Plainsong

published	August 22nd 2000 by Vintage
binding	Paperback
isbn	0375705856 (isbn13: 9780375705854)
pages	320
description	Ambitious, but never seeming so, Kent Haruf reveals a whole community as he interweaves the stories of a pregnant high school girl, a lonely teacher, ...more [close] Ambitious, but never seeming so, Kent Haruf reveals a whole community as he interweaves the stories of a pregnant high school girl, a lonely teacher, a pair of boys abandoned by their mother, and a couple of crusty bachelor farmers. From simple elements, Haruf achieves a novel of wisdom and grace--a narrative that builds in strength and feeling until, as in a choral chant, the voices in the book surround, transport, and lift the reader off the ground. [close]
date added	02-07-07 edit book

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Ginnie rated it:

05/17/08

bookshelves: family, fiction

Plainsong is one of those novels that sneaks up on a reader, beginning with understated prose and culminating with such authorial affection that the reader does not want to leave the fictional world. Haruf follows the lives of several characters in rural Holt, Colorado - Guthrie, an honest school teacher whose wife has suffered a nervous breakdown; his two sons, Ike and Bobby, who find themselves facing death, independence, and growing up; Victoria Roubideaux, a pregnant teenager thrown o...more Plainsong is one of those novels that sneaks up on a reader, beginning with understated prose and culminating with such authorial affection that the reader does not want to leave the fictional world. Haruf follows the lives of several characters in rural Holt, Colorado - Guthrie, an honest school teacher whose wife has suffered a nervous breakdown; his two sons, Ike and Bobby, who find themselves facing death, independence, and growing up; Victoria Roubideaux, a pregnant teenager thrown out of her mother's house; the McPherons, Harold and Raymond, bachelor brothers who know more about cattle prices and corn cribs than they do about people; and Maggie Jones, the woman who connects them.

I did not fall in love with this novel until the hundredth page or so, and then I could not put it down. The narrative flows like a meandering river - steadily but without visible ripples on the surface - and so it takes time to become fully invested in Haruf's characters. Fortunately, the characterizations, fictional details and the quality of the prose are strong enough from the start to keep one reading. The rhythms of life in Holt and the honest, almost innocent, way its citizens face their trials give this novel a graceful elegiac quality.

In this entrancing gem of a novel, Kent Haruf draws the reader into a self-enclosed world of small-town hopes, fears, dreams, and conflicts. Writing in a simple, plainspoken style that is at once spare and highly descriptive, Haruf presents life on the plains by providing a series of vignettes involving a small but compelling cast of characters. These include a high school teacher and his two young sons, a troubled teenaged girl who faces the uncertainties of an accidental pregnancy, and a hardworking pair of elderly bachelor brothers who are more comfortable with their cattle than with other human beings.

The stories that unfold in *Plainsong* are uncomplicated, and in the end, the conflicts and problems presented remain largely unresolved. Some readers might find this disappointing, but Haruf's aim here is to to weave a narrative that reflects the ambiguous realities of real life, rathen than to present a didactic morality tale with a "happily ever after" ending.

To my mind, the most significant characters in the novel are the McPheron brothers, the aging bachelor ranchers who have spent their entire lives on the same plot of land. The brothers take in the pregnant Virginia Roubideaux, instruct the two young Guthrie boys in the ways of cattle ranching, and in general come to represent all that is good, hardworking, straightforward, and generous within the culture of the rural great plains. In some ways, in fact, their earnest, honest nature render them "too good to be true."

On the other hand, Haruf explores the darker side of small town life by presenting Tom Guthrie's wife as a hopeless depressive and by forcing Guthrie to face every teacher's nightmare, an evil-minded, disruptive student whose parents maintain that their child can do no wrong.

The earnestly unadorned style of presentation is an effective vehicle for capturing the book's small town American subject matter. There are, however, aspects of the literary texture created here that are, in fact, unorthodox. The best example is Haruf's presentation of dialogue without any use tarditional quotation punctuation. This is no mere gimmick, as this innovation complements the rhythm and cadence of the writing, rendering the overall presentation more effective.

Over three hundred enchanting pages, Plainsong succeeds in depicting a narrow, declining, and too-often forgotten slice of Americana. When I finished this book, I was truly sorry to see the story end.
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Lucy rated it:

01/09/08

Read in January, 2008

The first page of this book has a definition of the word plainsong. It is:

"any simple and unadorned melody or air."

I appreciated this book more than I liked it. The author, Kent Haruf, writes with a vividly clear but simple prose about a small town in northeastern Colorado, a couple of hours from Denver, whose occupants struggle with their choices, their relationships and their opportunities.

Kind of a universal story, honestly, but in this setting - so sparse and empty - Ha...more The first page of this book has a definition of the word plainsong. It is:

"any simple and unadorned melody or air."

I appreciated this book more than I liked it. The author, Kent Haruf, writes with a vividly clear but simple prose about a small town in northeastern Colorado, a couple of hours from Denver, whose occupants struggle with their choices, their relationships and their opportunities.

Kind of a universal story, honestly, but in this setting - so sparse and empty - Haruf managed to develop characters that I felt like I knew. Perhaps it's growing up in Montana, where there are small towns to spare, but his book had a realness to it that felt uncomfortable to me. I had teachers like Tom Guthrie. Men who taught because it was a job, not because they were particularly suited for the profession. I was aware of girls like Victoria Roubideaux, young and troubled (in this case pregnant), misfits from the small town core.

There are many characters throughout the book, some better developed than others. Tom Guthries' sons, Bobby and Ike, who want more than either of their parents are able to give them. The McPherson brothers, old bachelors who live alone on a farm. The teenage redhead, who frightens me and makes me angry until I realize he mirrors the attitudes and behaviors of his own parents. Maggie Jones, who is the poorest developed and thus the most likable. As the book approaches its halfway point, their lives start to intersect rather than orbit. Even as the intersections begin, lives aren't drastically changed or made better. There is some growth and a hint at tenderness, particularly when the old McPherson brothers take in Victoria, who is alone and pregnant at 17.

When I finished the book, I snapped it shut and shouted, "Why do I read stuff like this?!" Days later, I still feel melancholy about Holt, Colorado and its inhabitants who seem to have so little going for them.

As frustrated as I was by the end, because there was no resolution of conflict, no great triumph or lesson learned or bridges crossed, I can quietly nod "well done" to the author for staying true to the apparent purpose of his book. This is a story of "what is" more than "what happened."

It is a plainsong....less

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Visha rated it:

05/14/08

Read in May, 2008

recommends it for: Sarah Messer, Branson, Erin Bond, Hillary Wentworth

I noticed on a msg board that another reader compared Haruf's Plainsong to Kyle's The God of Animals; there are numerous content parallels (mother in bed; horses; Colorado setting, etc) but each work stands on its own. I was actually more interested in the parallels between Haruf's writing style and Cormac McCarthy's: long sentences of mundane activities (one example: "After a time he put out the cigarette and went upstairs and walked past the closed door behind which she lay in bed in the...more I noticed on a msg board that another reader compared Haruf's Plainsong to Kyle's The God of Animals; there are numerous content parallels (mother in bed; horses; Colorado setting, etc) but each work stands on its own. I was actually more interested in the parallels between Haruf's writing style and Cormac McCarthy's: long sentences of mundane activities (one example: "After a time he put out the cigarette and went upstairs and walked past the closed door behind which she lay in bed in the darkened guest room sleeping or not and went down the hall to the glassy room over the kitchen where the two boys were.") There are also a lot of male characters in the McCarthy vein, some traveling/journeying like McCarthy does, and some violence. Like McCarthy's more recent work (I'm thinking of No Country for Old Men), the overall form of the book is rigidly structured: each chapter deals with a character (or character pair, in the case of 2 sets of brothers). However, Haruf finally unites all of the characters and also includes some really fascinating and strong women in his work (unlike McCarthy who tends to have only incidental women). Plainsong is a relatively quick read, very compelling. I found myself flying through the second half, unable to put it down. Some readers may find it quite sentimental by the end, at least where the two older McPherson brothers are concerned, but I found that sweetness refreshing.

Some readers may be put off by the way certain conflicts are either resolved or left unresolved; I found the lack of closure liberating. There's also a sentimentality to the ending that could be considered saccharine by some, potentially improbably by others. At times, I wondered about some of the younger characters (the 17-year-old girl; the 9- and 10-yr.-old boys) and how authentic they were. Haruf never defines the time/year in which the story takes place, but since it happens in a rural setting, that wasn't a problem for me.

Apparently, there's a follow-up book called Eventide, but I'm not anxious to read it yet; I want to savor Plainsong. Branson told me that when he was working in the UNCW bookstore in 1999, Plainsong was one of the biggest titles they carried, used in a lot of classes....less

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