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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
National Book Award Finalist
A heartstrong story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver.
In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether. A teenage girl—her father long since disappeared, her mother unwilling to have her in the house—is pregnant, alone herself, with nowhere to go. And out in the country, two brothers, elderly bachelors, work the family homestead, the only world they've ever known. From these unsettled lives emerges a vision of life, and of the town and landscape that bind them together—their fates somehow overcoming the powerful circumstances of place and station, their confusion, curiosity, dignity and humor intact and resonant. As the milieu widens to embrace fully four generations, Kent Haruf displays an emotional and aesthetic authority to rival the past masters of a classic American tradition.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 20, 1999
      In the same way that the plains define the American landscape, small-town life in the heartlands is a quintessentially American experience. Holt, Colo., a tiny prairie community near Denver, is both the setting for and the psychological matrix of Haruf's beautifully executed new novel. Alternating chapters focus on eight compassionately imagined characters whose lives undergo radical change during the course of one year. High school teacher Tom Guthrie's depressed wife moves out of their house, leaving him to care for their young sons. Ike, 10, and Bobby, nine, are polite, sensitive boys who mature as they observe the puzzling behavior of adults they love. At school, Guthrie must deal with a vicious student bully whose violent behavior eventually menaces Ike and Bobby, in a scene that will leave readers with palpitating hearts. Meanwhile, pregnant teenager Victoria Roubideaux, evicted by her mother, seeks help from kindhearted, pragmatic teacher Maggie Jones, who convinces the elderly McPheron brothers, Raymond and Harold, to let Victoria live with them in their old farmhouse. After many decades of bachelor existence, these gruff, unpolished cattle farmers must relearn the art of conversation when Victoria enters their lives. The touching humor of their awkward interaction endows the story with a heartwarming dimensionality. Haruf's (The Tie That Binds) descriptions of rural existence are a richly nuanced mixture of stark details and poetic evocations of the natural world. Weather and landscape are integral to tone and mood, serving as backdrop to every scene. His plain, Hemingwayesque prose takes flight in lyrical descriptions of sunsets and birdsong, and condenses to the matter-of-fact in describing the routines of animal husbandry. In one scene, a rancher's ungloved hand repeatedly reaches though fecal matter to check cows for pregnancy; in another, readers follow the step-by-step procedure of an autopsy on a horse. Walking a tightrope of restrained design, Haruf steers clear of sentimentality and melodrama while constructing a taut narrative in which revelations of character and rising emotional tensions are held in perfect balance. This is a compelling story of grief, bereavement, loneliness and anger, but also of kindness, benevolence, love and the making of a strange new family. In depicting the stalwart courage of decent, troubled people going on with their lives, Haruf's quietly eloquent account illumines the possibilities of grace. Agent, Peter Matson. 75,000 copy first printing; 12-city author tour.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Tom Stechschulte's voice is as plain as the wind blowing across the prairie, which suits this bestselling tale of life and unexpected loves set on the Great Plains. His uninflected delivery lets Kent Haruf's unadorned yet powerful prose shine. Stechschulte's use of real-time pacing and pauses during conversations increases the listener's emotional involvement with the story. He varies his tone only slightly for each character rather than creating a different voice for each, but it works. His flatly Western accent suits everyone from teenage girls to middle-aged men in this Western Colorado town. A moving performance. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
    • AudioFile Magazine
      Haruf's musical conceit creates a delicate line of atmosphere and a narrative of individual voices blended together to tell a story. A pregnant adolescent; two lonely, old ranchers; a man in marital trouble; his children; and the woman who waits for him make up the various parts. The deliberate pace provides its own drama. Stechschulte tries to enliven things with regional accents, but his strong gender differentiation has unfortunate results. Women do not speak in whispers, and it's disturbing to hear these strong-willed examples so portrayed. This is a work that should be read straight. S.B.S. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

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