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Plainsong

By: Kent Haruf
Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
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Publisher's summary

Kent Haruf has received prestigious awards, including a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation for his finely-tuned works. Before the opening chapter of this novel, Haruf offers a definition. Plainsong is “any simple and unadorned melody or air.” Direct yet elegant, Haruf’s Plainsong is a hymn to the breadth of the human spirit.

A high school history teacher in a small Colorado town, Guthrie is raising his two young sons alone. Thoughtful and honest, he is guiding them through a world that is not always kind. Victoria, one of his students, is pregnant, homeless, and vulnerable to the scorn of the town. When Guthrie helps two elderly ranchers take the young woman into their home, an unlikely extended family is born. As the chapters of these people’s lives alternate throughout Plainsong, loneliness and need are transformed into nourishing bonds. Narrator Tom Stechschulte captures the subtle changes that bring the men, women, and children together. His performance highlights every shading of this superb New York Times best-seller.

©1999 Kent Haruf (P)1999 Recorded Books, LLC
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What listeners say about Plainsong

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every chapter.. simple and engaging, with charater

every chapter simple and engaging with every character being someone we could champion or hope would change

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Enjoyable read

Thoroughly enjoyed this simple relaxing book. Would recommend this book. Looking forward to listening to the next one!

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Timeless Storytelling

I have always enjoyed the brevity of the language when characters are speaking. It seems like a beautiful relic of another time. I really like these people. Great Storytelling and a highly recommended book.

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Three Soothing Kombolóia


Like beading three kombolóia (strings of "worry beads" used in Greek culture), Kent Haruf weaved together three story threads, tight and tranquil, to honor seven residents of Holt, a small town on the Colorado high plains east of Denver, and their bonding together in three types of love, the familial, the philia and agape, to hurdle the predicaments life throws their way.

Haruf wrote in such quiet, dulcet prose that reading his novels is calming, therapeutic. His stories salve and enrich and uplift the soul.

The primary strand involves Victoria Roubideaux, a seventeen-year-old high school student whose mother threw her out of the house after learning Victoria was pregnant. A caring teacher named Maggie Jones discovers her plight and takes her in until problems arise in the living arrangements resulting from the Alzheimer's of Maggie's elderly father.

Faced with this crisis, Maggie thinks of the two elderly, never-married McPheron brothers with a relatively large house on a 2,000 acre cattle ranch. These admirable, yet unrefined, men have a brusque demeanor. As the story develops, one can see their gruffness results from their timidity and strong sensitivity. Haruf infuses this relationship with a tender wit, especially in the brothers' awkwardness with Victoria. In discussing the 17-year-old, one brother tells the other: “A girl is different. They want things. They need things on a regular schedule. Why, a girl's got purposes you and me can't even imagine. They got ideas in their heads you and me can't even suppose.”

Tom Guthrie teaches one of Victoria's classes. His wife, who suffers severe depression possibly compounded by drug abuse, recently abandoned Tom and their two sons, ten-year-old Ike and nine-year-old Bobby. Tom and the boys sometimes help out on the McPherons' ranch. Tom begins dating Maggie, while the boys suffer bullying from some much older boys and come face to face with mortality when they discover an elderly lady on their paper route dead one day.

Haruf's supernal powers of description and observation give the novel a gentle timbre with a deep emotional subtext and Tempean evocations of nature. The discerning reader will be edified and stilled by a novel that, without any taint of mushiness or melodramatics, shows the power of love, of friends, of family and of fellow humans, to give normal people the courage to face life's troubles (Lord knows, we all have our share) and the strength to endure and mend.

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deeply engrossing, outstanding narration

I wish I had time to write a more extensive review because I would be using superlatives that at the moment escape me. The narrator's performance was outstanding, thoroughly enjoyable, and although I can't say that I've been listening to audiobooks for a long time, of those that I've heard this man by far brought the characters and the setting and plot to life in a way that I have not experienced thus far. The story itself is captivating and heartening, harking back to my own upbringing in the Plains states where so many of these characters struck a chord for me with people from my youth.

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Will miss these characters

Nothing better than a book that leaves you missing the characters. The depth, sorrow, reflections and beauty in this book is thoroughly engrossing. What a treasure.

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Excellent narration an interesting premise

Interesting book about a fictitious town in Colorado. The author provided thorough descriptions in a long drawl reminiscent of the eastern ranching towns of Colorado. The performance was excellent, with the reader providing clear and distinct vocal intonations for each character and keeping the integrity of the book flowing. The story is very innocent and pure, of a small town and the characters that inhabit it. Looking forward to hearing the next book in the series.

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Great story!

I love this book! A must listen. Story of love and help in a small town setting. Very nostalgic. And the reader was amazing!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Great narration, engaging story, characters I really grew to care about

I should start by saying that the narrator, Tom Stechschulte, was one of the best EVER. I'd listen to almost anything that he narrated. I don't always like books that skip back-and-forth between characters, but in this particular case I thought it worked pretty well. I enjoyed the writing style and the story arc of the various characters, and the wistful tone of the book. At the end, not every character's future is spelled out; in some ways, I would like that to be the case, but, on the other hand, not doing so certainly gives you something to think about.

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Hymn to Small Town Life

Wonderful performance and writing. I will definitely listen to the 2nd in the trilogy. Excellent!

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