The touching humor of their awkward interaction endows the story with a heartwarming dimensionality. After many decades of bachelor existence, these gruff, unpolished cattle farmers must relearn the art of conversation when Victoria enters their lives. 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. 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. Ike, 10, and Bobby, nine, are polite, sensitive boys who mature as they observe the puzzling behavior of adults they love. High school teacher Tom Guthrie's depressed wife moves out of their house, leaving him to care for their young sons. Alternating chapters focus on eight compassionately imagined characters whose lives undergo radical change during the course of one year. Holt, Colo., a tiny prairie community near Denver, is both the setting for and the psychological matrix of Haruf's beautifully executed new novel. ( By Joshua Klein, Barnes & Noble.In the same way that the plains define the American landscape, small-town life in the heartlands is a quintessentially American experience. Through this device, Haruf illustrates how relationships are formed and what makes them last, how responsibility and accountability make people good, and how cooperation can make a small town strong in times of conflict.Ī fast, encouraging, enlightening read, Plainsong is beautiful, real, and wise: a true great American novel.

These seven characters form the core of Plainsong, which switches vantages from chapter to chapter like a more direct Faulkner, though the prose is no less poetic and evocative. The two tentatively take the girl on as a boarder on their cattle farm even though they barely know how to communicate with anyone but each other. Meanwhile, another teacher helps a pregnant teen disowned by her mother find love and acceptance in two hilariously well-intentioned elderly brothers. His children bake cookies, ride horses, and run a paper route, but at the same time they almost consciously seek out a cool, hardened, cowboy sense of maturity.

Tom Guthrie is a high-school teacher left raising two young sons after his depressed and disappointed wife moves to the city. Plainsong is set in Holt, Colorado, a rural community well outside Denver the setting is timeless, with only the occasional, fleeting reference to VCRs or pop culture indicating that the book takes place closer to 'now' than 'then.'

Plainsong by kent haruf summary