Reviews of
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
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"Ambitious, but never seeming so, Kent Haruf
reveals a whole community as he interweaves the stories of a pregnant high
school girl, a lonely teacher, a pair of boys abandoned by their mother, and a
couple of crusty bachelor farmers. From simple elements, Haruf achieves a novel
of wisdom and grace--a narrative that builds in strength and feeling until, as
in a choral chant, the voices in the book surround, transport, and lift the
reader off the ground." -FROM THE CITATION FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK
AWARD "A novel so foursquare, so delicate and lovely . . . it has the power to exalt the reader." --The New York Times Book Review "Resonant and meaningful . . . . A song of praise in honor of the lives it chronicles [and] a story about people's ability to adapt and redeem themselves, to heal the wounds of isolation by moving, gropingly and imperfectly, toward community." --Richard Tillinghast, The Washington Post Book World "A compelling and compassionate novel. . . . [With] his sheer assurance as a storyteller, [Mr. Haruf] has conjured up an entire community, and ineluctably immersed the reader in its dramas." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "A work as flawlessly unified as a short story by Poe or Chekhov." --Jon Hassler, Chicago Tribune "Haunting, virtuosic, inimitable." --Sarah Saffian, San Francisco Chronicle "If the novelist invents a world, then Mr. Haruf has shaped a place of enormous goodness... The story itself--spare, unsentimental, rooted in action--honors the values of the community it describes." --Lisa Michaels, "A moving look at our capacity for both pointless cruelty and simple decency, our ability to walk out of the wreckage of one family and build a stronger one where that one used to stand." --Jeff Giles, Newsweek "A work as flawlessly unified as a short story by Poe or Chekhov." --Jon Hassler, Chicago Tribune |
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Sponsored by The Kansas City Star For further information contact: Kansas City Metropolitan Library & Information Network 15624 E. 24 Highway Independence, MO 64050 Phone: (816) 521-7257 Fax: (816) 461-0966 Email: sburton@kcmlin.org |
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