Wendell Berry’s character Jonah ‘Jayber’ Crow, the unassuming barber of a small, mid-century Kentucky town, is a man born out of time, a kind of medieval knight carrying a pair of scissors instead of a sword. Jayber is an orphan and bachelor, leading a solitary existence and observing the lives of the residents of Port William, Kentucky, including the life of the woman he’s secretly in love with, Mattie Catham. But here’s the catch: Mattie is already married, and, to make matters more complicated, her husband is unfaithful to her.
Rather than seeking to draw Mattie away from her husband or break her vow to him, Jayber makes a vow of his own: to be the faithful husband Mattie never had, loving her secretly and from afar, just as a medieval knight would choose a lady to love and serve from a distance, according to the rules of courtly love.
