Shotgun Lovesongs: A Novel Author: Nickolas Butler | Language: English | ISBN:
B00F1RE1H0 | Format: EPUB
Shotgun Lovesongs: A Novel Description
Welcome to Little Wing.
It’s a place like hundreds of others, nothing special, really. But for four friends
—all born and raised in this small Wisconsin town
—it is home. And now they are men, coming into their own, or struggling to do so.
One of them never left, still working the family farm that has been tilled for generations. But others felt the need to move on, with varying degrees of success. One trades commodities, another took to the rodeo circuit, and one of them even hit it big as a rock star. And then there’s Beth, a woman who has meant something special in each of their lives.
Now all four are brought together for a wedding. Little Wing seems even smaller than before. While lifelong bonds are still strong, there are stresses
—between the friends, between husbands and wives. There will be heartbreak, but there will also be hope, healing, even heroism as these memorable people learn the true meaning of adult friendship and love.
Seldom has the American heartland been so richly and accurately portrayed. Though the town may have changed, the one thing that hasn’t is the beauty of the Wisconsin farmland, the lure of which, in Nickolas Butler’s hands, emerges as a vibrant character in the story.
Shotgun Lovesongs is that rare work of fiction that evokes a specific time and place yet movingly describes the universal human condition. It is, in short, a truly remarkable book
—a novel that once read will never be forgotten.
- File Size: 1054 KB
- Print Length: 320 pages
- Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (March 11, 2014)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00F1RE1H0
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #720 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #19
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Life - #22
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Domestic Life - #25
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > Literary
- #19
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Family Life - #22
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Women's Fiction > Domestic Life - #25
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > Literary
Set in rural Wisconsin, Shotgun Lovesongs tells the story of four men, and one woman, renegotiating the meaning of friendship, love and home.
Five characters share the narrative in alternating chapters. Hank – who inherited his father’s farm, Beth – Hank’s wife, Lee – an international music artist, Kip – a successful broker and Ronny -an injured rodeo star. These people speak and we think that we know them, who they are and what they dream of, but each are capable of surprising us as the story unfolds.
I have read few books that feature male friendship, and it was something that I really enjoyed about Shotgun Lovesongs. The bonds this group formed in childhood remain intact through a decade of physical separation and sporadic contact, but when they reunite in Little Wing they learn none of them are the boys they once were and their relationships with each other are now complicated by the men they have become.
The community of Little Wing in rural Wisconsin is vividly portrayed. I could easily imagine Kip’s mill looming over the town, the car park full of battered pick-ups, weathered men leaning on the bar in the VWF hall and tractors traversing the the open farmland.
While tempers may flare, the conflict in Shotgun Lovesongs is largely personal and the drama is subdued. The pace of the story is measured and thoughtful, emphasising emotion over action. I found the writing and dialogue to be simple and honest yet descriptive and affecting.
Shotgun Lovesongs is an understated yet heartfelt novel, an ode to friendship, to love and to family. It is a story about finding your way home, where ever that may be.
By Shelleyrae
TOP 500 REVIEWER
This book is a deceptively simple story of five friends in small town Wisconsin. Their stories are not big stories, nor are they particularly novel. Yet this book transmutes into that comfortable source of warmth that elusively beckons for us all. It is in the ordinary that transforms that the spirit emerges. The friends represent the span from a neurologically impaired rodeo star to a struggling farmer to his wife who has a secret link with the town boy made good. Lee is that folk fable of the local boy made super star, yet in his Wisconsin interactions, he becomes real. The setting includes the wilderness held wild, the failed strivings of men, and the daily settings that our characters take for granted. The prose depends on insight and presence instead of drama and hyperbole. This is a little book that makes a large impact.
By Amelia Gremelspacher
TOP 500 REVIEWER
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