In the first chapter an elderly widow, Addie Moore calls on her neighbour, Louis Waters, an elderly widower, with a very unusual request. “I wonder if you would consider coming to my house sometimes to sleep with me.” She makes it clear that this is about her loneliness which is worst at night. Perhaps two lonely old people can find companionship – not sex – together. Louis is reluctant but agrees.
As we read we begin to get the back stories of their lives. Neither had perfect marriages. Addie’s was marred by the tragic death of her 11 year old daughter and Louis’s by his brief affair with a fellow teacher. When Addie’s grandson Jamie, comes to live with her while her son Gene tries to repair his rocky relationship with his wife, Louis & Addie find themselves acting like surrogate parents. This adds a different and youthful dynamic to their new relationship. However, at the end of this brief story, that seems to offer so much hope and fulfilment for two lives in decline, Kent Haruf presents Addie with a painful choice between family and friendship. The reader is left wondering if she made the right decision.
This novella is a sensitive exploration of family life; the damage parents can do to children, the loneliness of old age and the problems of second relationships. All set in a small town where no one’s business is private and where conforming to the social norm is expected. But Addie no longer cares what the neighbours think as she seeks to break free from the constraints of family and society in her new relationship with Louis.
“I made up my mind I’m not going to pay attention to what people think. I’ve done that too long—all my life. I’m not going to live that way anymore.”
Instead of looking ahead to years of slow decline she wants to slow down the end-of-life clock and create something new. The various themes of the story are explored with warmth and humanity in a minimalist style, short sentences and short chapters in a short book.
The novel is praised by the likes of Peter Carey – “If you have never entered his beautiful singing sentences, I envy you your first time”, and the New York Times – “So delicate and lovely that it has the power to exalt the reader”, but some members of the book group found it disappointing:
Sad & melancholy. Not uplifting with a disappointing ending
Very bitty and unsatisfying. Some key relationships and characters needed to be explored in greater depth. But I liked this quote:
“Who does ever get what they want? It doesn’t seem to happen to many of us if any at all. It’s always two people bumping against each other blindly, acting out old ideas and dreams and mistaken understandings.”
On balance, I hated it!
On the other hand:
Very insightful book
I like the lack of speech marks and the comforting details. It’s an unusual book. Addie and Louis looked back on their lives with sadness and regret but as Louis said, “You can't fix things, can you, Louis said. We always want to. But we can't.”
I enjoyed the beginning and the American scene which I knew from touring that part of the USA. Did not enjoy the ending.
A strong evocation of happiness in old age.
