Genre:
Drama/Romance
Pages:
179
Edition:
paperback, hardcover, kindle edition
Publisher: Knopf
Year of publication: 2015
RATING: ✰✰✰ (3/5)
SYNOPSIS:
‘Our Souls at Night’ was Kent Haruf’s last novel, and
was published posthumously. It is majorly rooted upon two themes: unconditional
love and loneliness. Seeming to resonate perhaps Haruf’s own feelings, it is
truly a very mature, unhurried, mellow piece of literature.
The story starts off when Addie Moore, an aged widowed
woman emerges at the doorstep of Louis Waters, an old widowed man; asking
whether he would come up to her house at night and give her company till she
falls asleep. Louis agrees with a bit of reluctance and hence a seed of
friendship is sown between the two. As Louis and Addie keep on spending more
time with one another, they get to know each other better—through stories that
they’ve never been able to share with anyone and tales from their own lives;
talking of joy, regret and solitude that had stealthily turned into utter
loneliness. The neighborhood and the families of Louis and Addie do not really
accept this budding relationship, but the duo continue to see each other and
get more intimate. When Addie’s grandson Jamie comes to visit his grandmother,
even he develops a very beautiful relationship with Louis and the three: Addie,
Jamie and Louis dine out, go to trips in the grasslands, to camps up in the
hills. They even get a dog who accompanies them wherever they go.
The relationship between Louis and Addie goes on
evolving taking along affection, care, empathy and compassion. But even after
rediscovering love, will they be able to stick close?
REVIEW:
Title: ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰(10/10)
The title carries the essence of the story. In
everyday life, circumstances push us to step out of our way and indulge in the
ways of the world, but in the process we often lose ourselves. It is in
nighttime, I believe, that we discover ourselves once again. As the world slows
down and silence prevails, we are confronted with our darkest fears, our
subtlest emotions, our most terrible agonies. It is in night that we might feel
lonely and insecure, and vehemently need a companion. In this novel, Louis and
Addie’s relationship stems from the dark hours at night, when they both lie
down in the same bed and look at each other with hope in their eyes. They might
roam around, gossip, travel together all day—but the true colours of the bond
they share emerge when they face each other at night. Therefore, I found the
events kind of cyclical: the characters do stuff each day but they always resort
back to the night, and in the following day they again start afresh. So, the
title of the book is very appropriate and sort of shapes the whole story
together.
Writing Style:✰✰✰✰✰ (5/10)
I really have a lot to say as far as the way the book
has been written and the writing style of the author is concerned. First issue
is that the writing style is too simple. There is almost no usage of words
which describe a situation vividly. I have previously read a lot of books which
have very simple language, but all of them had some extra element that made up
for that. But in this book, I found nothing to cover up for its excessive simplicity.
The way the story is narrated is repetitive and cyclical. We don’t want to know
how a man goes up to a woman’s house each and every night. Why? Because
he does it the same way each and every day and so the author has to
write that like twenty times in the whole book. Similarly, I’m not interested
in mundane details like what they’re eating for dinner every time they go to
dine out. I do not want to know what food items they are having for breakfast,
lunch AND dinner when camping for two days straight. Such excessive details
might add to our imagination, but for me, they only made the storyline
purposefully sluggish and barely even progressing. Second issue is the dialogues exchanged
between the protagonists. Each and every night (and I mean it when I say each
and every) the conversation starts almost the same way. There are no
episodes during the conversations which might add to the plot or contribute to
the drama element in the story. Its just two old people sitting together and
talking as if they’re supposed to. One asks a question, the other one answers.
And then the reverse way around. I mean, couldn’t the dialogues be more
gripping? I think even if I had skipped
like three chapters in the middle of the book when all they did was talk; I
wouldn’t have missed much at all.
Plot [✰✰✰✰✰ (5/10)] and characterization [✰✰✰✰✰✰ (6/10)]:
This is where I differ from many reviewers out there
who have loved this book from top to bottom. When I was reading some of their
opinions online, I couldn’t relate to most of it. They said that the way the
blossoming love between Louis and Addie is portrayed is ‘beautiful’ and made
them ‘have tears in eyes’. But my opinion is just the opposite. To be honest, I
found a very bumpy transition between the various stages of their relationship.
There seemed to be a hole between the stage where they were sufficiently
intimate but not too close, and the stage where they almost behaved like a
couple madly in love. Please note that this is my personal view, and when
others read it, they might have something entirely different to say. One
relationship that is successfully explored is Jamie’s relationship with his
grandmother and Louis. The way the little boy befriends and becomes close to
them has been written satisfactorily. Through the conversations between Louis
and Addie, a clear analysis of their young lives could be made. The author was
meticulous enough to portray why their previous relationships were strained and
why they couldn’t reap the happiness associated with marriage and parenthood. Having
said that, a resemblance comes up between the two protagonists and it makes us
realize that although their lives had been completely unrelated, they still
have a lot in common. But there should have been more insight to the feelings
of the protagonists when they started seeing each other. The only glimpse we
got of what they thought about each other was through the window of dialogues exchanged
between the two. And so, their relationship wasn’t established properly,
leaving a lot to the imagination of the readers. Since the story is not narrated
by any of the characters, there could have been portions which independently talked
about what they were feeling—going to depths in order to excavate their most
secretive emotions.
My verdict and recommendations:
In my opinion, the book didn’t do justice to the hype that
I’d seen. It was not really a bad book, but it just didn’t leave an impact on
me. I think the book casts an impression on the readers depending upon what
they have been feeling at that moment. It is an offbeat love story and definitely
goes beyond that to inculcate other themes like friendship, desire and loneliness.
But the book disappointed me and I had expected a lot more from it.
I will recommend this book to others keeping in mind that
it holds the capacity to be accepted by each reader at different levels. A
mature audience will certainly relate to the kind of vibe that the book exudes.
Post a Comment