Shotgun Lovesongs

Butler, Nickolas. Shotgun Lovesongs. New York: St. Martin's Press. 2014. Print

First Sentences:

We invited him to all of our weddings; he was famous. 

We addressed the invitations to his record company's skyscraper in New York City so that the gaudy, gilded envelopes could be forwarded to him on tour -- in Beirut, Helsinki, Tokyo. Places beyond our ken or our limited means.

Description:

What better kind of book is there than one that introduces five intelligent, interesting characters and then gives them room to narrate an unusually complex story through their own perspectives in strong, simple yet passionate words. 

In Nickolas Butler's debut novel, Shotgun Lovesongs, five childhood friends reunite for a wedding in their tiny hometown of Little Wing, Wisconsin. Through the events over the next days and the following months, each friend reflects on the current intertwining of their lives as well as their youth with nostalgia, love, jealousy, and some bitterness. 

But this story is more than a bunch of people reminiscing. The wedding, the parties, the meals, the arguments, and the quiet times together slowly open up old memories as well as kindle suppressed feelings of envy, love, anger, and regret that influence their words and actions in unexpected ways. 

Each chapter is narrated by a different friend, bringing his or her unique knowledge about the past and present. Their individual voices tell stories with insight and mixed emotions as they try to interact with and understand who their friends really were and have now become. It's an intimate book, where we readers are privy to the inner thoughts and motivations of these friends, building a personal bond with the plot and characters that is a rare pleasure to read.

The friends featured in Shotgun Lovesongs are:

• Henry and Beth - a long-married couple who never left their child home town of Little Wing, and now farm their land and raise their family, but soon face unexpected conflict as secret relationships with their best friends are exposed;
• Kip -  left Little Wing to earn his fortune in Chicago and now returns to hold his wedding among his friends and also to renovate a decrepit mill into a focal point of the town, a noble but controversial, alienating project;
• Ronny - a former rodeo cowboy who has taken one too many falls, but still retains his goodness and friendship with the others in his simple life in Little Wing, a world he longs to leave as soon as possible;
• Lee - the local boy who has exploded onto the music scene and now travels the world in wealth and fan adulation, but still holds a special longing for his previous life and friends in Little Wing along with serious doubts about his career and life choices.

These are people who watch sunrises and sunsets together from top of the mill silo, but each through his own perspective. Lee, the composer, tries to explain the musical tones behind the colors in the sky, while Kip dreams of converting the mill to a profitable center of the town. Henry can see his farm and Ronny, the vistas he used to travel to with the rodeo. 

And, boy, can NIckolas Butler write descriptions, dialogue, and private thoughts. In each chapter, the narrator/friend is slowly revealed via his/her unique voice and interpretation of the actions and other people. Some examples?

His left ring finger had begun to overcome his wedding band. The ring had become part of him, in the way that a fence-tree gradually absorbs the barbed wire wrapped around its bark --- Henry

The only thing I could think to do was to come back home, out of exile, to show the boys -- now men -- "Look,. Look what I did. Look at who I am now. Look at me" --- Kip

I ain't sad. I'm just bored stiff ... if I was a wild horse, I'd bolt right off and just keep on running. I want to break out of here so bad and I don't even know where I want to go. Maybe Anyplace, I guess. I know they think I can't take care of myself, but  I sure as hell can. I'm not a smart man -- I know that -- but I ain't dumb. And the way things are, it's like I'm in a cage --- Ronny

It isn't very romantic, but after you've been married almost ten years, an afternoon fuck can feel like you've gotten away with a minor crime, an act as thrilling and banal as shoplifting. --- Beth

The voice of an old friend -- like finding a wall to orient you in some strange, dark hotel room. The world is still out there. --- Lee 

There is such feeling in Butler's writing that can paint this loving, complicated picture of the Midwest, the small town of Little Wing, and the people who live there. These are people pulled by the force of this small town, a power that binds these friends together to experience each and their familiar hometown, warts and all. As Ronny notes while eating awful food in the local cafe:

Only in the Midwest would someone spend their money in a place they hate simply because they feel bad for the proprietors. Also, I suppose, because they know your name.

These are fine people with stories to tell. So personal, so passionate, so honest. Shotgun Lovesongs is one of my new favorite recommendations, a truly strong, yet intimate read. And don't be surprised by the unexpected turns in the story because these friends are real people capable of new, completely out-of-the-blue actions.

It's a funny thing, being married to someone for so long, being someone's best friend for so long. Because on those few occasions when they surprise you, it feels like the biggest thing in the world, like a crack in the sky, like the moon, suddenly rising over the horizon twenty times bigger than the last time you looked. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Krueger, William Kent. Ordinary Grace: A Novel

Thirteen-year-old boy tells of his summer of explorations, suicide, murder, love, and family challenges in a small town in Minnesota in 1961. Not your ordinary coming-of-age story, this one is full of real people facing personal questions and opportunities during these summer days in a more innocent time. Well worth the time to read. 

Cassella, Carol. Gemini: A Novel

Another small-town story of two friends who lives intersect in their early teens, who separate and then rejoin unexpectedly 25 years later. Gemini also presents a parallel story of an ICU doctor treating a comatose hit-and-run patient facing questions about how long a doctor can prolong life artificially when a family cannot be found to make critical decisions about treatment. Complex, challenging, and lovely.