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Betsy Robinson's Reviews > Our Souls at Night
Our Souls at Night
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No words. Just heart. Thank you, Kent Haruf, and I hope you are loving people loving this--wherever you are.
7/24/15
When I posted my “brief� yesterday it was because I’d just read the last radiant sentence of this wonderful novella and all I had was a heart-flood the size of my body and it wiped out all verbal skills.
Words have returned after a night’s sleep and I’d like to elaborate.
First, wiping out a reader’s ability to yack about a book because the feelings evoked by it transcend expression, in my opinion, is most writers� dream. Mr. Haruf did it without obvious effort in a series of what Washington Post and ŷ reviewer Ron Charles calls “Shaker sentences”—meaning spare and without affectation. Bravo.
As a novelist, I know intimately how fiction relates to a writer’s real life. It is autobiographical the way dreams are. Of course there are seeds in one’s life, but what they become in the writer’s dream process is, in the best books, something bigger and truer—a whole new entity with a life of its own. So many times I’ve answered readers� “Is that autobiographical?� question this way and have seen skepticism fill their faces. Recently a woman on my block who’d just read The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg responded by begging me to acknowledge that Zelda was real and that I’d once been obese like her. “No,� I answered knowing I was disappointing her. “Really, I made her up.�
So you would think I’d know better. But I suffer from the reader’s longing also. I want Kent Haruf to have known the quiet peace of his books. I want him to have come to terms with dying, since he was facing his own death in November 2014. I want him to have had the tolerance and steadfastness and all the good qualities of his best male characters.
This longing comes from gratitude for his writer’s dream. I know he must have been complicated, flawed, conflicted about things. I know he must have had cravings and aversions the same way all of us do. But . . .
I believe he still exists in another form now—a more evolved form, so perhaps he will forgive my reader’s longing and just accept my gratitude.
7/24/15
When I posted my “brief� yesterday it was because I’d just read the last radiant sentence of this wonderful novella and all I had was a heart-flood the size of my body and it wiped out all verbal skills.
Words have returned after a night’s sleep and I’d like to elaborate.
First, wiping out a reader’s ability to yack about a book because the feelings evoked by it transcend expression, in my opinion, is most writers� dream. Mr. Haruf did it without obvious effort in a series of what Washington Post and ŷ reviewer Ron Charles calls “Shaker sentences”—meaning spare and without affectation. Bravo.
As a novelist, I know intimately how fiction relates to a writer’s real life. It is autobiographical the way dreams are. Of course there are seeds in one’s life, but what they become in the writer’s dream process is, in the best books, something bigger and truer—a whole new entity with a life of its own. So many times I’ve answered readers� “Is that autobiographical?� question this way and have seen skepticism fill their faces. Recently a woman on my block who’d just read The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg responded by begging me to acknowledge that Zelda was real and that I’d once been obese like her. “No,� I answered knowing I was disappointing her. “Really, I made her up.�
So you would think I’d know better. But I suffer from the reader’s longing also. I want Kent Haruf to have known the quiet peace of his books. I want him to have come to terms with dying, since he was facing his own death in November 2014. I want him to have had the tolerance and steadfastness and all the good qualities of his best male characters.
This longing comes from gratitude for his writer’s dream. I know he must have been complicated, flawed, conflicted about things. I know he must have had cravings and aversions the same way all of us do. But . . .
I believe he still exists in another form now—a more evolved form, so perhaps he will forgive my reader’s longing and just accept my gratitude.
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Reading Progress
March 3, 2015
– Shelved as:
to-read
March 3, 2015
– Shelved
July 23, 2015
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Started Reading
July 23, 2015
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Finished Reading
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Larry
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 25, 2015 04:34AM
Such an excellent review, and as you know, I couldn't agree more!!
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Larry wrote: "Such an excellent review, and as you know, I couldn't agree more!!"Thanks, Larry.
Oh, so beautiful Betsy. "I believe he still exists in another form now—a more evolved form, so perhaps he will forgive my reader’s longing and just accept my gratitude. " Yes. This. My heart.
Julie wrote: "Oh, so beautiful Betsy. "I believe he still exists in another form now—a more evolved form, so perhaps he will forgive my reader’s longing and just accept my gratitude. " Yes. This. My heart."So nice to have company with this, Julie.
I've been curious about this one. Now, after reading your wonderful comments on it, I'm both curious and excited. I like the way you described the desire we often have to project the author into the book. It seems even more natural to have done that for this one given Haruf's own age and circumstances.
Steve wrote: "I've been curious about this one. Now, after reading your wonderful comments on it, I'm both curious and excited. I like the way you described the desire we often have to project the author into ..."Thanks, Steve. For me, Haruf evokes a kind of inexpressible longing and love, and since I'm a flawed mortal (not yet enlightened), it tends to get projected onto him. Whoops. At least I admit it though.
"It is autobiographical the way dreams are. "What a lovely and insightful way to think of it, especially with this book, written as he was dying. I hope he found peace with it and, at some level, knows that many people found it beautiful and profound.
Cecily wrote: ""It is autobiographical the way dreams are. "What a lovely and insightful way to think of it, especially with this book, written as he was dying. I hope he found peace with it and, at some level,..."
I hope so too Cecily.
Such a beautiful and moving review, Betsy. It brought tears to my eyes because I've loved and missed his stories. I do believe that he came to terms with dying in the end. It was revealed in this last interview:Your review was a lovely tribute to this wonderful author.
Carol wrote: "Such a beautiful and moving review, Betsy. It brought tears to my eyes because I've loved and missed his stories. I do believe that he came to terms with dying in the end. It was revealed in this l..."Thanks, Carol. I'll read the interview later. What a gift he was.
