First, you need to knowthat this is some of the best youthful romantic fiction I've read in a great while. Amy Harmon manages to create characters who are vivid and wonderful--the kind of people you wish were real.Josie Jensen is a product of a close-knit family in a small central Utah town. Her mom dies when Josie is nine, and she manages to weather the horror of her loss while learning to step into the role of mom to her brothers. Along the way to her accelerated adulthood, Josie discovers classical music, and it becomes a major part of her life.While on a bus to school one day, she is literally flung into the lap of 18-year-old Samuel Yazzie, part Navajo and part caucasion. Samuel is angry and bitter, and Josie quietly and determinably builds bridges to his beleaguered heart and finds ways to nourish his soul with her love of books and music. She's only 13, and he's keenly aware of that, never in any way violating her youthful innocence or betraying her trust.But the two become separated upon his graduation. He joines the Marines, and she eventually grows into her own senior year, falling in love in the process. But circumstances bring them together again, and now it is Samuel who must nourish her parched soul.I love the writing in this book! During one of their conversations about music, Josie says, "Sometimes I think if I could just see without my eyes, the way I feel without my hands, that I would be able to hear the music. I don't use my hands to feel love orjoy or heartache, but I still feel them all the same. My eyes let me see incredibly beautiful things, but sometimes I think that what I see gets in the way of what's--what's just beyond the beauty. Almost like the beauty I can see is just a very lovely curtain distracting me from what's on the other side. And if I just knew how to push that curtain aside, there the music would be." By now, you're seriously doubting whether a 13-year-old girl could have that kind of philosophical conversation. Harmon writes this character in such a way that you won't have to suspend disbelief to accept her as real. The community in which the book is set is somewhat familiar to me; places and names are wonderfully accurate, and the description of some of the town's characters are memorable indeed. There's essentially no profanity in the book, and there are no explicit sexual descriptions. I'm pretty sure I could use this book as proof that an author can write realistically without resorting to constant profanity, lengthy sexual descriptions or blood-and-guts violence. This book simply uplifts the heart, but not in some artificial syrupy sweet sticky way. I'm certainly no classical music expert, but Harmon made me love the genre in just a few pages. I note that she has two other books on Audible, and I'll likely use my January credits to buy them, which says a great deal, since I'm horrifically scrupulous about how those credits get spent.I have to send out much praise for Tavia Gilbert's narration. I had heard her narration of a young adult title about Becky Thatcher, and I frankly found that performance a bit over the top--almost jarring. So when I saw that she narrated this, I approached it with a bit of trepidation. I needn't have! Gilbert demonstrated real talent here. She managed to effortlessly fling away the usual boundaries of the physical dimensions of the book and provide me with a panorama that I won't forget. Gilbert very nearly composes verbal symphonies here as she gets every voice just right. The nuances are wonderful. You feel like if Josie Jensen were real, she would sound exactly like Gilbert makes her sound. In short, the narration added much to an already excellent book. Gilbert even pronounced correctly the small Utah towns referenced in the book, and she did so with the proficiency of a native to the region, which I doubt she is. There was no uncertainty or hesitation in these pronunciations; instead, the narration was smooth, lyrical, and her cadences were wonderfully appropriate. Josie's tears seem to have become Gilbert's tears, and there was nothing affected or artificial about the tears or the times when a young Josie poured out words in tumults from time to time.I checked out my copy of the book from Overdrive, but knowing what I now know about the book, I'd have gladly bought it outright if I'd had no other way of getting it. I have yet to read anything by Amy Harmon that has not moved me. Running Barefoot was such a lovely and touching story. I loved Josie and it was easy to feel everything along with her. I equally loved Samuel. Loved reading about his Navajo background and beliefs. This book made me think and want to understand more. If you love reading really well written, well developed stories without an overload of angst, you will live this. This was 4.5 stars for me.
What do You think about Running Barefoot (2000)?
overwhelmed with this book.thumbs up for my new favorite author Amy Harmon :)
—Grayscaled
the end was beautiful i couldnt stop crying
—Esk0bar
