Book Review: Where you once belonged - K. Haruf

"'I did think you knew better than to come back here. What in hell was you thinking of?'"

Back in Holt for the last time! My heart already cries in thinking that I have no books left to read written by Kent Haruf, in my view one of the best contemporary American authors.
And this novel did not disappoint me, it is simple and engrossing, sad and heartbreaking.
Holt and its inhabitants are back again, with that "little town where everybody knows everybody else" style and that laid-back and tranquil way of living. Holt's characters can be unified and very supportive to one another but also unforgiving and vindictive if you go against them. And this is what happens to Jack Burdette, who steals from Holt and disappears, leaving behind a family to pay for his actions.
The story is told by the local newspaper editor, Pat, who has known Jack all his life and who himself has a lot of sadness in his life and ends up getting more involved in Jack Burdette's life than he'd like to.
Tragedy, solitude, but also love are the topics of this short novel that touches your heart with its sweet, slow, decadent pace.
I wish Kent Haruf wrote a lot more books as I will terribly miss reading him!

Overall rating: 9      Plot: 9     Writing style: 10      Cover:  8

Title: Where you once belonged

Author: Kent Haruf
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 192
Publication year: 1990

Plot:

Set in a fictional Colorado town, Kent Haruf's Where You Once Belonged brings to life small town America and the characters that keep the community together.Heavy-built Jack Burdette is quite literally too big for his boots – and too big, certainly, for the small-town attitudes of Holt, Colorado. But when he fails to make the grade as a college footballer, and takes a job with the local farmers’ cooperative, it seems he has finally settled into the rhythm and routine of everyday life. Outward appearances can be deceptive, however, as Jack proves: returning from a weekend conference with a new wife in tow, then leaving her behind and skipping town with a bundle of other folks’ money.Nearly a decade later, no one has forgiven or forgotten, and when Jack reappears, resentment runs high. Once again though, it is Jack whose presence – even more than his eight-year absence – proves the most devastating.

The Author:

Kent Haruf is the author of six novels (and, with the photographer Peter Brown, West of Last Chance). His honours include a Whiting Foundation Writers' Award, the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award, the Wallace Stegner Award, and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation; he was also a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The New Yorker Book Award. Benediction was shortlisted for the Folio Prize. He died in November 2014, at the age of seventy-one.