WATCH WITH ME: And Six Other Stories...

WATCH WITH ME: And Six Other Stories of the Yet-Remembered Ptolemy Proudfoot and His Wife, Miss Minnie, Nee Quinch by Wendell Berry (Pantheon: $11; 210 pp.). These linked short stories follow the life of Ptolemy (Tol) Proudfoot of Port William, Ky. In contrast to the neat rows of his garden, “Tol could have been a scarecrow, albeit an unusually big one. . . . Tol’s clothes always looked as if they were making a strenuous and perhaps hopeless effort just to stay somewhere in his vicinity.” Adoring and adored by his schoolteacher wife, Proudfoot stands out as pillar of integrity in his tiny town. The vibrant warmth of Berry’s prose imbues these accounts of daily crises with an understated appeal.