Kent Haruf - Plainsong

Pros: Simple and powerful language and style. Ordinary people made into fascinating characters. Seamless structure.
Cons: None for me. Some may not like the changing narrative focus or limitations.

This book tricked me. It fooled me into thinking at first that it was about mostly small things, really not much more than brief glimpses into the lives of a few characters. I was also caught off guard by how carefully structured the novel is. The...

Pros: The stories are simple but meaningful. Stark but powerful prose.
Cons: I would have liked more stories, but that might have ruined the effect.

Kent Haruf defines plainsong as “any simple and unadorned melody,” and the description aptly captures the essence of his novel by the same name. This simple slice-of-life glimpse at a year in a small Colorado town is more cotton sheets than ...

Pros: excellently portrayed characters, good organization, easy to catch symbolism, beautiful imagery
Cons: not long enough! ;)

Plainsong is a joyful tale of an unexpected family of unrelated people bound together for their common need to love and be loved. The very small east Colorado town of Holt is the setting. All inhabitants know each other's histories and current status....

Pros: memorable characters
Cons: story will feel monotonous to some

Sure, "Plainsong" is about a small town and its inhabitants, but at its core this novel shows that people need to feel protected, loved, and, well, mothered. Written in the third person without quotation marks (a style that flows beautifully...

Pros: Absorbing story, masterfully written
Cons: Nary a one

According to the frontispiece, Plainsong is any simple and unadorned melody or air. Simple and unadorned are terms that perfectly describe this tale of rural/small town life in eastern Colorado. Unadorned not because the lives of its characters are...

Pros: Beautifully written. Simple and true.
Cons: none

This is a spellbinding work. There are times when I found myself closing the book so I could take a break, afraid to read it all at once. It's that good. The writing is spare and fluid, eloquent even. I never thought I'd say this about a novel and mean...

Pros: Intricate writing, beautiful characters
Cons: slow beginning

What I noticed from the very beginning of Plainsong was that Kent Haruf was an extremely talented writer. His words meld together and they flow so gently..it really feels as though you are just sitting back and watching the scenes unfold before you,...

Pros: The story will make you feel good.
Cons: It has to end.

Kent Haruf's 1999 novel Plainsong is a quietly beautiful tale about seven residents of a small Colorado plains town whose lives intertwine (improbably and otherwise) and grow richer because they're thrown together. They include a pregnant high...

Pros: Characters
Cons: None

I think I have lived in this town. A place where everyone knows you and your business. This story rings true to life in small town eastern Colorado. And it isn't much of a leap to see these characters in any American setting.

This is the...

Pros: beautiful writing
Cons: there's no punctuation marks, so be warned

There have been many small towns that have been created in literature: Larry McMurtry's Thalia, James Wilcox's Tula Springs, Garrison Keilor's Lake Wobbegon Days. It's time to add another title to this list: Kent Haruf's Holt, Colorado.

Haruf...

Pros: Closure, beautiful language
Cons: Hard to start, no quotation marks

One of my best friends gave me Plainsong for my high school graduation. On the inside cover she wrote, "I hope it will restore your faith in the kindness of strangers."

It didn't, but I sure did like the book.

One thing that...

Pros: Easy to relate to the characters.
Cons: There isn't a sequel.

I did not expect to read a book the author calls plain and find it so extraordinary I could no sooner put it down than stop thinking about it. The setting, characters and plot are in fact plain and simple, but Kent Haruf’s descriptions of each make them...

Pros: Characterizations ring true
Cons: Some of the characters not as well developed

Plainsong is plainspoken, much like the characters within, and is a good representation of small town western folks. The elderly bachelor brothers who take in the young girl quite simply jump out of the pages of the novel and into the heart of the...

Pros: simple and easy to read, great character development
Cons: not too exciting

When done reading a novel, the reader usually is able to explain the book in a few words, pointing out the major characteristics that make it different from every other book. Almost always, there is a single major event within the plot that defines the...

Pros: unique writing style, interesting characters
Cons: not for readers who like dramatic plot twists

This slice of life novel took me by surprise in a number of ways. First, I was struck by the author's writing style. His intentional lack of formal quotations gave an almost stream of consciousness dimension to this book. In addition to following the...