Eventide

Hooray-I finally got Eventide, the second book in the trilogy by Kent Haruf.  It was preceded by the novel Plainsong. Eventide carries on in Holt, Colorado with some of the characters from Plainsong, notably, Raymond and his brother Harold, Victoria and her daughter Katie, and Tom and his boys. Several new characters and their stories are introduced, including DJ, a young boy who lives with his ailing grandfather, and Rose Tyler, a social-worker whose cases include Luther and Betty, a disabled couple and their children.

Like Plainsong, this is a simple, yet beautiful book about the ordinary lives of ordinary people.  There is love, heartbreak, grief and hope.  Haruf's writing is outstanding in that it really makes one care about the characters.  His prose is beautiful.

I let myself down by not ordering the third book (Benediction) before I finished Eventide.  But Benediction is on its way to me now!  Something to look forward to during these long awful winter months.