Eventide

View other editions of Eventide.
View books by Kent Haruf.

a beautiful and moving book - Rated
I was really moved by the characters in Plainsong, so when I finished reading I was glad I had bought the sequel. We meet more characters in this book, but it retains its vivid sense of place and its realism. There is tragedy, but also the sense that life carries on, and that good hearted people do the best they can. One of my favourite books.

I love this book - Rated
Well after reading plainsong, which by the way is brilliant, I bought two more of Haruf's books. what can i say Eventide is a follow up to Plaingsong and it was great to get back into the lives of these characters. I just love them. This follow up is just as good as Plainsong.I couldn't stop reading . I'm now reading The tie that binds and it's got hold of me already and I've only just started. You must read these books he is now one of my favorite authors. His stories stay with you for a very long time.Please read them.

Same quality as "Plainsong": Excellent! - Rated
In the previous novel in this set, Haruf clearly showed that he is a master storyteller. He chose a simple plot, which was seemingly as plain as the title, but he reached the reader's heart with his artistry. In "Eventide", he goes a step farther, by building on what he created and delivering a story with more shocking events, but just as good.

Victoria, the young girl who delivered her baby girl at the conclusion of "Plainsong", has played an important role in the life of the old brothers McPheron. And they have gotten used to having her and Katie around, but now Victoria is leaving them to go to college, and they have to face their newfound solitude. But they seem to be managing OK, until disaster strikes, and the only tool for survival becomes resorting to the power of love and friendship.

In order to give some variety, Haruf assigns a less prominent role to Tom Guthrey and his kids, characters that were central to "Plainsong". Instead, he presents a family that has conflicts to spare, a mature boy that has to take care of his grandfather, and a woman with two girls abandoned by her husband.

Once more, the author shows a marked ability for describing human emotions and to present everyday situations with such passion and skill that the reader cannot help feeling immersed in the novel. In that way, we get to share the problems, sadness, desperation and joy of the main characters as if the events were affecting ourselves or those we love. These are some of the reasons why I believe this is one of the best novels I have ever read.

"Every living thing in this world gets weaned eventually." - Rated
Three years after the author's previous novel, Plainsong, concluded, the author returns to Holt, Colorado, continuing the story of Raymond and Harold McPheron, elderly ranchers who lived in almost complete isolation until they agreed to provide a safe haven for a scared and pregnant teenager, three years ago. With other familiar characters from Plainsong also returning in minor roles, the novel then broadens to focus on three additional families, whose new stories the author deftly juggles and interweaves. Somewhat more thoughtful and complex than Plainsong, Eventide quickly engages the reader with its unpretentious style, revealing dialogue, and often heart-tugging scenes of difficult lives.

Luther and Betty June Wallace are some of Haruf's most beautifully drawn characters. Extremely limited in their understanding, they receive professional assistance in everything from budgeting to parenting classes, anger management, and lessons in cleanliness. DJ Kephart, a small eleven-year-old whose responsibilities make him seem much older, is an orphan, now living with his elderly, often bed-ridden, grandfather, for whom he does all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry. He and his neighborhood friends, Dena and Emma Wells, whose father is in Alaska, spend their free time turning an abandoned shed into a playhouse, a peaceful, make-believe home where adults do not intrude. Suddenly, separate acts of fate, involving the McPheron brothers and each of these three families, upend all their lives and set in motion a series of events which will change them forever.

Death, illness, injury, abandonment, abuse, and the arbitrary harshness of fate all contribute to emotional crises the characters must find the strength to overcome. As Raymond McPheron says, simply, these acts of fate and disaster are "things you don't get over," but, as he notes while he is separating cows from their calves, "Every living thing in this world gets weaned eventually." Deliberately simple in style, but polished and graceful in its realization, the novel is full of the love and travail, the effort and failure, and the kindness and cruelty that fill the lives of these plainspoken, often endearing, characters.

Vibrant, almost lyrical descriptions of the land and nature are seen in the context of sudden emergencies arising on the ranch, and every scene of tenderness and love is juxtaposed against scenes of cruelty and inhumanity. A master at evoking emotion, Haruf tugs at the heartstrings of even the most stoic reader, drawing the reader into scenes of warmth and poignancy, only to jolt him/her with new scenes that kill the sentimentality. Life can be cruel, fate can be capricious, and things do not always turn out "right," but Haruf's characters somehow soldier on, with the reader right beside them, heartstrings thrumming. (4.5 stars) Mary Whipple