Is this a sad or heavy book? How would you describe the feeling to someone else?Ģ7. What do you think about that statement?Ģ6. One writer commented that Our Souls at Night “engages sentiment without becoming sentimental”. Do you think his style and chosen setting may have held him back from wider recognition?Ģ5. Haruf’s style is almost always described as “spare” and his characters “plainspoken”.
Did you find the lack of quotation marks distracting? Why might the author make this choice?Ģ3. When undertaking the project, Haruf told his wife Cathy, “I’m going to write a book about us.” What elements do you suspect were autobiographical?Ģ2. What did he want most to say? Should this be in our minds as we read? If you knew, did this affect your reading of the story?Ģ1. This book was written as Haruf knew his time was limited. A New York Times review asserts that Haruf’s “great subject was the struggle of decency against small-mindedness, and his rare gift was to make sheer decency a moving subject.” Do you see evidence of this struggle in Our Souls at Night? Again, putting yourself in the place of an observer/family, would you take any issue with the word ‘decency’?Ģ0. Did you want more from the ending? Why did Haruf make this choice?ġ9. At first Louis balks, asking, “isn’t this the sneaking around we didn’t want to do?” What would you have done?ġ8. Later, Addie calls (again, her initiative) and wants to connect again. Did Addie make the right choice? Is there a ‘right’ choice?ġ7. In what places of the story did you find humor?ġ6. What does this tell us about Louis? Does it affect your view of him?ġ5. I missed some kind of call to be something more than a mediocre high school English teacher in a little dirt-blown town. I think I regret hurting Tamara more than I do hurting my wife. Contrast their interactions with Jamie to what we know of their relationships with their own children. How did the introduction of Jamie change their relationship? Of Bonny?ġ3.
What did you think of him? Was he at all justified in his concerns or actions?ġ2. Gene could arguably be a villain in this story. We see strong instances of their children reproaching the parents about this arrangement. Was it inevitable that their relationship became sexual? Did you want it to? Were you surprised how deep into the story we were before it did?ġ0. Do the characters think of this relationship as casual? At what point do you think the relationship became more for Addie? For Louis?ĩ. How interesting is it for a reader to just listen in on characters’ conversations? Is it a talent of the author to make this interesting? Did you want something more to happen?Ĩ. What is the appeal of this? Which of those memories made the biggest impact on their relationship? On you as a reader?ħ. The arrangement is a chance for these two individuals to revisit with each other what has happened in their pasts. He’s caused his share of pain.” Did that surprise you at the time? Is it better for the story than Louis isn’t a saint?Ħ. Does this proposal seem outrageous to you? Understandable? Was it brave?ĥ. Is it significant that the proposal was at Addie’s instigation rather than Louis’s? How so? What would have been different in the story otherwise?Ĥ.
Our souls at night book reviews full#
It was an evening in May just before full dark.” In your opinion, how effective is this as a first line? What does it convey?ģ. The first sentences read, “And then there was the day when Addie Moore made a call on Louis Waters. If you discovered (or suspected) the evening visits, would you have an opinion? What if you were a member of the family?Ģ. If reproducing, please credit with the following statement: 2017 Mount Prospect Public Library. The Library is happy to share these original questions for your use. SPOILER WARNING: These book discussion questions are highly detailed and will ruin plot points if you have not read the book. In Holt, Colorado, widower Louis Waters is initially thrown when the widowed Addie Moore suggests that they spend time together, in bed, to stave off loneliness, but soon they are exchanging confidences and memories.
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