The sequel to Plainsong (Haruf's powerful 1999 novel that was a finalist for the National Book Award that year), Eventide is just as good. Until you read Plainsong I would say you shouldn't pick up Eventide, but I assure you both are well worth it. The story once again takes place in the fictitious town of Holt, located in the northeastern plains of Colorado, and centers around two old brothers who live together on their cattle ranch outside the town, and the 19 year-old girl whom they took in in the first novel after she was banished from her own house by her mother who did not approve of the baby she was carrying.
I read a lot of books and I don't usually write about them on here unless they are classics. Which is to say I really think Kent Haruf is a classy writer. His sentences look and sound a lot more like Hemingway's, however he is much more reminiscent of the master William Faulkner in his subject matter. Haruf is interested in portraying some chronically ignored American voices; the dirt poor, mentally handicapped, angry and/or neglected preadolescents, primary and secondary public school educators both passionate and disillusioned. The books supposedly read more like massive, interconnected short stories, maybe like Winesburg, Ohio, but really there is no mistaking Eventide for the ambitious novel that it truly is.
Eventide is about small town tragedy, the kind that happens every day that everyone hears about but no one really acknowledges as tragedy. The dysfunction that children see in their schools, their communities and their homes every day and night but that has become glossed over by we who gossip about it just because it is all so commonplace--irresponsible parent figures, bullying, harrassment, abuse. And the thing about it is that Haruf, I don't think, is calling for a grand addressing or confrontation of these issues, rather he is only trying to make us see that this is what happens every day in our school districts, that this is what kind of human beings we are and that we need to understand it before we make the big decisions like starting a family or assuming responsibility for something we are not capable of controlling. Really, the book is devoid of morality. Summoning that Hemingwayesque approach Haruf is only writing down observations, recording the cause-and-effects that befall us all the time.
Although Eventide and Plainsong are two novels that deal with very difficult subject matter, the book is not hard to read at all, in fact it's quite therapeutic. Reading these books is like standing in the middle of the country and just looking around and seeing omnipotently. Haruf's narration is entirely without frills--there is no insight into the characters' thoughts or motivations--but at the same time beautifully rich in description of place, whether it be a diseased trailer home or the vast high plains.
I can't talk up these books and this author enough. If you're living in the United States in the 21st century, with kids or around kids or around normal people every day, then I think you need to give Haruf's work an honest read.
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