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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 8, 2005 ‘Eventide’ brings characters to life By Chris Honoré Daily Tidings Reviewer “Eventide” is a gem of a book and Kent Haruf is a remarkable writer. However, to really appreciate this fine story, it is all but essential to have read its antecedent, “Plainsong.” But not mandatory. Both novels are set in the high plains of Holt, Colo., a place that Haruf clearly knows intimately. His characters are wonderfully crafted, and his ear for dialogue pitch-perfect. “Eventide” focuses in large part on the McPheron brothers, Raymond and Harold, two aging ranchers who live and raise cattle on close to 200 acres of hard scrabble land just outside of Holt. In “Plainsong” they meet and take in a young woman, Victoria Roubideaux, who is pregnant and in dire straits. In “Eventide,” Victoria, now a mother, has made the decision to leave the ranch and the brothers and with her child, go off to Fort Collins to attend college. The brothers suddenly find themselves with an empty house and a gap in their lives. Both are men of enormous decency who have lived lives of abiding commitment in a place apart. And so Haruf begins a narrative that is instantly captivating. In “Eventide” he seamlessly weaves together the stories of four families. There is DJ, stoic, 11 years old, who has never known his father and recently lost his mother. He lives with his elderly grandfather, taking care of him, and scrambles to find odd jobs. He is responsible and brave beyond his years. Down the street from DJ lives Mary Wells and her two young daughters, who befriend DJ. And there is Betty and Luther, a disabled couple with two children, who find the exigencies of life almost more than they can cope with. They live on food stamps, and are visited by a social worker, Rose, who helps as much as she can as they struggle to get by. And there is Hoyt Raines, Betty’s uncle, a dark and unpredictable man, carelessly intrusive, who uses people like so much scaffolding, his life a train wreck beyond redemption. Gradually, as the story evolves, the characters intersect. And it is in that intersection that Haruf illustrates what it means to write beautifully crafted prose, prose that is spare, uncompromising and haunting. His characters, recognizable in so many respects, are multidimensional, and the separate vignettes he creates are stunning in their quiet and sometimes heart-pounding impact. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, this is writing reminiscent of Hemingway, Faulkner and Wallace Stegner. Yet Haruf has his own laconic style, accessible and completely engaging. To find a novel and not want to leave the characters is one of the great pleasures in life. And “Eventide” is exactly that kind of read. Hence it is with regret that the last page is turned, leaving the reader with the singular wish that Haruf will return to Holt, to the McPheron ranch, and to the people that are so wonderfully rendered. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams