Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

The final book in the Plainsong trilogy. Everyone is welcomed for this January read.

I'm looking forward to it!

I'll be joining in towards the end of the month.

I'll be starting on the 2nd or 3rd week of Jan. It was all I could do to hold off on reading this in December, but luckily I found other books to immerse myself in. I'm also planning on the Stoner and Divine Comedy reads at the beginning of the month.

I'm reading Stoner now and I'm going to try to join The Divine Comedy later in the month. As often happens with the library, all my books came in at one time, so I will probably start on this one by early next week. How can the new year not even officially started and I am already behind.

I've started on this yesterday and I'm about 1/3 of the way through it. I'm loving it. It's a whole new cast of characters to get to know with some similar and some completely different problems.

I can’t wait to start! But I need to finish a couple of others first :)

I've had no reading time, but this is sitting on my table beaconing to me. Maybe tomorrow!

I've also started and also like it very much so far!

YES! There is a part of only a few sentences outlining what happened to the brothers and Victoria afterwards :-) .

Began today and fully in from the first sentence.

I regret to say that I'm a little disappointed in this one. I still love the writing but I don't recognize the town of Holt from the previous two. (view spoiler)[ In those the town was filled with flawed characters but ones, you could find everywhere. Now the town seems to be turned into something from the Jim Crow south. It's not ringing nearly as true for me as the others. I've spent a lot of time in Colorado and having parents from a very small town and this town is feeling very foreign to me now. (hide spoiler)]

I'm sorry to be negative! I'll probably still end up giving this 4 stars because of the writing style and my love of the other 2, but I'm not bonding with these characters the same as in the others s

Now to talk about some of the things I love so far and hopefully, the end will make me feel better about Dad and the Pastor and the White supremacists will be banned from the town.

This one scene will live in my mind forever (view spoiler)[ when the pastor goes walking through the town to look in people's windows looking for bad things going on and realizes "What I've seen is the sweet kindness of one person to another. Just time passing on a summer's night. This ordinary life" Wow! so good.
It kind of redeems that horrible church scene, but how do you reconcile the White Supremacists? To me the White supremacists just don't fit into the town. It was too heavy-handed especially compared to his other novels. It would have been more realistic if the racism and homophobia were toned down.

I also absolutely love Willa and Alene and how they are taking an interest in Berta May and Alice. The lunch, hardware store and bike riding scene made me cry tears of joy. However, once again, I think Alene and the principles jobs being threatned over an affair are not appropriate to this time and place. People being judgemental and shunning them would be but not firing them from their jobs. That just doesn't ring true. Again, way to heavy-handed in my opinion.

Then Dad, I also think it's heavy handed to have him completely estranged from his son for so many years, especially after what happened to Frank. Especially since he helped the girl (forget her name right now of the guy who stole from Dad and committed suicide after he fired him. He can excuse her trying to prostitute herself yet not forgive his own son? (I don't judge her prostituting herself, I'm just using for comparison) I know it was due to guilt, but what about guilt about how you treated your own son? (hide spoiler)]

I'm hoping that the last part redeems some of these problems I have, but it's very mixed for me up to now. I absolutely love parts and then feel other parts don't fit in at all

I had a different reaction, Sue, although I can absolutely see what you are saying. First of all, I related so much to both Mary and Lorrainne dealing with the loss of Dad. Haruf got all the stages of dying right and I became somewhat lost in that angle of the story.

(view spoiler)[I took this to be immediately following 9/11, when I think more of that kind of thinking came to the surface. I did think having so many of the church members walk out was too much, but that there would be two men who would beat up the pastor didn't seem beyond reason. I'm betting you could find two such men in any town. I couldn't help thinking this might be the boys who kidnapped the children in Plainsong...that is the kind of men I expected they would become.

I hadn't even considered the point you made about Alena and the Principal, but you are spot on. I doubt they would be threatened at all with losing their jobs in this day, after all it isn't as if they were even working together--they were in separate schools. The wife attacking her in a grocery store would be enough to get the attention of the whole town, though I would think there would be just as many people who would think the wife was a crazy person as those who would shun Alena and the husband. (hide spoiler)]

You have certainly given me something to think about.

my review

Directly after 9/11! Wow! From the atmosphere I thought this took place much earlier. I totally agree with you guys that during that time-period having an affair such as Alene and the principle had shouldn't have any consequences at all.

I'm also having "problems" (a bit too harsh, at the moment I'm at 4 stars instead of 5) connecting to this novel. I like the Dad storyline and Willa & Alena, but I'm struggling with the preacher and his son (and all the other characters I forgot, because they are kind of unmemorable to me).

Sara wrote: "I had a different reaction, Sue, although I can absolutely see what you are saying. First of all, I related so much to both Mary and Lorrainne dealing with the loss of Dad. Haruf got all the stages..."

Philina wrote: "Directly after 9/11! Wow! From the atmosphere, I thought this took place much earlier. I totally agree with you guys that during that time-period having an affair such as Alene and the principle had..."

That's a great point about the boys who kidnapped those children in Plainsong. (view spoiler)[ maybe they were the same ones who tried to lynch Frank. That was too much for me. the bullying I could see but I never heard of lynchings in the North in that time period. And with Dad witnessing it and then being able to disown his son was too much. He should have been paying Frank's rent, more so than that single mom (the suicide was in no way Dad's fault).

The last scene with Frank, makes it clear that Frank was the one who disowned his father more so than the other way around. That take was more realistic to me. In any event, I can forgive anyone who is truly sorry and Dad was definitely sorry by the end.

I agree that Mary & Lorraine dealing with Dad's death was beautifully sad and realistic. Same with how Alice was afraid to be near him because of her mom. (hide spoiler)]

Philina wrote: "Directly after 9/11! Wow! From the atmosphere I thought this took place much earlier. I totally agree with you guys that during that time-period having an affair such as Alene and the principle had..."

It's the same with me Philina. Those are the two storylines I loved. Besides the pastor in the street scene, and the lunch/bike scenes I mentioned above another favorite scene is the skinny dipping one.

I think overall, that Haruf was trying too hard to make this one more powerful since it was the last. That caused this one to be more sensational than the others. I still loved his writing and loved parts of this story enough that I'm going to give it 4 stars. It's really 3.5 rounded up out of respect for the others that were perfect. As time goes on, I'll probably remember the parts I loved more than the ones I didn't.

I'm right with you, Philina and Sue, on loving those particular scenes. The one with the skinny dipping was awesome (and that is not a word I use often). The scene where Alice got lost really affected me as well, because I loved the way everyone rallied to find her and how loving they were with her, no one fussing at her for scaring them. Kind of a "life goes on" moment, focused on the young and alive--the future.

One of the signs of a great writer, perhaps, that you will remember the good parts and forget the ones that didn't quite make it; while with a lesser writer the imprint will be the things that failed.

Sara wrote: "I'm right with you, Philina and Sue, on loving those particular scenes. The one with the skinny dipping was awesome (and that is not a word I use often). The scene where Alice got lost really affec..."

I was so mad when Alice first seemed like she was going too far. I think that's when I came in here crabby about the book. I thought he was going to have her get hit by a car and die! If he had done that it would have made me so mad that it would definitely have been knocked down to 3 stars. It would have turned the beautiful bike buying and learning to ride scenes into dust. In the end, it was perfect since they didn't overreact and she was fine.

Haruf sure is a great writer. I will forever get a warm feeling whenever I see one of his books or when his name comes up.

I've read everyone's comments and have little more to add, since you all said it so well.
I liked the skinny dipping scene too, especially when the cows appeared on the scene. It was a very visual moment.
I thought the Alene/principal plot line detracted from the book. I guess the author was showing how empty her life had been.
I like it when they visited the farm where the two brothers had lived. Apparently a number of years had gone by since Eventide.

It is funny how that single paragraph was so gripping, Rosemarie. Just having them mentioned meant so much, and I felt a twinge of sadness to know Raymond was gone as well.

Oh my! I just finished! Kent Haruf was such a wonderful writer!
The way he writes is just so simple and so real. I love all the details he includes when he writes, like drying a cup and putting it in the cupboard, or folding clothes and putting them away in the closet. Just those simple things just add to that everyday feeling of realness in his writing.
I like the calmness in his "voice" that makes everything feel very even. Not a lot of ups and downs, just very even and calm. Even the dramatic things like in the church service when some of the people were yelling and cussing, or the scene where the preacher gets assaulted, it still feels calm and kind of undramatic.
In a lot of writing I am always afraid that the author is preparing the reader for something awful to happen, like Alice getting hit on her bicycle in the end. But I was pretty confident that Haruf would not do that (also I knew that I was almost on the last page, and I didn't think he would let that happen and end the book that abruptly!). He leaves the reader with the sad death of Dad but with the thankfulness that Alice was okay and that the people in the story were going to go ahead with their regular lives and it would be okay.
I first thought that I was going to be a little disappointed that more of the previous characters were not included in this book because I loved those brothers so much! But, in the end, I was not. I was glad that they mentioned them and gave a little closure to their story.
My favorite scene was probably the skinny dipping scene. It was just so natural. And I thought about what an experience that was for Alice, and what a memory that would be for her. I loved Alice -- what a sweet child -- and how much those ladies did for her and taught her. And I like the way her grandmother was with her. She always spoke so slowly and calmly to her, and that seemed to be what Alice needed as well.
The thing that won me over completely in the end was how Haruf dealt with Dad's death: all the respect and detail that was shown for this dying man, for his decaying body, and all the love that was given to him even when he was unconscious. We got to hear every dying breath and the cleaning of his body. I don't know if every one would/could appreciate all of that 'end of life' information, especially if they had experienced the death of a loved one recently. But it was really beautiful.
Well, I usually don't write this much! But, like I said, I just finished and it is all still right there inside me! I think that is how Haruf's books make me feel, and I usually like to savor them for awhile.
Thanks so much for letting me read along with you all. This book was truly a "Benediction" for this trilogy :)

Sara wrote: "I'm right with you, Philina and Sue, on loving those particular scenes. The one with the skinny dipping was awesome (and that is not a word I use often). The scene where Alice got lost really affec..."

I agree that there were some parts that didn't quite add up or get resolved in the end. But I think that Haruf does that sometimes. There just isn't an answer to everything, so he just puts it out there and lets us wrestle with it.
(P.S. Has anyone read Our Souls at Night? Didn't the main character, Lewis, have an affair? Was he a teacher or principal? I can't remember if that might be a tie-in to that book. I just can't remember the details...)

Glad to see your comments, Rosemarie and Terri. It's official, we all love the skinny dipping scene!

I'm glad you brought up when they visited the farm, Rosemarie. There really are so many great scenes in the book.

You are correct Terri that I should have trusted Haruf not to go there with Alice, but between the church scene, and the lynching scene I was worried. I'm so glad that you did write so much because you make great points.

The things I didn't like are already seeming very small compared to the things I loved. I saw the film Our Souls at Night and didn't know it was an Haruf book. I think you might be right about Lewis. Now you are making me want to watch it again, or better yet, read it!

Sue wrote: "Glad to see your comments, Rosemarie and Terri. It's official, we all love the skinny dipping scene!

I'm glad you brought up when they visited the farm, Rosemarie. There really are so many great s..."

You definitely need to read it!! Haruf's words are so wonderful :)

Terris wrote: "Oh my! I just finished! Kent Haruf was such a wonderful writer!
The way he writes is just so simple and so real. I love all the details he includes when he writes, like drying a cup and putting it..."

Loved every word you wrote here, especially your final sentence. Haruf elicits such a strong emotion from his books, while using very simple and straightforward prose.

I'm not sure about Lewis and the affair, but Souls at Night was a completely marvelous book!