Rating: Summary: an excellent find Review: I read all the time. This particular book was not recommended to me. I just picked it up at our local bookstore. I loved this book. The writing was marvellous. The book was a gentle, beautiful read. I have since bought everything that Kent Haruf has written. Be very good to yourself and buy this book.
Rating: Summary: A rare gem Review: A damn fine book. Truly. Just a really good, really well-written book. Get it.
Rating: Summary: A Feel Good Book Review: This book was a pleasant surprise to me. It is filled with a lot of depressing, if not tragic sub-plots, but it shows the overwhelming benefits in the strength of community. The novel reminds me of a short story. Nothing is final in the novel, yet the reader get just enough information, a snapshot if you will, of these characters' lives. Wherever there is good, there is bad. Wherever there is bad, there is a lesson to be learned. The most beautiful things in life may lie in the most unlikely of places. I recommend this novel to anyone who wants a little pick me up.
Rating: Summary: A pleasant surprise on a long airplane flight Review: I picked up this book at the airport before a long trip over Labor Day weekend... I chose it because of the fact that it had been a National Book award finalist (and typically books of any substance are hard to find at airport news stands). I soon realized that it well deserved the nomination (if not the award itself- I believe "Waiting" by Ha Jin won out, which I can't agree with). True, the book has no unsurprising plot turns, but still somehow keeps the reader totally engaged. The characters are so convincing (my favorites being the McPheron brothers)- Kent Haruf has a gift for making them such real and engrossing people. I am not generally the sappy-type, but I was near tears at a couple points in the book. I like the most that the story inspires- that like Victoria we can persevere through hardship, and that like Maggie and the McPheron's, we can find reward through helping others. This was definitely a good read.
Rating: Summary: Gina's Review Review: I loved this book-very insightful and inspiring
Rating: Summary: Appropriate Title Review: The author has definately given this book the right title. Plainsong. This book was about a few people who had some sort of connection to each other but not in a direct way. The characters were not quite as interesting as they were destitute in some fashion. For instance, Victoria has no family or support, Guthrie has no romantic love, Ike and Bobby have no parental supervision, the McPherons have no life outside of farming. It goes from there. At times I wondered where the story was going... at others I wondered when it would end. I found the most interesting parts involving Victoria and the McPherons. Their relationship was heart warming; the men were very loving in their own way. The one thing I definately liked was the narration. There wasn't the standard quotation marks around the characters dialoge. This made me think it was a story told by some one who was told by someone else and is just repeating it. An interesting view of narration.
Rating: Summary: Good People Review: On the high plains east of Denver is the small, fictional, gray town of Holt, Colorado. Seemingly a small, dying agricultural town it would be easy to miss. But stop and spend a little time there. Yes, the streets are sparsely peopled and the farms lie a good distance from town, but real life is here: intense, tragic and redeeming. Two old bachelor farmers, a young pregnant teenager, a high school teacher deserted by his wife are among the folks who admidst loneliness begin to pull together and discover community, family and love. A truly beautiful, understated scene near the end of the book--the old farmer brothers at the birth of the teenager's little girl--is worth the whole read. The author's style--sparse and understated--captures the town and the people. Read it!
Rating: Summary: Left me sleepy... Review: I kept hanging on to the chapters of this book hoping that the story would pick up. This book was quite boring to me. I expect a book to grab me and this one didn't..instead of being a page turner this was a put-downer. There didn't seem much thought at all put into this book. Definitley a let down...
Rating: Summary: Beautiful writing, full characters - Great book! Review: What a joy to read! This book quickly makes the reader feel a part of the characters' lives. It quickly introduces us into the lives of a variety of seemingly unrelated people from a small town - a school teacher, a pair of lonely bachelor farmers, a scared, pregnant teen. Even though I've always lived in large cities, I immediately felt that I understood this town, these people. I couldn't wait to keep reading to find out what happens. And, in the end, the stories of all these lives come together in a warm, heart-filling way.This book is beautiful. Read it.
Rating: Summary: Much ado about nothing Review: As much as I liked the writing, I found the story puzzling and disjointed and saying Maggie tied it together is ridiculous. What I mainly want to know is, why did those boys ride their bikes out to the McPherons? What did I miss there? The lack of quotation marks didn't bother me, and I actually enjoyed the minimalist dialogue, but it just wasn't much of a story.
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