Enter a world where starkness abounds. Here, the land is desolate, the people austere. Here, lives are restricted, restrained, waiting, waiting. Here is Holt, Colorado, and everywhere, in everyone, there emanates inexplicable beauty.

Meet the McPheron brothers, owners of a cattle ranch and father figure to Victoria Roubideaux, a single mother they took in when she first discovered she was pregnant.
Meet DJ, a young boy living alone with his ailing grandfather, and Dena, the girl he befriends while helping out her mother, who finds herself raising her two daughters alone after her husband leaves for Alaska never to return. And meet Joy Rae and Richie, a brother and sister whose disabled parents are the source of their disillusion, their wounds.
Every one a reminder that life in a small town contains just as much tragedy as simplicity. And every one, in a magical and powerful way, a reflection of the severe environment they come from.

In Eventide, Kent Haruf has created another masterpiece, as poignant and captivating as Plainsong. Two thumbs up. Five stars. A perfect ten.

Filed Under: Reviews and Musings |