Tie that Binds
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The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf is one of the best, more heartfelt novels I have read. A novel to break my heart and anger my soul, this book was a profound emotional experience for me, teaching me many things about the human spirit in the face of obstacles. Haruf immersed me in a hard and unloving atmosphere, and drowned me in the vivid unlucky details of the lives of his characters. He demonstrated beyond doubt that the victimization of each character by "life" is a crude result of simply being born.
Set in the immense land of eastern Colorado, and telling a story that spans more than half a century, the plot focuses on a woman named Edith Goodnough. The story, told as a narration by a man who knows of the woman and her long, grueling life, seeks to explain how an old woman has become, in the eyes of some, a murderer of her own brother. The narrator explains, through his story, that this woman was forced to work the land by a cruel father, left by a selfish brother, and then again forced to deal with that brother as he spirals into senility. The care and kindness of her heart in the face of her life's tragedy is a lesson in humanity. The reader first learns of impending disasters then smothers for details until much later when the pathetic event emerges in its fullness. One tragedy is not enough...