Dave's review
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
Oh, what a beautiful book. Haruf's language is so deceptively simple--there's probably not a word in the book beyond sixth grade reading level. But with this simple language, he creates such beautiful, sad, lonely, human people. I'm particularly in love with the McPheron brothers, two elderly bachelor farmer brothers (and they're the single largest reason I think Nance needs to read this book).
Something else about the simplicity of the language--I can't recall a single time that Haruf directly stated what a character was feeling. There were no internal dialogs, and no mentions of the words sad, happy, angry, or any of their synonyms (that I remember). Rather, Haruf simply relates their actions and their words between one another, and the reader makes a much stronger tie to what the characters are feeling. This may be the most literal rendering of the "show, don't tell" rule I've ever read.
Many times, during the course of reading, I found myself pleading with the chara...more
Something else about the simplicity of the language--I can't recall a single time that Haruf directly stated what a character was feeling. There were no internal dialogs, and no mentions of the words sad, happy, angry, or any of their synonyms (that I remember). Rather, Haruf simply relates their actions and their words between one another, and the reader makes a much stronger tie to what the characters are feeling. This may be the most literal rendering of the "show, don't tell" rule I've ever read.
Many times, during the course of reading, I found myself pleading with the chara...more
I'll definitely read this, then, Dave. I have had it on my shelf for a long time. Thanks.
Dave, thanks, I'll move it up to the top of my pile.
It's a pretty quick read, too, so it won't push other books on your to-read shelves all that far back.
