‘Plainsong’ delivers rich characters to the high plains

Editor’s note:  Anita Paddock’s review of books we should read are scheduled to appear on the second and fourth Friday of each month. Enjoy.

review by Anita Paddock

Years ago, a wise woman told me that books on the best seller list were not always the best books. That bit of advice was a milestone in my life and has been proven over and over again. With that said, books that have been around a while also deserve being read, maybe for the second or third time.

Plainsong is one of those books. Written by Kent Haruf (rhymes with sheriff) and first published in 1999, this novel is about people taking care of one another.

The word, “plainsong,” literally means any simple or unadorned melody or air.  And that is what this novel is: a simple unadorned story full of melodious words that invite the reader to sing along.

Set in Holt, Colo., a little town on the high plains east of Denver, the story weaves together the lives of several inhabitants: Guthrie, a history teacher, who has two young sons and a wife who is slipping away into a deep depression; Victoria, a pregnant teen who is kicked out of her home with no place to live; Maggie, a teacher who has her hands full with her senile father, and two old ranchers who let Victoria move in with them.

The landscape, with its vast prairie, freezing wind, purple nights, and silver stars is as much a part of this book as any of the characters. The harshness of the winters and the physical labor that goes with taming the land is as big an obstacle for the characters as old age, mental illness, abandonment, dishonesty, and boorish behavior.

The author uses no quotation marks to set off conversation, but the reader will have no problem following along. It takes a skillful writer to tell a story this way, and some readers might not even notice it. Haruf’s ability to capture the speech, mannerisms, and thoughts make quotes seem superfluous. So distinct is the description of Guthrie, that I could smell the cigarette smoke on his Levi jacket and feel his helplessness when he could not convince his wife to get out of bed and care for their sons.

The richest scenes of all involve the McPheron brothers. They are simply lost with a young girl in their care and don’t know what to say to her. When Maggie tells them that Victoria thinks they don’t like her because they never talk, the brothers come up with a plan: they ask if she thinks the price of cattle will hold steady and had she heard that soybeans were down. Their fumbling efforts will make you laugh out loud and come to love the two old guys.

I spoke to the author on the phone and asked him about the two old guys.  He told me that his dad was a Methodist minister out in Colorado and that there were two rancher brothers who attended his church. They had never married, they seldom talked to other members of the church, and they always wore their Sunday shiny black suits with bolo ties. He said he knew he’d write about them someday.

There is a sequel to this called Eventide. You’ll want to read it, too. You’ll be glad you did.

•••

Like the McPheron brothers in the book, Richard Cress is a 71-year-old rancher, who lives north of Muldrow, Okla., near Lee Creek. On 100 acres of pasture, he raises horses, breeding a Paint stud to Quarterhorse mares.

He’s loved horses for 50 years, and as one would guess, his favorite book growing up was “Flicka.” “The Man from Snowy River” is his all-time favorite book and movie. He even traveled to Victoria Province in Australia to visit the locale of the book and movie.

Cress is also a minister and a fine poet. He has given poetry readings at the Fort Smith Public Library to audiences who laughed and cried at his recollections of his youth.

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