Where You Once Belonged

Jack Burdette returns to Holt, Colorado after disappearing 8 years earlier. Once the town's golden boy he is now a pariah, a man who left his home town in disgrace, after destroying many of the people who once respected him so much. In the intervening years Jack's wife has found happiness in the arms of the novel's narrator, Pat Arbuckle. Jack's return is not peaceful and the town is once again thrown into turmoil by his presence.
In this slim volume, Haruf returns to his fictional town of Holt for another dose of small town life mixed with big time drama. The writing is lean and clean and there's not a single unnecessary word or phrase. Haruf peoples his creation with a cast of likable and diverse creations, none of whom are larger than life or overdrawn. Burdette, as the `bad guy' could have ended up a parody but in Haruf's capable hands he is a frighteningly realistic malevolent force.
The progression in Haruf's skill as a writer - from his first novel `The Ties That Bind' to his latest, the sublime `Plainsong' - is evident in this piece. The flaws of the first novel are gone while `Where You Once Belonged' doesn't quite reach the heights of his third offering.

Having previously read Plainsong (as I am sure many who read this novel will have done), I was looking for a similarly enjoyable reading experience. Actually, in some ways, I liked this novel better. As much as I liked Plainsong, I found that there wasn't enough of a focus on a single storyline, and, in the end, I found it a disjointed work. Where You Once Belonged is much more of a traditionally structured novel, and the conflicts are clearer to the reader.
Haruf's simple style is both deceptive and hypnotic. I read this book in two sittings, and it was the power of the style that kept me going. The story involves a high school football star who is forgiven many of his character flaws by the town where he lives. After a long absence from the town, he returns, and the novel is the story leading up to that fateful return to town.
If you're looking for exactly the same feelings of community and warmth you had at the end of Plainsong, then you will be sorely disappointed by this novel. If, however, you are looking for a more compelling plot with a few more twists, then this novel is for you. I can see why many of Plainsong's fans don't like this one, but I see them as two distinct sides of a very good writer.

Kent Haruf's writing has won awards. He's apparently winning fans, to judge by the very nice reviews below. I must say, I'm completely mystified, then, because I found this book to be little more than a poorly-written short story padded out to novel length. Well, at least it's still short.
What others apparently take for a simplistic style seems to be simply writing devoid of any (style, that is). Imagery is almost non-existant: at no time in this novel did I get any sense of "place." It was as if the whole novel took place in a two-block Hollywood "small-town" cardboard mock-up. And the characters fit right in.
The antagonist (Jack Burdette), his girlfriend, and some of the townsfolk are simply stock figures. He's a muscle-bound jock, she's a long-suffering dreamy-eyed beauty queen with a heart of gold. He takes her for granted. She puts up with him (despite absolute no redeeming features) in hopes of matrimony. The townsfolk are names, with cliched occupations (store clerk, sherriff, etc.). Mayberry?
The book is told, for the most part, from the point of view of a narrator whose own story is never developed, while his relation to the antagonist is only touched upon. In fact, not one relationship in the novel is detailed. The narrator meets a girl in college. Falls in love. Marries. They fall out of love. She moves back home. She's completely out of the novel (of course, she was never IN it). He eventually hooks up with Jack Burdette's wife (whom Jack has abandoned). Why? What do they have in common? What do they do together? Nothing is developed; thus, there's no reason to care about any of them.
Frankly, I finished the book for no other reason than it was so thin. On the few occasions it appears that SOMETHING is going to happen (actually, the only one that comes to mind now is when Jessie Burdette appears at the newspaper), the reader is left frustrated, as the narrator simply bypasses it to the next scene.
Jack Burdette is described as some heartless, unfeeling ogre, but you see only a few instances of his behavior (more boorish and selfish than genuinely evil). He is gone for more than half the novel, but nothing ever develops in his absence. We are simply told what happens to his ex-girlfriend, told his wife and the narrator (see? I can't even remember his NAME, and I just finished the book a week ago) moved in together (along w/ Jack's kids).
Some of the first advice I ever received from a writing instructor - "show, don't tell." A little nugget of wisdom that needs to be learned by this author.

Slim but packing a punch, this terse little novel from the author of PLAINSONG puts all his gifts on handsome display. If it lacks some of the emotional tug of PLAINSONG and EVENTIDE, that seems to be no accident. A mean little tale, Haruf is less interested in the redemptive qualities of his characters than in the consequences of their actions. Or maybe the consequences of one action put out into the universe and the pain it causes on a long timeline. What is undeniable is the author's uncanny ability to say in a plainly written sentence what many of his contemporaries would take a paragraph to say. Kent Haruf is one of my favorite discoveries of the year.

Truer tales not told - small-town hero is allowed to bend the rules, gets an easier path to travel, and BLOWS IT. Every little town has its tale about the athlete, scholar, or other admirable young man who becomes so enamored that the rules are completely forgotten.
I was haunted by the ending of this fictional fable. I suppose I've seen too many of these bad boys in my time, and the ending always shocks. This is a "stepping-stone" novel for me. I read Haruf's "Plainsong" first, so I wanted to see his development. Quite the writer, with three excellent novels to his credit.

On the prairie, not all stories end like they should. The land can be brutal and those who stay know it. But they make their choices and try to make a life as best they can. Those who leave never do so without taking away a part of the prairie with then, and too many times, what they take is the best the land and the people who stay, have to give.

Kent Haruf's first novel tell about this land of flatness and those who stay. It's also about bad endings. We ware left with the hope that somehow there is something we missed here. And we who remain will keep looking and waiting for the ultimate payback, for accounts to be settled, and that those who remained are redeemed.

I read this book after reading Plainsong, which touched my heart. Kent Haruf is skilled at making his characters believable. In this book, he has created someone who is lacking compassion, empathy or any redeeming quality. His sociopathic selfishness affects everyone in his life with disastrous consequences and heartbreak for many who trusted him. Haruf is definitely a writer worth reading since he just seems to get better while maintaining a consistently good style. I sense in him a heart worth knowing.

My daughter picked Kent Haruf for English class major author project. So we both bought all 4 of his books, and read them together. Of the four, this was my favorite.
Much has been said already about Kent's writing style, simple and strong, like the location of his four novels.
As I read this book, I was reminded of story of Frankenstein: Be careful where you invest your time, it will return to you in spades. In this story, the town, Frankenstein, had created quite a monster. The destruction wrought by this monster is sobering, and very sad. Yes, a sad ending, but one that makes you really think. And I liked the lack of closure. Sometimes you just don't know how something ends. Kind of like life.

I, like many others, have read my way backwards through Kent Haruf's (too few) books since being mesmerized by Plainsong. Having just finished Where You Once Belonged, I am eager to have a sequel. I'm not sure whether Mr. Haruf reads the reviews on the store.com, but just in case: Please help us get some closure on Jessie and Pat! The book ends quite abruptly, and it certainly left me anxious to know especially what would become of its self-posessed heroine and her two boys. To all of the rest of you, I recommend this, as I recommend any of Mr. Haruf's beautifully simple books. He has a gift for expressing the pathos and triumph of living everyday human life.

The most commonly seen comment about this book is the poor ending. I concur, it was crap. Insincere, not believable. And that ruins what could have been a decent story. Otherwise, I stayed interested enough to continue. Read Montana 1941 instead.

I really enjoyed this book. Haruf's simple writing style is deceiving, as he is a master of creating such real characters. The story contained some surprises and moved along at a pace that definitely kept me interested.

Small town life and characters are this author's specialty. This one read very quickly and as usual, has characters that one really grows to like. I prefer Plainsong and Eventide because the characters seem richer and less one-dimensional in those than they are in this one. Be prepared for an unsettling, but realistic, ending. If you're going away for a weekend, this would be a good book to take along. It will be finished before you return home.

Having read all of his other works first, I suppose there was no way around being disappointed in this one.
The thing I like most about Mr. Haruf's writing is that he makes me care about the characters. He never seemed to know where he was going with this story, though, and the ending is a huge let down. Though I enjoyed reading it, he punted the ending.

I chose this book because I had read "Plainsong" and enjoyed Kent Haruf's style of writing. I am not familiar with literary critique terminology and can only say that this author creates characters that we have met and who we know from our own experience. He is able to portray simple lives and experiences with tenderness and leave us hopeful and heartbroken at the same time.

Kent Haruf populates the landscape of Holt, Colorado with difficult situations that evoke his memorable characters' humanity--or lack thereof. This book is slightly more experimental than Plainsong and Eventide, but I found it engrossing and valuable. If you liked those books, you will probably like this one too.

Kent Haruf has done to Holt County what Garrison Keiller did for Lake Wobegon. The story doesn't always turn out the way you would like it to turn out, but neither does life. Not Haruf's best effort but I liked it well enough to buy another one!