![]() “More Winesburg that Mayberry, Holt and its residents are shaped by physical solitude and emotional reticence. Their brave adventures-their pleasures and their difficulties-are hugely involving and truly resonant, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer’s enduring contribution to American literature. ![]() His daughter lives hours away in Colorado Springs, her son even farther away in Grand Junction, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in houses now empty of family, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis’s wife. In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf’s inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Haruf lived with his wife, Cathy, in Salida, Colorado, with their three daughters.A spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future. Holt is loosely based on Yuma, Colorado, an early residence of Haruf in the 1980s. In 2006, Haruf was awarded the Dos Passos Prize for Literature.Īll of his novels are set in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado. His novel, The Tie That Binds, received a Whiting Foundation Award and a special citation from the Pen/Hemingway Foundation. Plainsong was also a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award. Haruf is the author of Plainsong, which received the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Maria Thomas Award in Fiction, and The New Yorker Book Award. For two years, he taught English in Turkey with the Peace Corps and his other jobs have included a chicken farm in Colorado, a construction site in Wyoming, a rehabilitation hospital in Colorado, a hospital in Arizona, a library in Iowa, an alternative high school in Wisconsin, and universities in Nebraska and Illinois. He received his Bachelors of Arts in literature from Nebraska Wesleyan University in 1965 and his Masters of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1973. ![]() I highly recommend you put this book on your “To Read” pile for the summer. OUR SOULS AT NIGHT packs a lot of though-provoking messages into one small book: it’s never to late in life to make connections and establish relationships, we can find happiness is simple things like conversations, and we really shouldn’t care what other people think of us if what we are doing makes us happy. ![]() Addie, Louis, Jamie, and Bonney the dog have a wonderful summer and all four of them find comfort and solace in their little group. Addie and Louis gradually establish a routine with the boy, shower him with love and attention, and adopt a shelter dog for him. Jamie’s parents are in the middle of a separation and poor Jamie has been cast off to live with his grandmother for the summer when Jamie is dropped off at Addie’s home is upset and lonely. However, will Addie and Louis also be able to dismiss the opinions of their grown children who also get wind of their “relationship” and don’t approve of it?Īddie’s grandson, Jamie, also comes to spend the summer with Addie and Louis. Addie and Louis are happier spending time with one another than they have ever been in their lives and they are no longer lonely. The stance that they take, Addie in particular, against the nosy neighbors is that they don’t care what other people think anymore. The small town in Colorado in which Addie and Louis live start to gossip about the pair because people see Louis walking over to Addie’s house every night. Eventually they start holding hands as they communicate in the dark. They slowly get to know intimate details about each other’s past lives. They talk in the dark about their respective deceased spouses. She is lonely at night and instead of taking sleeping pills Addie would rather have a companion to talk to in the dark to help lull her to sleep.Īddie and Louis are awkward at first in a very sweet and gentle way. But there is nothing sexual or indecent about her suggestion. Since he also lives alone, Addie wants him to come over to her house at night and sleep with her and talk to her in the dark. Addie, a septuagenarian who has been widowed for years, walks over to her neighbor Louis and makes a proposition to him. This title is a brief yet beautiful read that took me by surprise. But this book piqued my interest enough for me to buy it on my own anyway. Sometimes bloggers do get rejected when they request review copies. Knopf did not let me have access to this title when I requested it on Edelweiss.
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