"Eventide" followed up many of the characters in "Plainsong," who live in the fictitious eastern Colorado ranchland town of Holt. The central plot followed the McPheron brothers and the teen mother Victoria whom they welcomed into their home, plus now her toddler Katie. Another family was introduced in this novel-- the Wallaces who live in a trailer in a shabbier part of town, with their two children. They require the services of Rose Tyler, social worker, and are in extreme peril of losing their children to foster care, especially when a villainous uncle of Mrs. Wallace moves in. Tragedy strikes the mcPheron brothers in an early part of the book, followed by sad circumstances for other characters. Two new families the Reader learns about also have children who are oppressed and lonely, left mainly to their own devices to instill some joy into their lives. The Guthrie boys and their dad also return to this novel, but mostly in connection with the mcPheron brothers' story. The interactions between all these characters create a moving, quite readable story of the Holt community.Kent Haruf employs his usual spare, unadorned, straightforward narrative style to reveal the characters and action. It's not that his language lacks metaphor and description, but these fit plainly and simply into the narrative. It is like he paints vivid pictures with few brush strokes. He makes the Reader see those bluish yard lights out there in the lonely ranchlands outside of town, the mcPheron brother's stick straight iron gray hair and their red faces, the lonely slouch and downcast look of the boy named DJ, the busy and noisy bar scenes and the actions of barmaids and tonwspeople. The book is full of images, well-depicted, but without delaying the story path. Curiously, Haruf has chosen not to use quotation marks for dialog, but the conversations are so true and crisp, there is no doubt what words are spoken and who speaks them. He also spares commas between cities and states, such as Holt Colorado and Brush Colorado. It's almost like Haruf doesn't want to slow down the pace of the story with punctuation.
Have I mentioned I love this author? I did something with this book that I used to do as a kid, and rarely feel the call to do as an adult: I put it down, consciously, very often so that I wouldn't finish it too soon. I could have gobbled it up in probably 4 hours reading; it's not a difficult read in terms of language or plot. But I s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d it out over 10 days. This is a sequel to Plainsong. We find Raymond and Harold McPheron preparing to take Victoria off to college in Fort Collins with little Katie. We also meet Betty and Luther, mentally-challenged adults with 2 elementary children they are barely able to care for; DJ Kephart, age 10, who is caring for his elderly and ill grandfather; Mary Hill and her daughters, the man of house in Alaska, apparently permanently; and a host of other folks living in your, er, this small Eastern Colorado town. The book encompasses all that is life: love, responsibility, horror, choices-that-are-really-no-choices, sadness, many small kindnesses, honor, death, duty, generosity, evil, and surprise. It makes your throat hurt. It makes your eyes water. And that's just the writing The plot is tumbleweeds on the plains, every place and also specifically Holt, Colorado. Everyone in this book is either someone I know or knew, or someone I've passed outside seedy bars in western towns, or me, sometimes. And yet, people behave the ways they do in this book because they have chosen to be who they are, consciously or not. Mostly not. And that's ok too, because in Holt, we all know that Good is Good and Evil is Evil; even evil knows itself. "Then, as before, against their will and despite their protestations they were examined in the nurse's room. The boy's pants were lowered, the girl's dress was raised, and seeing what she saw this time the nurse said angrily: Oh Jesus Christ, where is Thy mercy, and left to bring the principal into the room, and the principal took one look and went back to his office and called the sheriff's office at the courthouse and then phoned Rose Tyler at Holt County Social Services."
What do You think about Eventide (2005)?
Kent Haruf handily met the challenge of following up his brilliant novel PLAINSONG with this richly deserving sequel. Wow. I am so envious of his ability to utilize common words to string sentences like popcorn around an old fashioned Christmas tree. Like popcorn, the single word is largely unimpressive, but the cumulative effect is awe-inspiring. EVENTIDE manages to fulfill hopes and expectations as it reacquaints us with a few old friends, while leaving behind a few of our favorites from Plainsong in favor of several new characters that grow on you like so many of Haruf's inventions.
—Michael Twist
Reading this book was a bittersweet experience. It is a continuation of Haruf's earlier, Plainsong ,which has updated some of the previous characters and introduced others. It is easy to become immersed in the lives of the people of this community of Holt,Colorado.Life for them is simple, yet difficult, with harsh climate and ceaseless toil for many of them. Haruf has the facility to expose the raw emotions, or the guileless behaviors of most of his characters. I found particularly endearing,two elderly, devoted bachelor brothers,the McPherons, who have spent their entire lives leading hardscrabble existences on their cattle ranch. It was instructive to view their tasks there and to understand the intricacies of managing their livestock. Despite their rough edges, it was moving to see how they managed their personal circumstances. Interwoven in their seemingly simple lives is Victoria, their ward and her baby, who are essential ingredients to their beings and to the narrative. These are but a few of the complex and compelling personalities in this tale. Haruf has an unique expertise in bringing to life even the simplest individual.Haruf's writing is straightforward, yet profound and strong. He has won a special citation from the PEN/ Hemingway Foundation, was a finalist for the National Book Award, the LA Times Book Prize and the New Yorker Book Award. Perhaps this is not quite as rich as the previous novel, but I found it engrossing and moving.
—Barbara
Now that I have read Eventide, the second book by Kent Haruf that tells the story of the quiet upstanding McPheron brothers, I would probably give the first book, Plainsong, 5 stars. (And Eventide 4.)I still found so pleasing Haruf's gentle exploration of characters who (and relationships that) seem, for the most part, wonderfully complex, believable, and flawed. However, while Plainsong seemed somehow understated, and so the change in the life of the brothers seemed both moving and momentous, Eventide seemed full of drama. Many violent things happen, often affecting young children, and so the overall tone until the very end of the book seemed one of unease and melancholy. Eventide seems to be less about the positive transformative power of relationships and more about the difficulty inherent in being responsible for the well-being of others. Adults in the novel repeatedly physically harm or emotionally burden small children, and their own relationships are shown to be fraught, fragile and tenuous.Still, it was lovely to spend time with the cast of characters in small-town Holt, Colorado.
—Jennifer
