Haruf, Kent. Plainsong. New York: Knopf 1999. Print
First Sentences:
Here was the man, Tom Guthrie, in Holt standing at the back window in the kitchen of his house smoking cigarettes and looking out over the back lot where the sun was just coming up.
When the sun reached the top of the windmill, for a while he watched what it was doing, that increased reddening of sunrise along the steel blades and the tail vane above the wooden platform.
Description:
Seventee miles outside the tiny town of Holt, Colorado live two elderly batchelor farmer brothers, Raymond and Harold McPheron. They keep to themselves, tending their fields and animals in quiet seclusion, barely speaking to each other much less anyone else. They've lived all their lives since their early teens when their parents died.
But their familiar world changes suddenly in Kent Haruf's Plainsong when they are asked to accept into their household a pregnant teenage girl, Victoria Roubideaux, who has nowhere else to go and no one to care for her. These gruff, unpolished men now must deal with this tiny, quiet girl and her coming baby, privately and in their own inexperienced manner.
You get to know and even partially understand the lives of other characters: Maggie Jones, the teacher who befriends Victoria and introduces her to the batchelor brothers; Mrs. Sterns, the ancient woman living alone amongst the items she has hoarded for years: Dwayne, the Denver boy who is the father of Victoria's baby; and Russell Beckman, the school bully.
The descriptions of this landscape and these seemingly ordinary people sets Plainsong apart from almost every other book. Take Haruf's description of Tom's sons sleeping together in one bed:
First Sentences:
Here was the man, Tom Guthrie, in Holt standing at the back window in the kitchen of his house smoking cigarettes and looking out over the back lot where the sun was just coming up.
When the sun reached the top of the windmill, for a while he watched what it was doing, that increased reddening of sunrise along the steel blades and the tail vane above the wooden platform.
Description:
Seventee miles outside the tiny town of Holt, Colorado live two elderly batchelor farmer brothers, Raymond and Harold McPheron. They keep to themselves, tending their fields and animals in quiet seclusion, barely speaking to each other much less anyone else. They've lived all their lives since their early teens when their parents died.
But their familiar world changes suddenly in Kent Haruf's Plainsong when they are asked to accept into their household a pregnant teenage girl, Victoria Roubideaux, who has nowhere else to go and no one to care for her. These gruff, unpolished men now must deal with this tiny, quiet girl and her coming baby, privately and in their own inexperienced manner.
[Harold said]...why, hell, look at us. Old men alone. Decrepit old bachelors out here in the courtry seventeen miles from the closest town which don't amount to much of a good goddamn even when you get there. Think of us. Crotchety and ignorant. Lonesome. Independent. Sent in all our ways. How you going to change now at this age of life?
I can't say, Raymond said. But I'm going to. That's what I know.But in a small town, no one can long keep their lives private. In Holt, that holds true of other stolid townspeople who quietly carry their own burdens. For example, Tom Gutherie, the high school teacher, trying to raise his sons alone while his wife chooses to remain alone in her room upstairs in their home. He also suffers the trials of recalcitrant students and the wrath of their parents.
You get to know and even partially understand the lives of other characters: Maggie Jones, the teacher who befriends Victoria and introduces her to the batchelor brothers; Mrs. Sterns, the ancient woman living alone amongst the items she has hoarded for years: Dwayne, the Denver boy who is the father of Victoria's baby; and Russell Beckman, the school bully.
The descriptions of this landscape and these seemingly ordinary people sets Plainsong apart from almost every other book. Take Haruf's description of Tom's sons sleeping together in one bed:
...the older boy had one hand stretched above his brother's head as if he hopes to shove something away and thereby save them both. They were nine and ten, with dark brown hair and unmarked faces, and cheeks that were still as pure and dear as a girl's.Then there is simple, moving description of the town doctor who examines Victoria so tenderly:
The old doctor reached up and took her hand and held it warmly between both of his hands for a moment and was quiet with her, simply looking into her face, serenely, grandfatherly, but not talking, treating her out of respect and kindness, out of his own long experience of patients in examination rooms.These are characters that make you want to cry for their realness, determination, and inner passions. Their lives intertwine as they must do in small towns. To watch their interactions first occur, then blossom, wither, or triumph, all beautifully written by Kent Haruf, makes Plainsong a truly wonderful book. Please read it. It has my highest recommendation.
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Doig, Ivan. The Whistling Season.
A Chicago woman in 1909 answers an advertisement for a housekeeper for a widower and his three young sons living in an isolated Montana town. She writes that she "Can't cook, but doesn't bite," and gets the job sight unseen (by both of them). She brings her brother with her on the train and he reluctantly becomes a unique schoolteacher. Simply wonderful, a great read not to be missed. (previously reviewed here)
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