Rating: 
Summary: plain wonderful
Review: In his novel Plainsong, Kent Haruf manages to gently enter the lives of several people in a small Colorado town. Kent Haruf writes in a wonderful unembellished style that paints a picture in your heart. The story involves the falling apart ,salvaging and rebuilding of families. It defines what really does make a family a family. The story involves a high school teacher , his two young sons and the emotionally unavailable wife and mother. There are the Macpheron brothers (two older bachelor farmers) and an abandoned 17 year old pregnant high school student. The weaver of the fabric of this story is an unmarried teacher named Maggie. She shows true compassion and understanding and reweaves these "families". The story moves gently and beautifully and pulls you right in. Plainsong is a true joy to read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Truly Enjoyable Read!
Review: This book was enjoyable, easy to read and an all around delight! A friend shared this book with me and I'm so grateful she did. I loved the different characters, the small stories within the story and the way the author brought them all together without you even noticing! This book was refreshing and I loved the writers' style. A must read if you're ready for a break from the routine.
Rating:
Summary: An Honest Book
Review: With one exception, the sexual references in this book aredone with subtlety. The one overt scene is absolutey necessary to thecharacterization of both Ike and Bobby, and the high school kid who runs afoul of Guthrie. And while, yes, I'd agree that at times the book's language is a bit overwrought in the descriptive passages, overall the writing is honest and true. It earns every emotion we feel towards the characters. END
Rating: 
Summary: Black and Blue
Review: I feel like Anna is a good writer, but spends to much time builing the characters, she tells us all about them and how their feeling but there isn't much real drama involved, while reading the book I felt like, come on, come one, lets get to the "good part"..... and when the "good parts" would come it was over so fast that I was let down.
Rating:
Summary: hard lyricism, elegant construction
Review: While the hard lyricism of the writing recalls Hemingway and Carver and the elegant plot construction echoes The Great Gatsby, the story itself is Haruf's own. And a good one it is--the dialogue between the two sets of brothers is pitch perfect. This will make an excellent movie with the right cast and director, preferably one who is not afraid of long silences. Todd Field, anyone?
Rating:
Summary: Simple plot. Flat characters. Trite ¿deeper meaning¿.
Review: Simple plot. Flat characters. Trite "deeper meaning".
Rating: 
Summary: Complainsong
Review: I beg to differ from almost everyone else--from the title I anticipated something more serene until my reading was jarred by gratuitous sexual scenes and white-trash swearing, which did not contribute anything to the story. It seemed that some of these paragraphs were just "stuck in there" to satisfy todays taste for the gross and crass, making sure the book would be bought. To repeat, it disturbed me that some of the language and sexual encounters were very gratuitous. For the remainder, the book wasn't all that well written, no jewel of the English language. Sorry, but this is my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: PLAIN AND SIMPLE
Review: This is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It's quite amazing that a story about everyday lives is such a pageturner. I like how all the plot lines do not end neatly. There is closure to the book but, like life, the story goes on and lets the reader decide what happens from the book's official ending. The characters all feel "right." They make mistakes and are as good as they can be within their own personal limitations. I like the way the author uses symbolism and juxtaposes scenes to comment on another: the birthing of the calves against Victoria's pregnancy. I am looking forward to the next book written by this very humane, decent, and kind author.
Rating:
Summary: A drink of cool, clear water
Review: I don't go out of my way to read fiction, but three things brought me to this novel:the cover showing the low-rise turf hills and big sky of the Great Plains the title implying a paean to the plains or a simple hymn sung in a country church a newspaper story relating how the author, when working, drew a sack over his head to banish light and sound in order to focus on simple, truthful usage unadorned by conscious style. It wasn't the story but the central characters that turned the pages. At the beginning, they were unrelated and lonely each in their own way. But at the end, in a picnic under cottonwoods in an isolated farmyard, they were brought together from helping one another. Similar stories are probably replayed in wind-bullied small towns from Manitoba to Texas, but we'll never know of them. Thanks to the author, we know this one. Haruf has paid his dues over the years to get where he is. I'm pressing Plainsong on friends whom I think will appreciate it.
Rating:
Summary: My Home Town
Review: After reading "Where You Once Belonged" by Mr. Haruf, I was anxious to read this book. I was not disappointed. The story of the two boys is very touching and we wonder if they will "become" the McPheron brothers. The lives of these small town people is real. Most of the time, nothing out of the ordinary happens, they live as best they can with what they have and what they know. Plainsong touched me, not only because "Holt" is modeled after the town I grew up in but because I know these people. A wonderful story.
|
