Rating: 
Summary: Plainsong
Review: The novel Plainsong is written by Kent Haruf. Kent Haruf is a college teacher and also has written two other novels titled, The Tie That Binds, and Where You Once Belonged.
The novel Plainsong is set in a small town named Holt Colorado. The novel talks about a whole bunch of different characters that you would normally find in a small town. The main characters are two young boys named Ike and Bobby, and their father is Tom Guthrie. Ike and Bobby are about nine and ten years of age. Tom Guthrie is a schoolteacher at the local high school. Their mother has left the home to live by herself so she can figure out what she wants to do with her life. The other main character is a young teenage girl named Victoria Roubideaux that has become pregnant and is kicked out by her mother and has to go to the aid of local friends for help. Maggie Jones keeps her for a while and then takes her to the McPheron brothers. These two men are old and live together and have never married.
I think the theme of this story is that Non-Traditional families are sometimes better then traditional families. In this story there is only one traditional family and that's the Beckman's. The non-traditional families come together and kind of have one traditional family. They don't have the tie of blood to keep them together but they come together and learn to love one another and care for each other.
A very good book that anyone can enjoy, there are usual circumstance's that take place and are very real and true. Haruf goes into great detail and you feel like you are actually in the town and experiencing it for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: People Come Together
Review: Plainsong, a book by Kent Haruf, is a book that describes the lives of some of the residents in Holt, Colorado. Different plots deal with various issues of life, death, and a community that connects together. A tale of Tom Guthrie, who is a history teacher at the area high school. He is left to raise his two "twin-like" sons, Ike and Bobby, after his wife abandons him and their family. Victoria, a 17 year-old high school senior, is thrown out of her house by her crude and bitter mother after she had learned that her daughter is pregnant. The McPheron Brothers, lonely, sheltered, and isolated from the rest of the world, are a couple of aged bachelors, and all they know are themselves and life on their ranch. When they were fourteen years old, they were left to live on their own after their parents died. They have missed out on important and "normal" things in their life after choosing to stay with each other and to not get married. Ken Haruf interweaves the lives of these characters beautifully through the character of Maggie Jones. She is the most "flawless" character of the bunch, because she is compassionate, generous, and beautiful. Not to mention, the responsible party for helping and improving their outlook on their lives.
This book started slowly at first but once it started to pick up, I couldn't put it down. I constantly found myself wondering what was going to happen next with each character. Ken Haruf also does a wonderful job making the reader feel what the characters are feeling. He also painted a vivid mental image of the setting which helped me visualize Holt, Colorado. This is a warm, heart-felt story in which Haruf reminds us that in hard times, people come together to mend each others hearts.
Rating: 
Summary: Meredi's Plainsong Review
Review: Plainsong is a story about a community of people who are in untraditional families, and pull together during the rough times to become a family. The untraditional families are made from families who just couldn’t get along, who had parents that died, and unruly children who seem to rule the house. Victoria and the community that helps her show this family-like bond.
Victoria is a girl who got herself into trouble by getting herself pregnant. Her mother would not let her stay in the house (...) Maggie took Victoria into her house and treated her like a daughter. Victoria stayed with Maggie until it was no longer safe to stay at that house, then Maggie found a new home for Victoria to stay at, which was the McPheron brothers’ house. The McPheron brothers were quite reluctant to take Victoria in since they had never lived with a girl and they didn’t even know her. They didn’t just take her into there home, but also into their family. Sometimes the brothers seemed like fathers or older brothers to Victoria because they would take her out shopping for the baby, and they got so excited about the pregnancy. They seemed kind of like over- protective fathers.
So many people in the community helped Victoria throughout her pregnancy. They all took her in as a new part of their families and made her feel right at home. She had somewhere to go no matter what happened, and no one would let her be alone, just like in a family. (...)BR> The character of Victoria is very realistic. Many teenager girls would do the same thing that she did when her mom kicked her out of her house. She had the same feelings that a young pregnant girl would have, and the same concerns.
The author seems to know what he is talking about in personal matters, it all sounds realistic, but in community concerns, he seems to have his head stuck up in the clouds.
Rating: 
Summary: Simple But Intriguing
Review: Plainsong by Kent Haruf is a very intriguing, fictional novel about small town life. The events in the novel seem almost factual because they are based on Haruf's personal experiences. Haruf's father was a minister who was occasionally relocated giving his family a broad view of different places and people. After reading an interview of Haruf, in which he explained his life experiences, I understand why he chose the topic he did for his novel. Lines like, "he fit his hand inside her and pawed out the loose green warm manure..." and "When her clothes were off Maggie was soft and creamy, as rich as if she were painted," are so vivid that they undoubtedly came from Haruf's first hand experiences.
The novel is filled with the largest variety of characters that could possibly be found in a small town. There is Victoria, who is pregnant when she is introduced, already bringing drama to the novel. Dwayne, the father of her baby, is neglecting and controlling of Victoria. Ike and Bobby are two young, adventurous and wholesome brothers that befriend an old and lonesome lady. Tom Guthrie is a local schoolteacher, and the loving and protecting father of Ike and Bobby. Maggie Jones is Tom's counterpart, who plays somewhat of a mother to Victoria and companion to Tom. Tom's wife is a troubled woman who "...can't or refuses to get out of bed". And the McPheron brothers are two old, cattle ranchers who know nothing but cattle, but take Victoria in under their wing anyway. These are the major characters found in this novel.
The connection between people in need and those that can help them is the central theme of the novel because every important character develops a bond with at least one other person who is in need of someone to care about them. Ike and Bobby, Maggie Jones, and the McPheron brothers are precisely the characters who embody this theme. There are several scenes in the novel that epitomize the theme. Ike and Bobby befriend Iva Sterns who had nobody because her relatives had either "...moved away or they had died." She entrusted them with the her front door key so they could visit her when they wanted. Maggie took Victoria in "...welcoming her into her house" after her mother expelled her from her home. Maggie also became a companion to Tom, who was lonely and in need of affection after his wife abandoned him. Finally, the most important connection was the one made between the McPheron brothers and Victoria; the brothers took her in after Maggie's senile father assaulted her. It was most important because they each filled a void in the others' lives that, unlike other characters, had never been filled before. These are the characters and scenes that exemplify the theme.
Rating:
Summary: A Sweet Gem
Review: PLAINSONG is overtly simple: unassuming town, modest characters, usual circumstances narrated and executed with unpretentious style. However, simmering beneath the surface is a sweet, heart-wrenching novel - complex in human emotions and interactions. I truly felt Victoria's confusion, the McPherons' loneliness, Ike and Bobby's coming-of-age realizations and undeserved cruelties, Maggie's desire to help others but her ultimate need for love, Tom's unfortunate circumstance... Though the main theme is 'plain', there are intense moments sewn throughout the novel - the sexual witness, the heifer's delivery, Tom's confrontation. These scenes surprise the tranquil, sympathetic reader and demonstrate Haruf's ultimate manipulative (and thus great) powers as a writer. A truly heartfelt, delicate novel with OOMPH.
Rating:
Summary: Everything you want from a story!
Review: I first heard about Plainsong when my sister who is a Texan started calling me up to read long distance excerpts of it. Kent Haruf does everything I want a writer to do-- he tells a compelling story, has created characters we fall in love with, and gives us a setting we feel like we're walking around in. And he shows us that regular people can be heroes. He shows us that people are good--- and we need to be reminded of that. Oh! and he has such an ear for dialogue and that is the best part of all.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as The Tie That Binds
Review: I read this book after reading The Tie That Binds, and I have to say I was disappointed. Maybe because The Tie That Binds was so good. There are too many loose ends in Plainsong, and some of the story ideas seem that they would be unlikely to occur. There is an incident with Guthrie's two boys staying at the McPherson's farm that is unclear, as well as an incident with the boys and a young man that Guthrie is having trouble with. The relationship between the girl and the Mc Pherson's seems unlikely to occur. It was okay, but not great.
Rating:
Summary: simple is beautiful!
Review: This was my first Haruf book and I couldn't the count the number of times I could feel my eyes welling up while reading it. It's a simple story about a number of people whose lives seem somewhat interwoven with one another, yet the intensity and the beauty of Haruf's prose is what makes this book a fantastic read. Haruf portrays each character deeply and intricately; it is almost impossible not to feel Victoria's confusion with the idea of having a baby just as it's impossible not to feel a giant wave of sympathy for Maggie and the McPheron brothers. Ike and Bobby make you feel like you would want to adopt them and you end up pitying lost teenagers like Dwayne. Excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: Abandenment
Review: This was a very easy read book. Kent Haruf was able to capture the readers attention with his very descriptive writing. All though it was not exactly a book that you could not put down and stop reading, you felt like you knew each one of the characters personally. It is about the troubled lives of each family, or do you really consider it family since they seem to be falling apart. Each family is missing a family member. Ike and Bobby are abanded by their mother who won't even get out of bed. Victoria is a 17 year old high school student who is pregnant and her mom pretty much disowns her. Maggie Jones is a lonesome lady looking for a man. Guthrie has his boy, but lost his wife to depression. The Mcpheron brothers are bachelors who know everything about the ranch, but not too much about girls. This novel takes place in a small town where everybody knows everything about everybody's business. After reading the book you will feel like you can relate to all of these things.
Rating:
Summary: Simple, yet entertaining
Review: An easy read about the lives of ordinary townspeople and how their lives become intertwined. You'll come to love, feel and hope for the characters. A can't put down book.
|
