Reviewed by Linda Dobrovolny, Yankton Community Library
Addie Moore and Louis Waters
have much in common. They
both live on Cedar Street in Holt,
Colorado. They have both lost
their spouses. With their families
grown and gone, nights are long
and lonely. Though they have
been acquainted for decades,
what they don’t know about each
other is much greater that what
they do. Louis is shocked when
Addie arrives at his home one day
with a proposal. She would like
him to come and spend nights
in her bed, to talk and fall asleep
together.
On the doorstep before their
first evening together Louis
shares his uncertainties with
Addie. He says that he is not
sure they are equal in courage
or the willingness to take the
risks her proposal requires. He
has past experience with small
town gossip. Soon, however, they
establish a comfortable routine.
He arrives at her home shortly
before bedtime; they share a drink and pass the moments
before sleep sharing pieces of their history with each other.
We learn about Louis’s affair with a co-worker and the
accidental death of Addie’s daughter at age 11.
We peek in and see them coming together to give comfort
to Addie’s grandson, Jamie, who needs a refuge from his
parents’ problems. As their friendship deepens we get to
see them exploring the best of rural life: the county fair,
hometown softball. They adopt a
dog for Jamie. Louis teaches the
boy about baseball and gardening.
They share outings with their
elderly friend Ruth. It all seems
so easy and maybe too good to
be true. They are unaware that an
ultimatum will soon be delivered
and heartbreaking choices must be
made.
This is a story of two brave people
and their willingness to take a
chance on each other. It is a novel
that celebrates making the most of
simple pleasures. It is a love story
full of nostalgia and the details of
everyday life. It is a fairy tale. Various
on-line reviewers use words like
poignant, tender, and quiet. I was
hooked on this story from the first
paragraph. I found it to be a tiny
book packed full of emotion.
Kent Haruf wrote Our Souls at
Night while he suffered from a lung
disease and died shortly after it was
finished. He modeled Addie and
Louis’s late night chats after similar
talks with his own wife. Earlier titles by Kent Haruf available
at the library include the Plainsong trilogy also set in the
fictional town of Holt.
Our Souls at Night is available at the library in both print
and e-book format, as a CD audiobook, and as a kit of 10
copies with discussion questions for your book club.
• Literary Speaking •
Our Souls at Night
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