Eventide by Kent Haruf (English) Paperback Book

Description: Eventide by Kent Haruf A long, hard winter takes its toll on the high plains community of Holt, Colorado, in this engrossing, profoundly moving novel rich in wisdom and humanity. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The award-winning, bestselling author of Plainsong returns to the high-plains town of Holt, Colorado, with a novel that unveils the immemorial truths about human beings: their fragility and resilience, their selfishness and goodness, and their ability to find family in one another. • "Storytelling at its best." —Entertainment WeeklyThe aging McPheron brothers are learning to live without Victoria Roubideaux, the single mother they took in and who has now left their ranch to start college. A lonely young boy stoically cares for his grandfather while a disabled couple tries to protect their a violent relative. As these lives unfold and intersect, Eventide reveals Kent Haruf as a novelist of masterful authority. "Stunning.... The dry, cold air of Colorados high plains seems to intensify the light Kent Haruf shines on every character in his masterful novel.... A book of hope, hope as plain and hard-won as Harufs keenly styled prose." —O, The Oprah Magazine Author Biography KENT HARUF is the author of five previous novels (and, with the photographer Peter Brown, West of Last Chance). His honors include a Whiting Foundation Writers Award, the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award, the Wallace Stegner Award, and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation; he was also a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the New Yorker Book Award. He died in November 2014, at the age of seventy-one. Review One of the Best Books of the Year: Chicago Tribune, Entertainment Weekly, The Plain Dealer, and Rocky Mountain News"Possesses the haunting appeal of music, the folksy rhythms of an American ballad and the lovely, measured grace of an old hymn." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "A kind book in a cruel world. . . [with] honest impulses, real people and the occasional workings of grace." —The Washington Post"An extraordinary vision. . . . Who in America can still write like this? Who else has such confidence and such humility?" —The Christian Science Monitor"Harufs storytelling at its best." —Entertainment Weekly"Stunning. . . . The dry, cold air of Colorados high plains seems to intensify the light Kent Haruf shines on every character in his masterful novel. . . . A book of hope, hope as plain and hard-won as Harufs keenly styled prose." —Mark Doty, O, The Oprah Magazine"Writing in a style reminiscent of Hemingway, Haruf has a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue. . . . Eventide is a spare, delicate and beautiful book. Haruf has created another poignant meditation on the true meaning of family." —The Oregonian"A clear distillation of the writers craft, [Eventide is] a book that grabs you by the heart on the first page, refusing to release its grasp until the last." —The Denver Post"Highly charged and compassionate. . . . Every action in Holt casts a long shadow, and the gist of Harufs story is what happens when those shadows touch." —The New Yorker"Harufs storytelling at its best." —Entertainment Weekly"Masterful. . . . A full and satisfying novel . . . [that] might be even more emotionally powerful than its predecessor. . . . [Haruf] rewards the readers willingness to explore quotidian life with the occasional burst of heart-pounding drama, [and] one scene of romantic discovery, understated and painterly, is enough to weaken the knees of any cynic." —The Plain Dealer"Harufs laconic style-- with nouns as strong and upright as fenceposts, the verbs as clean and sharp as razor wire-- [creates] a richly symphonic effect. . . . In creating a place whose people are tethered to each other by history and emotion as much as place, Harufs work is now competing with Faulkners Mississippi, Sherwood Andersons Midwest, and Wallace Stegners northern California." —Chicago Sun-Times"Like the lives he chronicles, Harufs prose moves relentlessly forward, catching in his images the fierceness and sweetness of experience." —Minneapolis Star Tribune"Theres a decency that shines in the very accuracy with which [Haruf] describes the ordinary--the ordinary for Holt, that is, though it has become exotic to the rest of us. Scene after scene . . . flows by us as clear as spring water, proof that truth, like virtue, is its own reward." —Los Angeles Times Book Review"Eventide is a brave and admirable book. . . . Once more, [Haruf] leaves us waiting for what he will do next, waiting for what will come." —The Kansas City Star"Haruf is a master of evocative description, [and his] lyrical style, which has been compared to that of Hemingway and Chekhov . . . quickly infects the reader with its own peculiar rhythms. . . . Most important, there is Harufs spirit, which suggests that people unrelated by blood can and must form families, that a simple act of goodwill can occur even when it seems impossible." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch"Hoyt is a villain of Dickensian proportion, and the novel lights up with smart-alecky viciousness every time he steps onto the page." —San Francisco Chronicle"Eventide is a lovely novel, all the more for its uncompromising realism, its eschewing of the magical palliative of happy endings, its recognition that decency carries its own unique rewards." —The Baltimore Sun"The writers heartfelt attention to his characters wants and needs, especially their troubled inner lives, merits a close look from anyone who reads books to gain insight into that incalculable blend of tragedy and grace that inevitably marks every human life." —Orlando Sentinel"Kent Haruf returns to small-town Colorado with another pitch-perfect novel. . . . Haruf has once again demonstrated that he can push a tale featuring our Western landscape beyond romanticized cowboy myth into distilled reality." —Rocky Mountain News"Harufs characters and his town loom as large as any in contemporary American fiction. I hope Haruf returns to Holt for at least one more book." —The Bloomsbury Review"A permanent addition to the literary map of this country." —Milwaukee Journal-Star Review Quote : "Possesses the haunting appeal of music, the folksy rhythms of an American ballad and the lovely, measured grace of an old hymn." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "A kind book in a cruel world. . . [with] honest impulses, real people and the occasional workings of grace." Christopher Tilghman, The Washington Post "An extraordinary vision. . . . Who in America can still write like this? Who else has such confidence and such humility?" Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor "Harufs storytelling at its best." Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly "Stunning. . . . The dry, cold air of Colorados high plains seems to intensify the light Kent Haruf shines on every character in his masterful novel. . . . A book of hope, hope as plain and hard-won as Harufs keenly styled prose." Mark Doty, O, The Oprah Magazine "Writing in a style reminiscent of Hemingway, Haruf has a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue. . . . Eventide is a spare, delicate and beautiful book. Haruf has created another poignant meditation on the true meaning of family." The Oregonian "A clear distillation of the writers craft, [ Eventide is] a book that grabs you by the heart on the first page, refusing to release its grasp until the last." The Denver Post "Highly charged and compassionate. . . . Every action in Holt casts a long shadow, and the gist of Harufs story is what happens when those shadows touch." The New Yorker "Harufs storytelling at its best." Entertainment Weekly "Masterful. . . . A full and satisfying novel . . . [that] might be even more emotionally powerful than its predecessor. . . . [Haruf] rewards the readers willingness to explore quotidian life with the occasional burst of heart-pounding drama, [and] one scene of romantic discovery, understated and painterly, is enough to weaken the knees of anycynic." The Plain Dealer "Harufs laconic style-- with nouns as strong and upright as fenceposts, the verbs as clean and sharp as razor wire-- [creates] a richly symphonic effect. . . . In creating a place whose people are tethered to each other by history and emotion as much as place, Harufs work is now competing with Faulkners Mississippi, Sherwood Andersons Midwest, and Wallace Stegners northern California." Chicago Sun-Times "Like the lives he chronicles, Harufs prose moves relentlessly forward, catching in his images the fierceness and sweetness of experience." Minneapolis Star Tribune "Theres a decency that shines in the very accuracy with which [Haruf] describes the ordinary--the ordinary for Holt, that is, though it has become exotic to the rest of us. Scene after scene . . . flows by us as clear as spring water, proof that truth, like virtue, is its own reward." Los Angeles Times Book Review " Eventide is a brave and admirable book. . . . Once more, [Haruf] leaves us waiting for what he will do next, waiting for what will come." The Kansas City Star "Haruf is a master of evocative description, [and his] lyrical style, which has been compared to that of Hemingway and Chekhov . . . quickly infects the reader with its own peculiar rhythms. . . . Most important, there is Harufs spirit, which suggests that people unrelated by blood can and must form families, that a simple act of goodwill can occur even when it seems impossible." St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Hoyt is a villain of Dickensian proportion, and the novel lights up with smart-alecky viciousness every time he steps onto the page." San Francisco Chronicle " Eventide is a lovely novel, all the more for its uncompromising realism, its eschewing of the magical palliative of happy endings, its recognition that decency carries its own unique rewards." The Baltimore Sun "The writers heartfelt attention to his characters wants and needs, especially their troubled inner lives, merits a close look from anyone who reads books to gain insight into that incalculable blend of tragedy and grace that inevitably marks every human life." Orlando Sentinel "Kent Haruf returns to small-town Colorado with another pitch-perfect novel. . . . Haruf has once again demonstrated that he can push a tale featuring our Western landscape beyond romanticized cowboy myth into distilled reality." Rocky Mountain News "Harufs characters and his town loom as large as any in contemporary American fiction. I hope Haruf returns to Holt for at least one more book." Jim Grinnell, The Bloomsbury Review "A permanent addition to the literary map of this country." Milwaukee Journal-Star From the Trade Paperback edition. Description for Reading Group Guide The National Bestseller from the Author of PLAINSONG "Possesses the haunting appeal of music, the folksy rhythms of an American ballad and the lovely, measured grace of an old hymn." -- The New York Times Book Review The introduction, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading that follow are designed to enliven your groups discussion of Eventide , Kent Harufs moving follow-up to his acclaimed novel Plainsong . Set in the cattle country of the high plains, in and just outside of Holt, Colorado, Eventide tells the story of the McPheron brothers, Harold and Raymond, two elderly bachelor-ranchers, and the rich cast of characters who surround them. Discussion Question for Reading Group Guide 1. Two elderly bachelors living on an isolated ranch in eastern Colorado--not what one would immediately consider an exciting premise for a work of fiction. How does Kent Haruf transform the mundane materials of his characters and setting into such an emotionally compelling story? 2. If you have read Plainsong , in what ways does Eventide deepen readers relationships with those characters who also inhabit Harufs previous novel? How are the two novels alike? In what ways are they significantly different? 3. What kind of men are Harold and Raymond McPheron? What are their most distinctive and appealing characteristics? What makes them so likable? 4. Why does Haruf interweave, in alternating chapters, the stories of the McPheron brothers and Victoria Roubideaux, Luther and Betty Wallace and Rose Tyler, Hoyt Raines, DJ Kephart and his grandfather, and Mary Wells and her daughters? How are their lives interconnected? In what ways do they represent a wide spectrum of American society? 5. When Tom Guthrie and his sons finish separating the cows and their calves, Ike Guthrie says, "They make an awful lot of noise. . . . They dont seem to like it much." To which Tom replies, "They never do like it. . . . I cant imagine anything or anybody that would like it. But every living thing in this world gets weaned eventually" [p. 155]. How does this statement illuminate the central themes of Eventide? In what ways is the novel about the pain of separation, of getting "weaned"? 6. Harufs writing, like the speech of the characters he writes about, is restrained, as when Raymond calls Victoria to tell her of Harolds death: Honey, I got something to tell you. Oh, no, she said. Oh no. No. Im just afraid I do, he said. And then he told her [p. 80]. Why does Haruf end the conversation there? Why is it more moving to let the reader imagine the rest of the conversation than to describe it more completely? Where else in the novel does Haruf show this kind of reserve? 7. When Del Gutierrez tells Raymond that he cant see how just one man can run the ranch--"It seems like too much for one person to do"--Raymond responds, "What else you going to do?" [p. 233]. How does this response typify Raymonds attitude about life and his own predicament? 8. When Raymond worries that they might have to wait until seven-thirty to have dinner, Rose says, "You wouldnt do very well in New York or Paris, would you," and Raymond replies: "I wouldnt even do very good in Fort Morgan" [p. 255]. Why wouldnt Raymond do well in a big city? In what ways is he suited to, and a product of, the rural life of the high plains? 9. Why has Haruf included a character like Hoyt Raines in the novel? What does he add to the emotional texture of the book? 10. Parent-child relationships are important in Eventide . What kinds of behavior does the novel dramatize between parents (or grandparents or surrogate parents) and children? How are children seen and treated by their elders in the book? What are the best and worst examples of parent-child relationships in Eventide ? 11. Near the end of the novel, Luther and Betty Wallaces children are placed in a foster home. Why does the court make this decision? Is it the right one? Does Haruf intend for readers to regard Luther and Betty critically, sympathetically, or with some mixture of feelings? 12. Why is the budding romance between Rose and Raymond so appealing? Why must Raymond be tricked into meeting her? Why are they so drawn to each other? 13. Eventide ends with Raymond and Rose sitting together quietly, "the old man with his arm around this kind woman, waiting for what would come" [p. 300]. Why is this a satisfying way to end the novel? What is likely to come for them? Literary works often imply, if only implicitly, a set of values to live by. What attitudes and values does Eventide seem to hold up for emulation? Excerpt from Book They came up from the horse barn in the slanted light of early morning. The McPheron brothers, Harold and Raymond. Old men approaching an old house at the end of summer. They came on across the gravel drive past the pickup and the car parked at the hogwire fencing and came one after the other through the wire gate. At the porch they scraped their boots on the saw blade sunken in the dirt, the ground packed and shiny around it from long use and mixed with barnlot manure, and walked up the plank steps onto the screened porch and entered the kitchen where the nineteen-year-old girl Victoria Roubideaux sat at the pinewood table feeding oatmeal to her little daughter. In the kitchen they removed their hats and hung them on pegs set into a board next to the door and began at once to wash up at the sink. Their faces were red and weather-blasted below their white foreheads, the coarse hair on their round heads grown iron-gray and as stiff as the roached mane of a horse. When they finished at the sink they each in turn used the kitchen towel to dry off, but when they began to dish up their plates at the stove the girl made them sit down. Theres no use in you waiting on us, Raymond said. I want to, she said. Ill be gone tomorrow. She rose with the child on her hip and brought two coffee cups and two bowls of oatmeal and a plate of buttered toast to the table and then sat down again. Harold sat eyeing the oatmeal. You think she might of at least give us steak and eggs this once, he said. On account of the occasion. But no sir, its still only warm mush. Which tastes about like the back page of a wet newspaper. Delivered yesterday. You can eat what you want after Im gone. I know you will anyway. Yes maam, probably so. Then he looked at her. But Im not in any rush for you to leave here. Im just trying to joke you a little. I know you are. She smiled at him. Her teeth were very white in her brown face, and her black hair was thick and shiny and cut off neat below her shoulders. Im almost ready, she said. First I want to feed Katie and get her dressed, then we can start. Let me have her, Raymond said. Is she done eating? No, she isnt, the girl said. She might eat something for you though. She just turns her head away for me. Raymond stood and walked around the table and took up the little girl and returned to his seat and sat her on his lap and sprinkled sugar on the oatmeal in his bowl and poured out milk from the jar on the table and began to eat, the black-haired round-cheeked girl watching him as if she were fascinated by what he was doing. He held her easily, comfortably, his arm about her, and spooned up a small portion and blew over it and offered it to her. She took it. He ate more himself. Then he blew over another spoonful and gave that to her. Harold poured milk into a glass and she leaned forward over the table and drank a long time, using both hands, until she had to stop for breath. What am I going to do in Fort Collins when she wont eat? Victoria said. You can call on us, Harold said. Well come see about this little girl in about two minutes. Wont we, Katie. The child looked across the table at him, unblinking. Her eyes were as black as her mothers, like buttons or currants. She said nothing but took up Raymonds calloused hand and moved it toward the cereal bowl. When he held out the spoon she pushed his hand toward his mouth. Oh, he said. All right. He blew over it elaborately, puffing his cheeks, moving his red face back and forth, and now she would eat again. When they were finished Victoria carried her daughter into the bathroom off the dining room to wash her face and then took her back to their bedroom and changed her clothes. The McPheron brothers went upstairs to their rooms and got into town clothes, dark trousers and pale shirts with pearl snaps and their good white hand-shaped Bailey hats. Back downstairs they carried Victorias suitcases out to the car and set them in the trunk. The backseat was already loaded with boxes of the little girls clothes and blankets and bedsheets and toys, and a childs padded car seat. Behind the car was the pickup and in its bed, together with the spare tire and the jack and a half dozen empty oil cans and dry wisps of brome hay and a piece of rusted barbed wire, were the little girls high chair and her daybed, its mattress wrapped in a new tarp, all of it lashed down with orange binder twine. They returned to the house and came out with Victoria and the little girl. On the porch Victoria paused for a moment, her dark eyes welling with sudden tears. Whats the matter here? Harold said. Is something wrong? She shook her head. You know you can always come back. Were expecting you to. Were counting on it. Maybe itll help to keep that in mind. It isnt that, she said. Is it because youre kind of scared? Raymond said. Its just that Im going to miss you, she said. I havent been gone before, not like this. That other time with Dwayne I cant even remember and I dont want to. She shifted the little girl from one arm to the other and wiped at her eyes. Im just going to miss you, thats all it is. You can call if you need something, Harold said. Well still be here at the other end. But Im still going to miss you. Yes, Raymond said. He looked out from the porch toward the barnlot and the brown pastures beyond. The blue sandhills in the far distance low on the low horizon, the sky so clear and empty, the air so dry. Were going to miss you too, he said. Well be about like old played-out workhorses once youre gone. Standing around lonesome, always looking over the fence. He turned to study her face. A face familiar and dear to him now, the three of them and the baby living in the same open country, in the same old weathered house. But you think you can come on? he said. We probably ought to get this thing started if were going to. Raymond drove her car with Victoria sitting beside him so she could reach into the back and tend to Katie in her padded chair. Harold followed them in the pickup, out the lane onto the gravel county road, headed west to the two-lane blacktop, then north toward Holt. The country both sides of the highway was flat and treeless, the ground sandy, the wheat stubble in the flat fields still bright and shiny since its cutting in July. Beyond the barrow ditches the irrigated corn stood up eight feet tall, darkly green and heavy. The grain elevators in the distance showed tall and white in town beside the railroad tracks. It was a bright warm day with the wind coming hot out of the south. In Holt they turned onto US 34 and stopped at the Gas and Go where Main Street intersected the highway. The McPherons got out and stood at the pumps, gassing up both vehicles as Victoria went in to buy them cups of coffee and a Coke for herself and a bottle of juice for the little girl. Ahead of her in line at the cash register a heavy black-haired man and his wife were standing with a young girl and a small boy. She had seen them walking at all hours along the streets of Holt and she had heard the stories. She thought that if it werent for the McPheron brothers she might be like them herself. She watched as the girl moved to the front of the store and took a magazine from the rack at the plateglass windows and flipped through it with her back turned away as if she were not related in any manner to the people at the counter. But after the man had paid for a box of cheese crackers and four cans of pop with food stamps, she put the magazine back and followed the rest of her family out the door. When Victoria came out, the man and the woman were standing in the tarred parking lot deciding something between themselves. She couldnt see the girl or her brother, then turned and saw they were standing together at the corner under the traffic light, looking up Main Street toward the middle of town, and she went on to where Raymond and Harold were waiting for her at the car. It was shortly after noon when they drove down the ramp off the interstate and into the outskirts of Fort Collins. To the west, the foothills rose up in a ragged blue line obscured by yellow smog blown up from the south, blown up from Denver. On one of the hills a white A was formed of whitewashed rocks, a carryover from when the universitys teams were called the Aggies. They drove up Prospect Road and turned onto College Avenue, the campus was all on the left side with its brick buildings, the old gymnasium, the smooth greens lawns, and passed along the street under the cottonwoods and tall blue spruce until they turned onto Mulberry and then turned again and then located the apartment building set back from the street where the girl and her daughter would now live. They parked the car and the pickup in the lot behind the building, and Victoria went in with the little girl to find the apartment manager. The manager turned out to be a college girl not unlike herself, only older, a senior in sweatshirt and jeans with her blonde hair sprayed up terrifically on her head. She came out into the hallway to introduce herself and began at once to explain that she was majoring in elementary education and working as a student teacher this semester in a little town east of Fort Collins, talking without pause while she led Victoria to the second-floor apartment. She unlocked the door and handed over the key and another one for the outside door, then stopped abruptly and looked at Katie. Can I hold her? I dont think so, Victoria sai Details ISBN0375725768 Author Kent Haruf Short Title EVENTIDE Language English ISBN-10 0375725768 ISBN-13 9780375725760 Media Book Format Paperback DEWEY FIC Year 2005 Audience Age 14-18 Residence US Series Vintage Contemporaries DOI 10.1604/9780375725760 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2005-05-03 NZ Release Date 2005-05-03 US Release Date 2005-05-03 UK Release Date 2005-05-03 Pages 320 Publisher Random House USA Inc Publication Date 2005-05-03 Imprint Random House Inc Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:2625586;

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