Book Review: Off the Bookshelf

Plainsong

Vintage, 320 pp., $13 (paper)

On the plains the sky is bigger and the wind blows harder, and this tends to make people some combination of humble, hearty, and resilient as hell. Plainsong, a finalist for the National Book Award last year and newly in paperback, is set in Holt, Colorado, on the rough, rugged, outstretched plains east of Denver, and is infused with its landscape. The bad guys are drunk and bored and mean; the good guys are honest and hard-working. Those in between have motivations mysterious even to themselves, and they take the abuse of the villainous and the generosity of the saintly all in stride. Plainsong's characters span four generations of rural folk, mostly teachers and farmers and kids. The stars above them are invariably hard and bright, high and white, fresh and pure; below, the country roads are always empty. Satisfying and warm, Plainsong is as purehearted a novel as they come. (reviewed 10/8/99)