Plainsong by Kent Haruf

I am a bit faster at reading than writing.  This makes 10 books read and shared during the summer challenge.

Kent Haruf is new to me.  The novel came from a friend who had many many books dropped off at her house while recovering (for three months) from a broken knee and hip—she’s finally mobile again!  Books are a godsend for so many reasons.  She had plenty of reading material to share, and we both read things we might not have discovered on our own.

The book is dark in places and hard to read, but it artfully demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit when surrounded by love—even when the soul is beaten down by deadening and even violent experiences. 

The author brings to life several characters who live in Holt, a fictional, small town in Colorado.  The title of each “chapter” is a character(s) name.  The perspective changes with each section allowing the reader to develop a rich understanding of the various characters in the book.  The cast of townspeople and a couple of country farmers is expertly woven together in a tale about the need for family ties and the surprise of finding them in the most unlikely places.  

The title, Plainsong, brings to mind the simple, beautiful music of a Gregorian chant; individual voices combine to create a rich and moving whole.  The author succeeds in taking separate lives and connecting them to one another in ways that build a loving and supportive community.