[.ca] Plainsong (ISBN 0375705856)

From Amazon.com:
Plainsong, according to Kent Haruf's epigraph, is "any simple and unadorned melody or air." It's a perfect description of this lovely, rough-edged book, set on the very edge of the Colorado plains. Tom Guthrie is a high school teacher whose wife can't--or won't--get out of bed; the McPherons are two bachelor brothers who know little about the world beyond their farm gate; Victoria Roubideaux is a pregnant 17-year-old with no place to turn. Their lives parallel each other in much the same way any small-town lives would--until Maggie Jones, another teacher, makes them intersect. Even as she tries to draw Guthrie out of his black cloud, she sends Victoria to live with the two elderly McPheron brothers, who know far more about cattle than about teenage girls. Trying to console her when she think she's hurt her baby, the best lie they can come up with is this: "I knew of a heifer we had one time that was carrying a calf, and she got a length of fencewire down her some way and it never hurt her or the calf." Holt, Colorado, is the kind of small town where everyone knows everyone's business before that business even happens. In a way, that's true of the book, too. There's not a lot of suspense here, plotwise; you can see each narrative twist and turn coming several miles down the pike. What Plainsong has instead is note-perfect dialogue, surrounded by prose that's straightforward yet rich in particulars: "a woman walking a white lapdog on a piece of ribbon," glimpsed from a car window; the boys' mother, her face "as pale as schoolhouse chalk"; the smells of hay and manure, the variations of prairie light. Even the novel's larger questions are sized to a domestic scale. Will Guthrie find love? Will Victoria run away with the father of her baby? Will the McPherons learn to hold a conversation? But in this case, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and Plainsong manages to capture nothing less than an entire world--fencing pliers, calf-pullers, and all. Kent Haruf has a gorgeous ear, and a knack for rendering the simple complex. --Mary Park

Sometimes the best stories are the simplest:
This novel is not so much the story of a pregnant girl, two bachelor farmer brothers, and two teachers and their respective families. Instead, the author seems to wish to convey two main ideas: first, he wishes to paint a vivid portrait of life in rural Holt, Colorado. Second, he seeks to illustrate that both evil and goodness are all around us--you will be touched by both, but if you're lucky, hopefully you will experience more of the latter. In both of these goals, the author succeeds tremendously. The other reviewers have summarized the plot, and I will not describe it again here. I would argue that Victoria Roubideaux is at the center of the plot; through her, we experience all of the best and worst humanity has to offer. Among the best are Maggie Jones, the McPheron brothers, the bus driver who drives her from Denver to Holt. The worst include her mother, Dwayne, and the high school bully. Because Holt is a small town, each of the character's lives intersect with one another. The victim of life's unkindnesses has the opportunity to pass the unkindness on, or to start over again and be good to others. This is the simplest of stories. There are no earth-shattering plot twists and no real surprises. But the writing is so beautiful, and the story so simple and true, that I was simply mesmerized. This was a wonderful read from beginning to end.

Great writing, but disappointing:
Really this book has four stories in it - some more interesting than the others. Definitely the most interesting story - and the one which keeps you reading - has to be about Victoria Roubidoux, a pregnant teenager who is taken in by two older, uneducated farmers who are also brothers who never married. This, in and of itself, was a leap of faith for me. I found it difficult to believe that two men in their 50s would take in a pregnant teenager who is not a relative and someone whom they'd never met before - especially in a small rural town. In fact, wouldn't a young girl be afraid of living with two single older men? While Haruf's writing in this book is very good, unfortunately it's the only good part of the book. I was prepared for a brilliant ending which would bring the four stories together, but the ending fell severely short of brilliant. A different ending would've made this an incredible book. Instead, I finished the book and thought to myself, "So?"

disappointed:
I kept thinking this book would get better as i read but it just didn't. There was nothing spectacular to it. Yes, it's a "nice little story" but not worth your time.

True to life:
A book I have to say, I could not put down. Starts off a little slow but as the story unfolds grabs you. You feel like you are living in Holt, Colorado and surrounded by the people in the book. I fell in love with the McPherons, Victoria and Guthrie. I absolutely loved this book, I can't wait to read what happens next.

Really great writing like this is hard to find:
Plainsong is beautifully written. This book takes hold of the reader and never lets them go. Haruf weaves a story masterfully using a writing style that demonstrates urgency and peace. Through the story we start to feel for the characters, see their desperation, isolation and heartbreak. The development of Victoria and the McPherson brothers is the highlight of the book. It's been a while since I've read the book, but I still can't help thinking about the characters. One of my favorites. Also recently enjoyed----------------Jackson McCrae's "The Children's Corner." Riveting and jaw-dropping in places.