I think Plainsong is exactly the story it sets out to be (interconnected points of view of life in small town Colorado) and that it contains some very good writing. The story is slow and feels of a different era (1999 in this book might as well be anytime between 1950 and 1998. Things stay frozen in small towns). In my notes I wrote that Plainsong feels like a less ornamental East of Eden. The scenic descriptions also reminded me of the only bits I liked about On The Road.

The characters are flat so the story is more about experiencing the place of Holt, Colorado and ordinary events of these characters’ lives. Do not expect trope subversions or surprises of any kind, really. That’s not to say that the story is boring (although it might be to some people if you don’t do domestic fiction/literary fiction) but that it captures the plainness of small towns in the west, and by capturing the plainness you can more clearly see where beauty and turmoil exist.

A lot of this book seems to be about women and how they’re treated in this community. Initially I was impressed with how much awareness the author had about what women were facing in this time period; a lack of sex education, work place harassment, casual sexism, slut shaming, coercive sex practices, etc. However, I feel like this was undercut by the way the author wrote about the bodies of the female characters - almost every woman has her breasts described in this book at some point whether or not it’s relevant to the scene. I dunno, weird choice. 

I almost did not finish this book. It had a good story and I was interested in what would happen to the characters. Much of what happens in the book doesn’t make sense, which actually was a good thing. It felt a little more real than a well fleshed out story. Why would these two men be called on to take this girl in? 

However, the characters are not deeply explored. None of the “good guys” had any flaws and their backstories were weak. I had to remind myself this was a snapshot of their lives and not an exploration of characters.

The writing was great in that I could picture the town, the homes, the weather, etc. but it was basic and boring much of the time. I couldn’t stand the disregard for quotation marks. It made skimming almost impossible, and sometimes when reading a wordy book full of description you need to skim. 

I didn’t hate this book. It just felt empty and slow. It reminded me of an Elizabeth Strout novel, not in similarity but in how it was slow and mundane but I was in for the ride. I recommend it if you want to read a book that feels like real life pace and small town gossip. 

Beautifully written, but I don't think I liked much of the story.

Not necessarily a book I would’ve picked out on my own. It was a peaceful read despite the content