A wonderful read about the quotidian lives of several residents of Holt, CO. Spunky old women, broken men and boys, prejudices, loss, regret. Sounds like a total downer, but love shines through so very clearly. ( )

Colorado author and setting ( )

Another excellent book from a great writer. As usual it takes place in Holt, it spans just a couple of months but covers a lifetime of memory's for Dad Lewis, a man dying of Cancer.
No trite cliched outcomes, just people going on with life. It is too bad this authors books end you often wish they would go on forever, especially since there is usually a long period of time between books.
This writer is easily in the top five writers of fiction today, think the early James Lee Burke or James Crumley. ( )

Life goes on in Holt, Colorado,and this time it includes death. "Dad" Lewis, long-time proprietor of the hardware store, husband, father, upright citizen, and of course flawed human being (redundancy though that is), faces the end of his life with his memories and most of his family around him. As always, Haruf's work is plain as a barn and tight as a new-strung wire fence ( )

This third volume of the Plainsong Trilogy, although it is also set in Holt, Colorado, does not have even the tenuous connection of overlapping characters that united the first two volumes of the trilogy. It shares the setting and the quiet prose style, but we are introduced to an entirely new set of characters.

Dad Lewis is dying of cancer. He and his wife Mary are estranged from their son Frank. Their daughter is back to help through Dad's illness, but will Frank even know his father is ill.
Alice, the young girl who lives next door, has lost her mother and lives with her grandmother Berta May. Alene, a retired school teacher, has returned to live with her mother Willa on her farm a bit out of town. They visit with Dad Lewis, and also befriend Alice and try to help her through the loss of her mother.
There is a new preacher in town, Reverend Hyle, and he has become deeply unpopular with the congregation because he is speaking out against the war. Over the course of the novel, as Dad Lewis's health declines, Reverend Hyle loses his job and his family.

So once again, a quiet slice of life in Holt, Colorado. Even though we meet entirely knew characters, I liked this book as much as the first two.

3 1/2 stars

First line: "When the test came back the nurse called them into the examination room and when the doctor entered the room he just looked at them and asked them to sit down."

Last line; "And in the fall the days turned cold and the leaves dropped off the trees and in the winter the wind blew from the mountains and out on the high plains of Holt County there were overnight storms and three-day blizzards." ( )