Eventide continues
where Plainsong (1999) left
off in the fictional Plains town of Holt, Colorado. Victoria
Roubideaux, who had found a home with the aging McPheron brothers as a
pregnant teenager, is still with them, along with her two-year-old
daughter, but they are about to leave for Fort Collins, where Victoria
has enrolled in college. Divorced schoolteacher Tom Guthrie, his two
sons, and his new love, Maggie Jones, also return. New characters
include the mentally challenged Betty and Luther Wallace, struggling to
cope and raise their two children; Rose Tyler, the Wallaces’ social
services caseworker; 11-year-old D. J. Kephart, caretaker for his
elderly grandfather; and Mary Wells, whose absent husband has announced
he is not returning home to her and their two daughters.
Haruf weaves many themes, including loneliness, family breakup, change,
illness, and death, into multiple story lines that intersect. Except
for the villainous Hoyt Raines, Eventide’s
imperfect characters are all sympathetic. The novel is melancholy but
also positive in portraying a community where people care for one
another. Several of the characters take turns for the better by the end.
Haruf’s writing is straightforward, spare, and clear, favoring insight
over technique. All five of his novels are set in the Plains of
northeastern Colorado, where he grew up and which bears no resemblance
to the mountains for which Colorado is known.
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