While the library is closed, I'm re-reading some of the books from my shelves, and the advantage of this is that they are guaranteed to be good. I used to buy all my books from charity shops and generally I re-cycled them back to the shop, but if I really enjoyed something, I kept it.
Plainsong is set in Colorado, America, in the 1980s, and the writing is so vivid and powerful that the story dragged me away from reality for hours at a time. Roddy Doyle's quote on the cover states that he read it in one sitting. 'I had no choice; it wouldn't let me go.' That's exactly how it is.
There are no heroes and heroines in this book as a whole spectrum of good and bad behaviours are laid out in a raw and honest way. There is Guthrie the school teacher, who also works with livestock, and he is clearly a solid member of the community, but he can be sullen, and he finds it difficult to manage his temper when under pressure. He has two sons, Ike and Bobby, aged about eight and nine, and they are good kids, but they have a lot to deal with for children their age and the story describes how they come to terms with life-changing events.
Living in the same town is Victoria Roubideaux, a pretty teenage girl of seventeen who finds herself expecting a baby and is quickly abandoned by her unsuitable boyfriend and turned out of the family home. Her mother simply locks the door one evening and Victoria is left outside with no money or possessions and nowhere to go. Fortunately, the teacher she turns to for help is the solid voice of reason throughout the book, and soon arranges for Victoria to go and live on a farm with two elderly brothers.
The McPheron brothers are old style country folk, who were orphaned at a young age, and then went on to quietly run their parents' farm while keeping themselves to themselves. Neither of them ever had anything to do with women or families, so they seem an unlikely choice to take on a pregnant teenager, but as the story unfolds it becomes apparent that there is no better place for her to be.
The writer, Kent Haruf, observes all the characters with such skill that even during the darkest events it is possible to see how the tragedy of poverty and lack of education can contribute to the perpetuation of an element of society with few moral boundaries. The reader is encouraged to take circumstances into account before making a judgement and I think it is possible to learn a lot about people from this book.
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