You Can Go Home Again: Adventures of a Contrary Life

Gene Logsdon's story embodies both the frustrations and longing so many of us feel as we search for our essential selves and a harmonious life. The measure of his courage -- and contrariness -- is that he has been successful. In You Can Go Home Again, he tells us what motivated him and what success has meant. For Logsdon, to create a home; is not to escape from the world, but to establish a nexus of people, all working together to produce a home-based economy as a bulwark of stability under the larger economy gone crazy with paper money. Home is a local community tied to other local communities. But mostly Logsdon's philosophy must be read between the lines. What he writes about are the sad, funny, and sometimes harrowing adventures of those who live seemingly humdrum lives: understanding creeks; shepherding sheep; coping with blizzards; winning softball tournaments; losing sanity at rock concerts; hiding in haystacks; enjoying Christmas; surviving a buggy ride; overcoming grief, not to mention absentminded professors, dictatorial editors, and fervid priests; and why it might not be a bad idea to go to church in our underwear. What transpires is an inspiring picture of a very American life.