Rating: 
Summary: We need a sequel!
Review: I, like many others, have read my way backwards through Kent Haruf's (too few) books since being mesmerized by Plainsong. Having just finished Where You Once Belonged, I am eager to have a sequel. I'm not sure whether Mr. Haruf reads the reviews on amazon.com, but just in case: Please help us get some closure on Jessie and Pat! The book ends quite abruptly, and it certainly left me anxious to know especially what would become of its self-posessed heroine and her two boys. To all of the rest of you, I recommend this, as I recommend any of Mr. Haruf's beautifully simple books. He has a gift for expressing the pathos and triumph of living everyday human life.
Rating:
Summary: Small Town Life Mixed With Big Time Drama
Review: Jack Burdette returns to Holt, Colorado after disappearing 8 years earlier. Once the town's golden boy he is now a pariah, a man who left his home town in disgrace, after destroying many of the people who once respected him so much. In the intervening years Jack's wife has found happiness in the arms of the novel's narrator, Pat Arbuckle. Jack's return is not peaceful and the town is once again thrown into turmoil by his presence.In this slim volume, Haruf returns to his fictional town of Holt for another dose of small town life mixed with big time drama. The writing is lean and clean and there's not a single unnecessary word or phrase. Haruf peoples his creation with a cast of likable and diverse creations, none of whom are larger than life or overdrawn. Burdette, as the 'bad guy' could have ended up a parody but in Haruf's capable hands he is a frighteningly realistic malevolent force. The progression in Haruf's skill as a writer - from his first novel 'The Ties That Bind' to his latest, the sublime 'Plainsong' - is evident in this piece. The flaws of the first novel are gone while 'Where You Once Belonged' doesn't quite reach the heights of his third offering.
Rating: 
Summary: An unconvincing short story
Review: Kent Haruf's writing has won awards. He's apparently winning fans, to judge by the very nice reviews below. I must say, I'm completely mystified, then, because I found this book to be little more than a poorly-written short story padded out to novel length. Well, at least it's still short. What others apparently take for a simplistic style seems to be simply writing devoid of any (style, that is). Imagery is almost non-existant: at no time in this novel did I get any sense of "place." It was as if the whole novel took place in a two-block Hollywood "small-town" cardboard mock-up. And the characters fit right in. The antagonist (Jack Burdette), his girlfriend, and some of the townsfolk are simply stock figures. He's a muscle-bound jock, she's a long-suffering dreamy-eyed beauty queen with a heart of gold. He takes her for granted. She puts up with him (despite absolute no redeeming features) in hopes of matrimony. The townsfolk are names, with cliched occupations (store clerk, sherriff, etc.). Mayberry? The book is told, for the most part, from the point of view of a narrator whose own story is never developed, while his relation to the antagonist is only touched upon. In fact, not one relationship in the novel is detailed. The narrator meets a girl in college. Falls in love. Marries. They fall out of love. She moves back home. She's completely out of the novel (of course, she was never IN it). He eventually hooks up with Jack Burdette's wife (whom Jack has abandoned). Why? What do they have in common? What do they do together? Nothing is developed; thus, there's no reason to care about any of them. Frankly, I finished the book for no other reason than it was so thin. On the few occasions it appears that SOMETHING is going to happen (actually, the only one that comes to mind now is when Jessie Burdette appears at the newspaper), the reader is left frustrated, as the narrator simply bypasses it to the next scene. Jack Burdette is described as some heartless, unfeeling ogre, but you see only a few instances of his behavior (more boorish and selfish than genuinely evil). He is gone for more than half the novel, but nothing ever develops in his absence. We are simply told what happens to his ex-girlfriend, told his wife and the narrator (see? I can't even remember his NAME, and I just finished the book a week ago) moved in together (along w/ Jack's kids). Some of the first advice I ever received from a writing instructor - "show, don't tell." A little nugget of wisdom that needs to be learned by this author.
Rating: 
Summary: An okay read...
Review: Now that I am more accustomed to Haruf's spare writing style, I found I was able to enjoy Where You Once Belonged more than I did Plainsong. I cared more about the characters in this book, Jessie, Pat, and yes, even Jack, than I did those in Plainsong (which I was disappointed in because I expected so much more from it after all the rave customer and editorial reviews I read). I do think there is a bit more character development in this book than there was in Plainsong. This one kept me tense and I kept expecting worse things to happen than actually did, which was a good thing, since bad enough events did transpire! I grew to care about the mysterious Jessie when she "repaid" Jack's debt to the town in the most self-destructive way she could and developed a caring relationship with the narrator, Pat. My complaint about lack of character development applies here though too, because Jessie's feelings about what she did are never referred to. I don't think reading this book was a waste of time but I probably won't read any more from this author because there are just too many other writers out there who can really stir my emotions and leave me much more satisfied than Haruf does by the time I read the last page of his books.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful, overlooked novel
Review: Now that Kent Haruf is finally receiving some long overdue attention for his current (excellent) novel "Plainsong" perhaps the publishers will see fit to re-issue this, his wonderful second book. It is written in the same low-key style as "Plainsong", with the same warm attention to detail, but builds to one of the most devastating, heart-rending conclusions in all of literature. I will give away no more. Not only is this book out of print but, incredibly, it was never issued in paperback! Just read it and don't put it down until the last page.
Rating:
Summary: Where did all the editors go? he didn't pull it off...
Review: Okay, I really like Kent Haruf's style of writing. I really like Plainsong, and I really wanted to like Where You Once Belonged. But the ending just ruined the whole thing. He just couldn't pull it off, I guess. Now don't get me wrong, I don't need to have a happy ending to like a book, in fact there are many many books among my favorites in which the endings weren't happy. The problem with this book is this: First of all, the way the book was written demanded that much of your view of it be decided upon the conclusion....which in turn demands that the conclusion be very well written (not necessarily happy). This brings me to the second part of my problem with this book. The ending bothered me not as much for what happened at the end, but because of the insincerity of it. It made me feel like the author was trying to write a "cool" ending and make a really meaningful story, but that he didn't take the time to make sure that it was written well enough to be halfway plausible. My reaction was "you've gotta be kidding, you expect me to believe that?" I am a great lover and collector of books, but this was one that I'd never read again, and never ever recommend to anyone I know, so consequently, my copy of this book now lies at the bottom of the Carribean Ocean! I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because I do like Kent Haruf's other writing, and I'm hping for better in the future. I don't want to give away the ending in case you want to read it, but the main character acted like he didn't even care about what happened in the end...so why should I? (I'd like to believe it's the fault of editors, but...?)
Rating:
Summary: Satisfying, but...
Review: This is the final Haruf book I had to read to complete the three he has in print. You will get a wide range of opinions when reading these reviews, but for me, this would be the second place book - behind 'Plainsong', but ahead of 'The Tie That Binds' - in his catalogue.
Certainly you are aware of the main plot: gifted kid (at least athletically) has people's respect, marries quickly, leaves town suddenly with money from the farmer's co-op grain elevator, and makes a sudden, while not welcome, appearance eight years later once the statute of limitations on his crime has run out. Some of the characters from Haruf's 'The Tie That Binds' make their appearence again in this story. Sheriff Bud Sealy, Tom Crossman, and Bobby Williams all appear here, but only Sealy's character status really rises above minor. As with Haruf's other books, character development is present, but spare at the same time. The story is told with a rural, detached, but not aloof, feel - something born in the people living on the High Plains. It just 'feels' natural.
As for the ending...it's sudden. I can honestly say I didn't see the book ending the way it did. But do I like it? I kinda think I do. I only finished the story a couple of hours ago, so I might need to ponder it more, but it isn't the nice, clean ending one might expect. The curious person in me wants a sequel to tidy things up - is Jessie ever found? Does she stay with Pat? What is the effect on the boys? What happens to Jack?, etc. But I think I like not knowing. It's not the conventional way, but I respect Haruf for not giving in to the reader's need to have a tidy ending.
That said, if I were recommending Haruf's books to friends, I'd have them start with 'Plainsong.' If they don't like that, chances are they won't appreciate his other works in my opinion. As for me, Haruf's in a very short list of authors from whom I'd buy anything. In fact, if he were to publish the Holt Co. phone book I'd probably buy a copy or two... Yup, I think I would.
Rating:
Summary: This book seems underdeveloped
Review: This is the first Kent Haruf book I have read, having been encouraged to pick him up by a friend who enjoyed Plainsong. I plan to read Plainsong at some point, but after having read Where You Once Belonged I am in no real hurry. I thought the book started out well, filling in the biographical information about the characters and developing the small town setting, and then working up into Burdette's adulthood, his wife and two sons and their travails, and the narrator's own life. Nothing tremendous, certainly, but I thought it was a story moving along nicely and I was enjoying the read. I was disappointed by two things, however, and the first concerns the 'upheaval' that supposedly occurs upon Burdette's return to Holt. Even after having read the entire book I couldn't fully understand why the people of Holt would be so violently angry at Burdette, and I think my reason for this is that Haruf didn't make clear the negative impact of Burdette's actions upon the town and its people. Consider the event upon which this entire narrative turns. His stealing the money from the local mill was wrong, of course, but we are not made to understand how this action impacts the business of the mill itself or the lives of the farmers who use it. So far as we know from reading the book, it was business as usual once Burdette left town with the money. Consequently, Burdette looked to me like nothing more than a feckless local loser. Burdette sitting in his car at the beginning of the book had me expecting a great deal more by the end of the book. The other serious flaw, in my opinion, was the end of the book. Although what took place was (I assume) deliberately abrupt it seemed a very disappointing end to the book; it was too 'convenient' and brief. It is as though what should have been the last half of the story had been compressed into the final ten pages of the book. The book seemed too short for the story it is attempting to tell.
Rating:
Summary: Plainsong +
Review: This short novel, to me, is a better read than Plainsong. Character development is slightly stronger in this effort, although Haruf's insistence of writing sparingly does leave the reader wanting more in this area. To anyone familiar with Denver and Colorado's eastern plains, it's obvious that Haruf can describe the area perfectly. I've been to Casa "Quintana" and "Wet" World: they are both exactly as he paints them. The sparcity of language that bothers some reviewers is actually wordsmithing carried to the 'nth degree. I suspect Haruf dissects his prose sentence by sentence many times before he is satisfied. Still, it is true that the reader gets little more understanding of character depth and motivation than in Plainsong. What happens happens, period. And Haruf seems stuck on wives leaving their homes for the city. He doesn't need to do this again! This work, though, definitely moves faster and communicates more emotion. Not a bad paperbook buy for summer reading.
Rating:
Summary: Plainsong +
Review: This short novel, to me, is a better read than Plainsong. Character development is stronger in this effort, although Haruf's insistence of writing sparingly does leave the reader wanting more in this area. To anyone familiar with Denver and Colorado's eastern plains, it's obvious that Haruf can describe the area perfectly. The sparcity of language that bothers some reviewers is actually wordsmithing carried to the 'nth degree. I suspect Haruf dissects his prose sentence by sentence many times before he is satisfied. Still, it is true that the reader gets no more understanding of character depth and motivation than in Plainsong. What happens happens, period. And Haruf seems stuck on wives leaving their homes for the city. He doesn't need to do this again! This work, though, definitely moves faster and communicates more emotion. Not a bad paperbook buy for summer reading.
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