Kent Haruf: American Author Challenge (A Tribute)

Kent Haruf was born February 24, 1943, in Pueblo Colorado. He was the son of a Methodist preacher. Before becoming a writer, Haruf worked in a variety of places, including a chicken farm in Colorado, a construction site in Wyoming, a rehabilitation hospital in Denver, a hospital in Phoenix, a presidential library in Iowa, an alternative high school in Wisconsin, as an English teacher with the Peace Corps in Turkey, and colleges in Nebraska and Illinois. He lived with his wife, Kathy, in Salida, Colorado until his death in 2014.
All of Haruf's novels take place in the fictional town of Holt, in eastern Colorado. Holt is based on Yuma, Colorado, one of Haruf's residences in the early 1980s. Plainsong was published in 1999, to wide acclaim. Recently, Our Souls at Night was posthumously released and has received glowing reviews.

**This is part of our American Author Challenge 2015. This author can be read anytime, through 2015. The general discussion thread can be found right here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/185195

We were all deeply saddened to hear of Mr. Haruf, passing last November and we were discussing adding him to the AAC. I was going to team him up with another AAC author, over the summer and Karen suggested, (quite astutely, I would say) that we give him an honorary thread of his own and one, that can be attended, anytime, for the rest of the year. Bully, idea, Karen. Thank you, my friend.

I am not exactly sure when I read Plainsong. 15 years ago? Somewhere in that range, but whenever it was, it was a definite game-changer and remains one of the best books I've read in the past 2 decades. He has not written many books but all 3 that I have read were wonderful and I am looking forward to his latest, Our Souls at Night.

**I checked my book log for Plainsong and I read it in November of 2000, so my guess was pretty darn close.

If you have not read Haruf, you are in for a major treat. Start hunting down a copy of Plainsong, pronto!

I am absolutely sure I have three Haruf books but I'll be damned if I can find them. I hope so, and soon, too.

I have Plainsong on my shelf, so I will be sure to get to that some time this year. I have not read Haruf before, so I am greatly looking forward to it. Thanks, Mark for setting up this thread!

Thanks for setting this up, Mark. You know I love Haruf's books. It will be fun to follow this as more people discover him, and more people who have read him before read more of his work.

Start hunting down a copy of Plainsong, pronto! Excellent advice - I second it.

>4 maggie1944: "I'll be damned if I can find them." I am sure the search is well under way, Karen! At least find, Plainsong. LOL.

>5 Crazymamie: You are in for such a treat, Mamie!I am very excited for you!

>6 jnwelch: There is Mr. Welch! I was expecting my fellow Haruf Warbler to drop by early and you complied.

Make sure you include yours thoughts on Our Souls at Night over here. Just sayin'...

Welp, I read Plainsong last year and was hooked. I read Eventide and Benediction in rapid succession this year, and just finished Our Souls at Night on Friday. I've loved them all! I have one of his earlier novels, The Tie that Binds, on my TBR to read later this year.

>8 lauralkeet: You've been storming through the Holt books, Laura. Good for you. I have not read The Tie that Binds yet, either.

Plainsong is up there for me with the best American Literature of the post war period. I want to read the two follow up novels and hope to do so in 2015.

My favorite Brit, emerges from the shadows, to show Mr. Haruf, some bookish love. Thank you, sir. I hope you have Eventide in the stacks.

I was "saving" Benediction, even before Kent Haruf died. I didn't want to read the "last one"....I was very glad to learn that he had finished another book, and now that I've read some of the reviews of it, I'm eager to get to it. But I think I will savor Benediction first. I had forgotten about The Tie That Binds, which is in a box around here somewhere. And his second novel, Where You Once Belonged, is also set in Holt. There's a lot more to read!

Where You Once Belonged was good, although for me not at the level of the Plainsong trilogy or Souls at Night. I've got The Tie That Binds left to read.

I'm halfway through Plainsong. It is a great read!

Hooray, for Plainsong, Lois!!

I finished it and rated it 4.5 stars!

Good enough for me! Smiles!!

I was able to get quite far into Plainsong yesterday, while sitting in a grocery store parking lot. Not too many orders for Instacart yesterday, for some unknown reasons. It took me about 1/3 into the book before I found my hook.

Mark, thanks for starting this tribute to Kent Haruf. I really enjoyed the short bio because I learned more about him. I have read all his books except for the photography book that he narrated. Like you, I started my love fest in 2000 when I was blown away by Plainsong.

I finished reading Plainsong yesterday and I am so grateful for having been introduced to Mr. Haruf's work. I am such a fan of Ivan Doig, but Haruf takes it to another level of excellence. His books are tributes to how the language can in a few words express so much!

^Great to hear, Karen! He's such a wonderful writer.

>20 maggie1944: I think you are right in that analysis, Karen. Haruf and Doig are of a similiar ilk but the former is someone who polished his words with warmth and understanding whilst the latter simply tells a tale well.

I finished Plainsong and enjoyed it. Will probably move through the trilogy along with my DH. Neither of us was familiar with Kent Haruf so I really appreciate being introduced to his work. I gifted DH with Souls at Night for Father's Day so he is into reading more Haruf now too.

Reading Where You Once Belonged and liking it a lot. A direct sort of storytelling that is very easy to read.

>23 mhmr: I am so glad you are enjoying Mr. Haruf. Plainsong is such a terrific place to start. I recently picked up a copy of Our Souls at Night and I am saving it for the right moment.

>24 RBeffa: I have not read Where You Once Belonged. Glad you are enjoying it.

Found this thread today and I'd love to have a reason to get to Haruf! I think I own Plainsong so I'll pull it off the shelf and put it with my other TBR Nows!

>26 Carmenere: Do yourself a big, big favor, Lynda and bookhorn in Plainsong. It is a game-changer!

I like having this AAC tribute for Haruf. Would have been nice in retrospect to have done one for Ivan Doig. Maybe he can be a candidate for AAC next year?

Where You Once Belonged by Kent Haruf, finished June 26, 2015, 4 stars, acquired in 2014


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Well written story that is told kind of slowly. The story of Jack Burdette, small town sports star who runs a little on the wild side but doesn't seem like a bad sort at all. Seems like just about everyone likes him. Except the sheriff. When he went off very briefly to college he went from being the big fish in a little pond to a smaller fish in a big pond. Things didn't work out so he joined the Army and two years later he returned to the small town of Holt where he had grown up. He could be the big well-liked fish in the pond again. Life went on.

We know from the first page of the story that something really bad happened with the town and Jack eight years before the telling of this tale. After the first few pages we flash way back in time to when Jack started first grade. The story is told by a man who was once his friend and is now the newspaper editor of the small town weekly paper. Much of the story is about the townspeople of Holt, and this editor, our narrator, Pat Arbuckle. Don't quote me on that name. It may have been mentioned in pieces only once or twice.

This is a short novel and it never lost my attention. Good but not great stuff. I can't figure the moral of the story though. It is a story about misplaced trust. The long blurb on the back cover misled me. I would call it at the very least hyperbole.

There's another blurb on the back cover credited to the Denver Post: "Where You Once Belonged speaks with the authenticity of ... Hemingway and Faulkner." I certainly got a Hemingway vibe from this, especially in the latter half of the book. The ending was very unexpected. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I did not see the end coming. This is all a little twisty.

So far, I've read two of his books this year: Benediction (4-1/2 stars for me) and Our Souls at Night (4 stars). Don't know if I can finish all his books this year, but I'm giving it a go. Love his writing style.

Hmmm - somehow I missed seeing that there was the tribute for Haruf in the challenge. I only saw the monthly ones. Now I'll have to figure out which month I'll read him. Only 5 left!

Read one of his books each month! They are not long, and they are very worth the effort!

"Read one of his books each month!" What great advice! High Five!! Thanks, Karen!

I still have Our Souls at Night to read. I am savoring the anticipation...

I started Benediction and am totally engrossed. I carry it around with me while I do all those other nagging, must do, chores and errands.

Yay for Benediction! I LOVED that one. Of course, the whole Plainsong trilogy got to me big time.

Can't wait until you read Our Souls at Night, Mark. There's a little treat in there, too, for those who have read his others.

^^While waiting for my ebook copy of World's Fair to come in, I thought I better jump into Our Souls at Night. I bought a copy of this, back in June, a few weeks after it was released. I was waiting for the right time. It has arrived.

I hope I do not sound too sappy but I got teary-eyed, just a few pages in, swept away, in his simple but beautiful prose. I WILL miss this man!!

No one has posted over here since, the end of July! (including the host!) Come on folks! We need to give Mr. Haruf the perfect send-off!

I have Souls at Night on my Kindle, started, and temporarily set aside for other more pressing books. (real life book groups, don't cha know). But I'll try to get back to Mr Haruf very soon, I agree his writing is wonderful and a gift.

You know I'm a big fan. Remarkable that he could write such a beautiful book (Our Souls at Night) knowing he was in his last days.

"Who does ever get what they want? It doesn't seem to happen to many of us if any at all. It's always two people bumping against each other blindly, acting out old ideas and dreams and mistaken understandings. Except I still say that this isn't true of you and me. Not right now, not today."

^ Our Souls at Night

Nearly done with this gem. Swipes away a tear...

Today is the day! Going to turn to page one in my new-to-me copy of Plainsong and just, just, just read it.

^Go Bill! Go Bill!

You are in for such a treat. Sighs...

Bill is in for a great good treat. Such a lovely book.

I'll add my warble for Plainsong, Bill.

Mark, Karen, and Joe: You all are so right. Just shy of halfway through. I'm alternating from Hank James to Kent Haruf and back. What a contrast of writing styles!!!