David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "sad"
Our Souls at Night
Kent Haruf recently died, but not before he left us with one last effort, OUR SOULS AT NIGHT, more of a novella than a full blown novel. In this work, Haruf offers the same compassion as he did in the first book of his that I read, PLAINSONG, one of the best books I've read since I retired in the nineties.
Once again the setting of the story is Holt, Colorado. In a bit of humor Louis Waters, one of the main characters, mentions PLAINSONG, claiming the unnamed Haruf used the town name and street names but that Louis had never heard of any bachelor farmers taking in a pregnant girl.
This work is about Louis and Addie Moore, two senior citizens who decide to live together. Addie can't stand the loneliness and wants someone to sleep with at night, although not in the traditional way, at first anyway. When she asks him, Louis doesn't know what to say, but it doesn't take too long to answer in the affirmative. She's a goods-looking woman for seventy-something, although she's a little thick in the middle.
The story picks up steam when Addie's son, Gene, leaves his son, Jamie, to live with his grandmother, while he deals with a separation from his wife and his business which is nearing bankruptcy. He doesn't like it one bit that Louis is living with his mother. Louis teaches the boy to play catch, gets him a dog from the Humane Center. He'd been crying when he first arrived, but they cheer him up quite a bit.
It's rather hard to believe that the town gossips and busybodies would object to two senior citizens living together, but some of them do. We learn why Gene is the way he is. Who doesn't play catch with his kid? Connie, Addie's daughter was run over and killed by a car when Gene was only a little boy, and he blamed himself; he'd been chasing her with a water house during a hot day, and she ran into the street. From that moment on Gene's father lost interest in him and his mother; it had been ten years since she'd been with a man when she came to see Louis. Louis has some blips in his background as well, having cheated on his wife. But they definitely fit; fate is a sly dog when it comes to romance. Why couldn't it have arranged for these two to meet when they were young?
Haruf has a few other lessons for us. The two go skinny dipping, for instance. Undignified, you say. I guess you haven't heard that seventy is the new fifty.
If Haruf's spirit is still hanging around someplace, I'd just like to say thank you for PLAINSONG and his other three books, which are almost as good. Waters says there are theatrical versions of four of his novels. I wouldn't doubt it a bit.
Once again the setting of the story is Holt, Colorado. In a bit of humor Louis Waters, one of the main characters, mentions PLAINSONG, claiming the unnamed Haruf used the town name and street names but that Louis had never heard of any bachelor farmers taking in a pregnant girl.
This work is about Louis and Addie Moore, two senior citizens who decide to live together. Addie can't stand the loneliness and wants someone to sleep with at night, although not in the traditional way, at first anyway. When she asks him, Louis doesn't know what to say, but it doesn't take too long to answer in the affirmative. She's a goods-looking woman for seventy-something, although she's a little thick in the middle.
The story picks up steam when Addie's son, Gene, leaves his son, Jamie, to live with his grandmother, while he deals with a separation from his wife and his business which is nearing bankruptcy. He doesn't like it one bit that Louis is living with his mother. Louis teaches the boy to play catch, gets him a dog from the Humane Center. He'd been crying when he first arrived, but they cheer him up quite a bit.
It's rather hard to believe that the town gossips and busybodies would object to two senior citizens living together, but some of them do. We learn why Gene is the way he is. Who doesn't play catch with his kid? Connie, Addie's daughter was run over and killed by a car when Gene was only a little boy, and he blamed himself; he'd been chasing her with a water house during a hot day, and she ran into the street. From that moment on Gene's father lost interest in him and his mother; it had been ten years since she'd been with a man when she came to see Louis. Louis has some blips in his background as well, having cheated on his wife. But they definitely fit; fate is a sly dog when it comes to romance. Why couldn't it have arranged for these two to meet when they were young?
Haruf has a few other lessons for us. The two go skinny dipping, for instance. Undignified, you say. I guess you haven't heard that seventy is the new fifty.
If Haruf's spirit is still hanging around someplace, I'd just like to say thank you for PLAINSONG and his other three books, which are almost as good. Waters says there are theatrical versions of four of his novels. I wouldn't doubt it a bit.
