Montaigne in Barn Boots

<p><strong>The beloved memoirist and bestselling author of <em>Population: 485</em> reflects on the lessons he's learned from his unlikely alter ego French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne.</strong></p><p>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.</p><p>Written in a spirit of exploration rather than declaration <em>Montaigne in Barn Boots</em> 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.</p>