An Apology for a Man

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At first glance, An Apology for a Man is a simple tale of a boy, on the cusp of adolescence, spending one day on the lake fishing with his father. But author David Herndon weaves a tale of the boy’s joy alongside a father he longed to emulate. Using no names for people or places, Herndon’s memoir becomes a universal story of love, reflection, and growth.

With no compass, map, or timepiece, they leave long before sunrise and return long after sunset. They predict the weather by watching the sky, wind and water, and judge time by the movement of the sun, moon, and stars.

We meet some of the mountain people who shaped his life: the old woman with the pigs who sold minnows, and the thin old woman and the wiry old man. But looming largest of all is a mysterious man living a solitary life in the mountains around the lake. Was he real or imagined?

An Apology for a Man is told in Herndon’s hallmark manner of speaking, a style common in the West Virginia coal mining camps of the mid-20th Century. The simplicity of language camouflages the profound insight this story imparts; a story described best by Herndon himself: The work of being with the lake, the work of learning to just be.