The Same Ax, Twice

An old farmer boasts that he has used the same ax his whole life -- he's only had to replace the handle three times and the head twice. In an eclectic, insightful meditation on the powerful impulse to preserve and restore, Howard Mansfield explores the myriad ways in which we attempt to reconnect with and recover the past -- to use the same ax twice.

Mansfield's In the Memory House (hailed as a "wise and beautiful book" by the New York Times) explored the complex interconnections of memory a...