Legit Lit: Plainsong

Like the small, hard-scrabble town in which it is set, Kent Haruf’s Plainsong is desolately beautiful.  The plot is comprised of a series of interlocking stories that follow a high school teacher and his sons who are grappling with the loss of their wife/mother to depression, a pregnant teenager whose mother has kicked her out, two elderly bachelor brothers who live on an isolated cattle farm, and an insightful, single teacher taking care of her elderly father who has slipped into dementia.  It sounds depressing, but though the lives of the characters are certainly bleak, they demonstrate that they are tough, rugged people who outlast the punishing blows life deals them to find joy, peace, and beauty around them, in each other, and in themselves.

The exploration of the relationships between the two pairs of brothers, one duo still in elementary school and the other in their 70s, was one of my favorite parts of this book.  The little boys, joined at the hip, are written beautifully.  They are innocent in the face of some pretty serious events in a way that feels very real and not the least bit patronizing, as often happens to young characters in books.  The two old men are similarly innocent, though their simplicity is the result of many decades of life on their farm with only each other for company.  They live rough, but beneath their gruff exteriors are gentle hearts, and their banter is hilarious and feels very genuine.  I very much enjoyed the juxtaposition between the two of them and Victoria, the pregnant teenager.  The plotline of a young person charming a craggy older person after a rough start is not a new one, but one critical variation here is that the brothers are always kind to Victoria from the very start, even if they haven’t the foggiest idea how to talk to or treat a young woman.  (Their attempts at this are delightfully endearing and funny.)  Haruf’s take on this theme is so fresh it seems that he invented it.   Maggie, the wise teacher, advises the men as they clumsily try to provide Victoria with the home she needs, and they find that Victoria's influence is as crucial to them as their home and companionship are to her.

I read this book in about two days, devoting more time to it than I have to any book I haven’t brought on a plane within the last year or so.  The plot wasn't what made it a a page-turner. I think I kept reading so fixedly because I came to care about the characters too much to leave them in stasis; I had to press on and see them to the satisfying conclusion they deserved.  

(Apparently there is a movie version of this book, though I don't know anything about it. Let me know if you've seen it and think it's worth the time.)