What readers think of Plainsong, plus links to write your own review.

The characters seemed so real.

I thought the book was good for the most part, but the celebratory ending could have been better in my opinion

I was surprised to find that this book was written by an American author. Thought the book was translated due to bad writing and poor use of vocabulary.

I saw the silver seal of the National Book Award Finalist, on the cover and thought it would be really good. It certainly is not a page turner. While the character are well defined, you can personally see them and feel that you have met them. The book seems slow, dragging its feet to the conclusions of each character. When you read a book such as this you wonder what was the purpose of Mr Haruf in writing a book about small town gossip. It just seemed so ordinary, ordinary lives, ordinary stories. Not a great plot here. I did like the McPheron brothers with their "way down to earth" lodgic

My younger sister had to read this book for a school assignment, so I decided to take a look at it. What a mistake, this book is a nightmare to read. Mr. Haruf does not seem to like quotations, or any form of punctuation for that matter. This book is filled with run-on paragraphs. The plot is non-existent and the characters are unlikeable and underdeveloped. The book is also filled with poorly written sex scenes and profanity, which came across as an attempt to hide the books lack of a developed plot. I can't fathom how this mindless drivel was nominated for an award, and I wonder how many people Mr. Haruf had to bribe to get this immature, disgusting piece of trash published.

NOT, by me. I did not like the book. I had to read it with my child as a school project. I can understand why the teacher who was later fired for sexually harassing a student chose this book. It was the Jerry Springer show in a book. [spoiler removed] It's been a while since I read it and what stands out in my memory was way too many words spent on describing the sun. Ya, I spelled that right. The big yellow sun that gives off heat. Words wasted on describing penis's which was unnecessary. One thing that did keep my interest was the 2 brothers whose parents split up but it had a uninteresting ending. I do not recommend it.

I too had to read this book for English class. The book to me and nearly everyone else in the entire school that was told to read it seemed to think it was an approved form of porn. I read a shocking part to me out loud to another girl in my reading group in the hallway in the school and I was stopped by an adult hall patroller and brought me into the office. When they found out that it was a book for class they first felt stupid then they left. There are also parts of this book that I know there is symbolism behind it, but made no since what-so-ever, including the entire story line about Ella, Bobby and Ike's mother. Haruf spoiled every story line by adding sex, drugs, drinking, smoking, or violence when most if not all of the plots would have made a bigger point to a group as a whole. We would have spent less time fighting and debating about the inappropriate content of a school novel, because that is what they are teaching us not to do, and more time devoting about the message behind the story which is blindsided by all of the horrid content that is a required read. How did this book be a National Book Award Finalist?

Many people, including myself, read Plainsong in an English class. It turned out to be very controversial, and soon everyone in the town was either for the book, letting it be read in a public school, or against the book, finding it offensive. The book was then banned, by the school board, to be part of the school's curriculum.