Rating: 
Summary: Would make a great movie, BUT...
Review: I would have given this book 5 stars if it wasn't for one thing. This book was wonderfully written and I would love to see a movie version of it, but that may have already crossed the author's mind. I get the feeling obtaining an R rating instead of PG may have been the reason for this particular chapter. Afterall, an R rating sells more tickets. It is a shame that Mr. Haruf had to be so graphic about Ike and Bobby coming across teens having sex. I felt like a peeping tom also. Any chance if this does become a movie that Mr. Haruf can clean it up just a tad so that young and old can enjoy this beautiful story? The characters were so wonderful. The McPherons were my favorite. I couldn't wait to get to their next chapter. Even though Victoria Roubideau made the same terrible mistake that a lot of young teen girls do nowadays, she didn't compound it by continuing a destructive relationship. Dr. Laura would have been proud! A simply-written and touching story. Very nice ending. My thanks to Mr. Haruf for not tieing all the loose ends up for the readers. Reminds me of how "Gone with The Wind" ended.
Rating: 
Summary: The way I see it.
Review: My hands are cut up and stiff, the muscles in my arms are firm, and I can feel the tightness in my legs when I stand and walk. Physical labor, or good old hard work, will do that to you. When so much is all in our heads these days, it takes a Plainsong effort to remind us what matters and what don't. Morality (not the possession of any religion), respect, compassion and a steadfast defense of one's place in the world is what you'll find here; a simple justice amidst the bogus law of modern chaos.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Beautiful!
Review: It has been a long time since I have read a novel as lovely as Plainsong. In some ways the story may seem contrived, but the author's ability to evoke the scenes and emotions of the townspeople of Holt is nothing short of amazing. From the very first page I felt a lump in my throat as I tried to hold back the tears. Those two little boys - they broke my heart! And the parallels between them and the McPheron brothers was brillant. A wonderful novel, not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Convincing characters, location, mood
Review: This was a great book to read on a long train ride. The elegant, understated language perfectly fit the laconic Western mood of the story.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely, understated song of human cruelty and tenderness.
Review: Like Kent Haruf's previous books, Plainsong looks unflinchingly at the cruelty of "plain" human beings, and counterbalances all that's ugly with a remarkable "song" of human kindness and care. Two old brothers, who know little more about the world than birthing calves, take in a young woman rejected by her mother, abused by her lover, and take care of her as she prepares for the birth of a child. Two young brothers go through a terrible journey of loss--their mother, an old neighbor, their innocence about the world of sex and human cruelty--and find solace with the two older brothers who've built their dignity on a lifetime of shared losses. And a teacher, accused of abusing a boy who's bullied his sons, finds love when his wife has abandoned him and the sons he tries to protect. This book, nominated for the National Book Award, is subtle, understated, lovely. And like Kent Haruf's other remarkable novels, it is fully grounded in the plain and beautiful language of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. You must read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Verisimilitude is just amazing in this book
Review: Haruf managed to capture people just the way they are, just the way they talk, in a way that I am only familiar with from the novels of Mona Simpson. And the descriptive level he achieves is remarkable: from describing the nausea of pregnancy to the feelings of eightyearold boys. This may have been the best book I read this year.
Rating:
Summary: A FANTASTIC BOOK
Review: This was for sure a wonderful book, and so true to life in that life is tough and not everyone lives happily ever after. ..The characters become friends, and you live each moment with them. For sure a five star book! If you liked this book, or want to read one that goes straight to your heart, read Stolen Moments by Barbara Jeanne Fisher. . .It is a beautiful story of unrequited love. . .for certain the love story of the nineties. I intended to give the book a quick read, but I got so caught up in the story that I couldn't put the book down. From the very beginning, I was fully caught up in the heart-wrenching account of Julie Hunter's battle with lupus and her growing love for Don Lipton. This love, in the face of Julie's impending death, makes for a story that covers the range of human emotions. The touches of humor are great, too, they add some nice contrast and lighten things a bit when emotions are running high. I've never read a book more deserving of being published. It has rare depth. Julie's story will remind your readers that life and love are precious and not to be taken for granted. It has had an impact on me, and for that I'm grateful. Stolen Moments is written with so much sensitivity that it made me want to cry. It is a spellbinder. What terrific writing. Barbara does have an exceptional gift!
Rating:
Summary: A Delight!
Review: One of the best books I've read this year. I fell TOTALLY in love with the McPheron brothers! From page one, the story and the characters just sweep you away - like a song...
Rating:
Summary: A Joy to read
Review: Plainsong is a magnificant achievement. This book more integrity than anything I have read this year.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful example of the power of an author's grace
Review: Instead of discussing the novel's emotional and temporal arcs, or the specifics of characterization, I would simply like to take a moment to praise Kent Haruf for giving us a true book. By "true" I only mean to say that it became very clear to me even at the outset of the novel (I found the opening paragraph to be the most beautiful I've read since M. Ondaatje's In The Skin of a Lion), that Mr. Haruf had handed himself over to the place and time of this world, and also to the characters who moved within it. There is a sense in this book that the author did not attempt to marshall the attention of his characters to respond as he wanted them to, or to force them to act in a direction which he may have deemed most effective for the novel's trajectory; rather, Mr. Haruf has allowed himself to be humbled by the stories of his characters, to let them step forth with all of their plain raw vulnerable selves while he lingered only in the descriptions of the land, and did so in a manner as haunting and gentle as the true wind itself. For me, while it is a very self-contained novel, it is indeed of great importance in today's literature. It certainly deserves the National Book Award nomination it received. And while this is a contemporary novel, it distinguishes itself by not claiming any stylistic or contextual extremity that might afford it "literary weight." In the end, this is a novel that is not won out of philosophical stance or syntactical complexity, nor by any radical point of view or temporal shift, but is rendered with a tremendously consistent quietude that is both peristent and meloncholy, and as necessary to the world it creates as it is to its maker.
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