Back in 1984, Kent Haruf had the strange idea of making his homeland and its nondescript inhabitants space for the novel. It is not that more or less things happen in different places because of the mere landscape or because of the idiosyncrasies of the locals. But of course, since you are writing it is always better to be located in an exuberant Maine, like Stephen King. Or looking for something exotic, away from our usual environment to concoct at ease ... The point is that this was his first novel about a place called Holt. A sleepy town where you would never stop if some lover proposed you a crazy night in the ass of the world.
But something extraordinary can also emerge from a strange idea. Because in the midst of the anodyne it only remains to delve into the characters with sick detail, like voyeaurs who yearn to discover the soul and engine of routine actions. Because in the end the anomalous always happens, the stridency, the phobia or unleashed phobia ... In this observation Haruf is a virtuous and patient teacher who presents us with the fascinating way of life of a place where almost nothing happens, until it happens and everything jumps in the air…
It is the spring of 1977 in Holt, Colorado. Octogenarian Edith Goodnough lies in a hospital bed and a police officer watches her room. A few months earlier, a fire destroyed the house where Edith lived with her brother Lyman, and now she is accused of his murder. One day, a journalist comes to town to investigate the incident and addresses Sanders Roscoe, the neighboring farmer, who, to protect Edith, refuses to speak. But finally it is the voice of Sanders that will tell us his life, a story that begins in 1906, when the parents of Edith and Lyman came to Holt in search of land and fortune, and that will span seven decades.
In this first novel, Kent Haruf takes us to the arduous rural America, a landscape made of ears of corn, grass and cows, starry skies in summer and abundant snow in winter, where there is an indisputable code of conduct, linked to the land and the family, and where this woman will sacrifice her years in the name of duty and respect and then, with a single gesture, claim her freedom. Haruf tells us about his characters without judging them, from the deep trust in the dignity and tenacity of the human spirit that has made his literary voice unmistakable.
You can now buy the novel "The Strongest Bond", by Kent Haruf, here:
