Plainsong
by Kent Haruf
About the book…
A heartstrong story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on
the High Plains east of Denver. In the small town of Hold, Colorado, a high
school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their
mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether. A teenage girl -- her
father long since disappeared, her mother unwilling to have her in the house
-- is pregnant, alone herself, with nowhere to go. And out in the country,
two brothers, elderly bachelors, work the family homestead, the only world
they've ever known. From these unsettled lives emerges a vision of life, and
of the town and landscape that bind them together -- their fates somehow
overcoming the powerful circumstances of place and station, their confusion,
curiosity, dignity and humor intact and resonant.
About the author…
Kent Haruf was born February 24, 1943, and grew up on the high plains of
northeastern Colorado. He received degrees from Nebraska Wesleyan University
(B.A. 1965) and the University of Iowa (M.F.A. 1973). Having held diverse
jobs during his lifetime, including a stint in Turkey with the Peace Corps,
he now teaches at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He and his
wife, Cathy, reside in nearby Murphysboro, Illinois.
Haruf is the author of three novels: The Tie that Binds (1984), Where
You Once Belonged (1990), and Plainsong (1999). His awards
include the American Library Association Distinguished Book List, the
PEN-Hemingway Foundation Special Citation, and a Whiting Foundation Writer's
Award. Plainsong was a National Book Award finalist in 1999, and was
lavishly praised by reviewers and fellow authors.
Discussion Questions:
1. Why might Kent Haruf have chosen Plainsong as the title
for this novel? What meaning, or meanings, does the title have in relation
to Haruf's story and characters?
2. How does Haruf characterize the landscape of Holt and its
surroundings, and how does he use landscape to set the emotional scene? In
what ways are his characters shaped and formed by the land around them?
3. Few hints are given in the novel about what life might have
been like for the Guthrie family before Ella left. What do you imagine that
life to have been like? What sort of a marriage did Tom and Ella have, and
what made it go wrong? What might account for Ella's nearly total withdrawal
even from the children she seems to love?
4. How do the three teenagers having sex in the abandoned house
inform and affect Ike and Bobby? What does this sight tell them about sex?
About love? About the relationships and power struggle between men and
women?
5. Do you believe there are marked differences between Raymond and
Harold McPheron? If so, what are they?
6. Why do you think the McPheron brothers have chosen to spend
their lives together rather than start families of their own? Are they
lonely or unhappy before Victoria's arrival, or do they feel sufficient in
themselves? What does Maggie mean when she tells them, "This is your
chance" [p. 110]?
7. What parallels can you draw between the McPheron brothers and
the young Guthrie boys? Why is the relationship so close in each case? What
sort of a future do you see for the Guthrie boys? Do you think they will
marry and have families?
8. The McPheron brothers think they know nothing about young
girls. Is that the case? Has their solitary life close to the earth
handicapped them so far as human relations go, or has it, in fact, provided
them with hidden advantages?
9. What examples of parents abandoning children—either by
desertion, emotional withdrawal, or death—can be found in this novel? What
do these incidents have in common? How does abandonment affect children, and
how does it shape their lives and relationships?
10. It is usually women who are portrayed as nurturers, but in
this novel, men—Tom Guthrie and the McPheron brothers—provide shelter
and comfort. How do men differ from women in this respect? What do these men
offer that a woman might not be able to?
11. "These are crazy times," Maggie Jones says. "I
sometimes believe these must be the craziest times ever" [p. 124]. What
does she mean by this? In what way are our times "crazier" than
earlier eras? How does such "craziness" affect the lives of young
people such as Victoria, Ike, and Bobby?
12. What motives and feelings might have driven Tom to sleep with
Judy when it was really Maggie he was interested in? Why might Maggie have
seemed momentarily frightening or intimidating to him?
13. Why do the Guthrie boys befriend Iva Stearns? What are they
looking for in this tentative friendship? Do they find what they are
seeking?
14. Why do the Guthrie boys go to the McPheron brothers after
Iva's death rather than to someone closer to home, like their father or
Maggie? Is there any indication that they connect Iva's death with their
mother's abandonment? Why do they place their mother's bracelet on the train
tracks, then bury it?
15. The inhabitants of Holt and its surroundings are extremely
laconic: they speak only sparingly, as though they mistrust words. What
might cause this? In what way does it affect the characters' relationships
with one another?
16. How would you describe Holt, Colorado? What are its
limitations, its disadvantages, and what are its strengths? In what ways is
it typical of any American small town, and in what ways is it different?
What help does it provide for people who need healing, like the characters
in this book?
17. Plainsong depicts some unusual "family"
groups. How might Kent Haruf define family?
Questions courtesy of Random
House
