabbling in philosophy.
December 6, 2017
He’s zapped by an electrified pig fence, felled by a pain in the ass, frustrated by a neighbor’s dismissive arrogance, and humbled by his daughter’s patient love. Always he is learning from his life experiences, whatever form they take. In Montaigne in Barn Boots, rural Wisconsinite Michael Perry blends a humorous, thoughtful look at the sixteenth-century philosopher’s writings with his own stories, producing a hybrid memoir that elevates the genre. In doing so, Perry shows how contemporary concerns from the mundane to the profound can reflect those of a person and time seemingly far removed. Whether discussing the agony of kidney stones, mysteries of sex, necessity of money, or challenges of marriage, Perry’s entertaining and often poignant musings on Montaigne’s Essays highlight the common denominator of our shared humanness, which transcends our many differences to unite us peculiar mammals, past and present.
December 13, 2017
Quite a departure for Michael Perry, and a less enjoyable read than most. Some interesting philosophical thoughts in this book, but it veers so wildly between “country dumb” and dense philosophical statements that it’s a bit hard to follow.
March 22, 2021
A Fan in Barn Boots
In Montaigne in Barn Boots, Mike Perry reflects on the writings of Montaigne as he compares it to his own personal philosophy. For me, I dipped my toes in Montaigne’s essays and they quickly went numb. However, Mr. Perry made those essays with his down-home folksy similes and metaphors easy to understand . I fear that comes off less than a compliment, but it is a compliment. Those comparisons were dead-on and unique.
Even Mr. Perry questions presenting another memoir from him. Do we want to hear more of Mike’s life and his beliefs? Do we want him to get more personal? This books gives a resounding yes. He writes about his own life to investigate what being human means. He is so effective that he can write a whole book discussing himself without over-indulging and getting over personal.
Yes, Mr. Perry, we want more. We want to know about the man off-stage and those subjects you have not broached. And Mr, Perry we want you to get very personal without going to far and being respectful of our tender sensibilities.
That was his undertaking and he was successful. He does both. For example, he lets us know that his marriage is more than just love poems to her. He reveals that he does have a marriage like ours with its ups and downs while still being as reverential to his wife as our wives wish we would be.
In Montaigne in Barn Boots, Mike Perry reflects on the writings of Montaigne as he compares it to his own personal philosophy. For me, I dipped my toes in Montaigne’s essays and they quickly went numb. However, Mr. Perry made those essays with his down-home folksy similes and metaphors easy to understand . I fear that comes off less than a compliment, but it is a compliment. Those comparisons were dead-on and unique.
Even Mr. Perry questions presenting another memoir from him. Do we want to hear more of Mike’s life and his beliefs? Do we want him to get more personal? This books gives a resounding yes. He writes about his own life to investigate what being human means. He is so effective that he can write a whole book discussing himself without over-indulging and getting over personal.
Yes, Mr. Perry, we want more. We want to know about the man off-stage and those subjects you have not broached. And Mr, Perry we want you to get very personal without going to far and being respectful of our tender sensibilities.
That was his undertaking and he was successful. He does both. For example, he lets us know that his marriage is more than just love poems to her. He reveals that he does have a marriage like ours with its ups and downs while still being as reverential to his wife as our wives wish we would be.
March 5, 2020
I have enjoyed reading Montaigne’s essays since I was introduced to them in grad school, and Perry’s Population: 485 is a memoir I love in an uncomplicated way, so I had to read this once I knew it existed. The 3-star review reflects two things:
1. The threads of the Montaigne passages (primary and secondary) and Perry’s narratives weren’t consistently tight. I suspect part of that was mimicking Montaigne’s style of quoting others, but it doesn’t always work well.
2. I found the way Perry couches topics like sex with so many apologies and warnings and expectations that readers would stop reading to be tiresome.
I don’t regret reading the book at all, and I thought Perry’s discussions about interlocutors in public discourse were particularly worthwhile.
1. The threads of the Montaigne passages (primary and secondary) and Perry’s narratives weren’t consistently tight. I suspect part of that was mimicking Montaigne’s style of quoting others, but it doesn’t always work well.
2. I found the way Perry couches topics like sex with so many apologies and warnings and expectations that readers would stop reading to be tiresome.
I don’t regret reading the book at all, and I thought Perry’s discussions about interlocutors in public discourse were particularly worthwhile.
November 17, 2019
I read this as a stepping stone toward Montaigne. I hesitated to jump right into the essays of a 16th century French nobleman and Renaissance philosopher. This inspires me to read on and points to several translations, biographies, and monographs. It was also my introduction to Michael Perry, a talented and funny writer, who humorously evaluates his life through Montaigne’s essays.
November 8, 2018
When Michael Perry told his own story, I was drawn in. When he compared his life to a long dead French Essayist I was not interested. I did get a look at Perry's demons and struggles, all which make him the man he is.
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