I picked out this book by Kent Haruf in one of those rare moments when I didn't have any information on it that had led me to it. Not knowing anything about it, I read the brief synopsis on the back cover, thumbed through it and took a chance. How exciting it is to find a goldmine!

This book had my attention from the first page. The writing style is smooth and inviting and kept my attention without being so bold and obvious. Kent Haruf was brilliant in his choice of who to tell the story. The neighbor, Sanders Roscoe, tells the details that unfold the plot. This proved to be a very creative move. You really get a broad view of the story line and its important characters from this view. It's very comfortable and at times it almost feels like the neighbor is really talking to you.

I highly recommend this book!

Kent Haruf's novel, The Tie That Binds, is a sad, beautiful little book that ultimately has a kernal of hope buried deep within it. The fine writing and the strong voice of the narrator will carry the reader along through the story of Edith Goodnough and all her eighty years of hardship, sacrifice and small pleasures. Edith is a vivid and true creation that seems formed from the earth of the Great Plains itself. It is hard to believe that this is a first novel and it will certainly lead this reader to other novels by this author. It is a little depressing as Kent Haruf is superb at capturing the isolation of the prairies but the novel does find a way to squeeze precious drops of joy from the situation. A fine read.

Fifteen years before he wrote his masterpiece Plainsong, Kent Haruf produced this gem. The Tie That Binds will surely find readers as a result of Plainsong, a fine story about brothers and loneliness and tenacity in the High Plains community of Holt, Colorado. Haruf's first novel also features the relationship between siblings, the dutiful Edith Goodnough and her simple brother Lyman, both children of failed homesteaders condemned to a hard life on a dryland farm south of Holt. She is, in the words of the narrator, Sanders Roscoe, her admiring neighbor from the adjacent ranch, a person who "continued to endure by plain courage and a clear eye to duty." In her 80 years, Edith has known 4 men well - her own flawed father and his feckless son Lyman - and another father and son, John and Sanders Roscoe, who are the only persons in the world who truly understand her courage, incredible sense of duty, and beauty. But, as Sanders says "understanding it doesn't mean liking it". Edith's story is haunting yet inspirational. Sanders wonderful narration is filled with the stoic truths of the Great Plains: "Life ain't fair" and "If you can't understand it, you just have to accept it" and "It wasn't anybody's fault. It happened; that's all." The tenor of The Tie That Binds is reminiscent of a two very different classics of the Plains: Larry McMurtry's "Last Picture Show" and Ole Rolvaag's "Giants in the Earth." Having grown up on the Eastern Colorado plains, I swear I know many of the characters. They are as genuine as the real article and every bit as tragic. Five stars without reservation.

I've heard praises of PLAINSONG for a long time thus far but have only recently picked it up to see what everyone's been talking about. Unfortunately this book has failed to capture me as it did others. While I did enjoy some aspects of the plot, other storylines annoyed and distracted me from my overall satisfaction. The plight of Victoria, a pregnant teenager kicked out of her mother's house and subsequently taken in by the generous townspeople, bordered on the sentimentalism of a Lifetime movie. [Amazingly, Billie Letts' WHERE THE HEART IS kept popping into my mind, as there are many parallels between the pregnant teenagers in these two books]. I also was frustrated several times as I doubted the authenticity of Victoria's actions. Regardless of my annoyance of Victoria, there are some redeeming qualities in PLAINSONG. I believe the characters with the rough edges around their corners were the best developed and most interesting (i.e., the McPheron brothers, Maggie Jones' senile father, Guthrie's estranged wife, and the old woman on the paper route.) I also enjoyed the setting of Holt, a small town in the high plains of Colorado. Kent Haruf should be commended for his portrayal of a small town as I could easily envision it in my mind.

Overall, I believe that if PLAINSONG lacked the storyline of Victoria it would have been much better. Evaluating the good and bad aspects I come to the conclusion that PLAINSONG is an average book that has potential for more.

I had the privilege of hearing Mr. Haruf read from Plainsong this month at the One Book AZ book festival in Phoenix. The organization chooses a book, each April, that they encourage all Arizonan's to read. This year, Plainsong was the worthy recipient.

As he read from the chapter which has a teacher, Maggie Jones, asking the old bachelor farming McPheron brothers to take in a pregnant 17 year old Victoria Rubideaux, I was instantly engaged. Haruf has a gift of enabling the reader to envision his cast of characters and the desolate Colorado plains on which they reside as richly as if they were watching it unfold before them. Plainsong walks you through the lives of several individuals and exposes you to the grief, pain, fear, joy and sometimes mundaneness they experience. While their situations may not be envious, Haruf maintains their dignity in sharing their stories and does so by writing simply and without exaggeration. Many authors attempting such direct and honest storytelling would faulter, yet Haruf succeeds.

Simply written, the story covers a wealth of complicated situations and unconventional definitions of family. To fill the pages with fancy words would have detracted from the elements and not allowed the reader to accurately view the rawness and beauty that life brings.

While I do not believe everyone will appreciate Haruf's style, I, for one, am a new fan.

Plainsong is one of those books you can't escape - no matter what, you keep hearing about it. Unlike some of those Oprah books, however, it actually deserves all the hype. Haruf has written a charming, believable novel about people and how their lives are effected by each other.

I was reluctant to read Plainsong myself because every description I heard of the book made it sound stupid (the basic description of the novel is that it revolves around the inhabitants of a small town and how their lives touch, particularily a teenage girl who gets pregnant), but when I finally did start it, I finished it in one day. The story *is* good, believe it or not, but that's not what matters -- it's how Haruf writes it. As other people have said, reading Plainsong is like eating a warm piece of homemade apple pie. It's got a good story, it isn't too long or descriptive, and all the characters seem real. This book won't be going on my top 10 favorite book list, but it is a book that I will recommend to other people.

Ultimately, Plainsong is a book your mom will love, but surprisingly enough, you may just love it too.

As I've worked my way backwards through Kent Haruf's catalog of books, I've become increasingly impressed with the seeming simplicity of his writing and how he lets his characters come alive on their own terms instead of his. This allows the reader to understand the characters quirks and motivations in a way that reminds us of relationships with real people. We don't know everything about someone the first time we meet them, instead we learn what they want us to know and draw other conclusions from their actions and what other people let us know about them. In Where You Once Belonged, that is exactly how I grew to know Jack Burdette and the people in Holt, Colorado whose lives he so deeply affected.

Like Plainsong and The Tie That Binds, the reader is drawn into a seemingly simple story that simmers with local personality and an undercurrent of conflict. Slowly, Haruf lets you in on the complexities and even when the story here doesn't seem as compelling as his later work, you know there's more going on than you're being told. That Haruf can make the reader believe it's for the better not to know is a testament to his unique storytelling style.

I don't think Where You Once Belong is as powerfully told as Haruf's next books, which earns it a strong three star rating, but I would highly recommend it to any reader who already knows his style or appreciates subtle stories of lives not too unlike our own.

Having previously read Plainsong (as I am sure many who read this novel will have done), I was looking for a similarly enjoyable reading experience. Actually, in some ways, I liked this novel better. As much as I liked Plainsong, I found that there wasn't enough of a focus on a single storyline, and, in the end, I found it a disjointed work. Where You Once Belonged is much more of a traditionally structured novel, and the conflicts are clearer to the reader.

Haruf's simple style is both deceptive and hypnotic. I read this book in two sittings, and it was the power of the style that kept me going. The story involves a high school football star who is forgiven many of his character flaws by the town where he lives. After a long absence from the town, he returns, and the novel is the story leading up to that fateful return to town.

If you're looking for exactly the same feelings of community and warmth you had at the end of Plainsong, then you will be sorely disappointed by this novel. If, however, you are looking for a more compelling plot with a few more twists, then this novel is for you. I can see why many of Plainsong's fans don't like this one, but I see them as two distinct sides of a very good writer.

Having not had my fix of Haruf's writing after reading Plainsong, I immediately bought this book and found it to be equally satisfying. This is a book with a lot of heart and one that reminds you that no matter where you are right now you are never to far from home and your past, for better or worse. Haruf has an uncanny ability to draw you into his story and allow you to genuinely empathize with his character's emotions. You will be thrilled when the narrator finds his true love and you will be disgusted when you read the bitter and shocking ending. This book can be read in a matter of hours. Give it a chance.