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Customer Reviews of The Tie That Binds

Packs a wallop
This is the 3rd Haruf book I've read. Started with PLAINSONG which was a complete masterpiece, then moved onto WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED which was a haunting story about small town love. Now, THE TIE THAT BINDS explores the life of one central character, a woman who forsakes a deep and true lover to care for her physically maimed and emotionally abusive father. Haruf's writing is absorbing, engrossing and totally spellbinding. The reader comes to understand the motives behind the sometimes desperate actions of these people. I love the spare, bleak descriptions of life in this town of Holt. The novel builds to an inevitable, heartbreaking conclusion. I'd give more than a nickel to read more from this author...I thoroughly enjoy his work. This is a quick, compelling read that will stay with you for a long time.

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A Clear Eye to Duty
Fifteen years before he wrote his masterpiece Plainsong, Kent Haruf produced this gem. The Tie That Binds will surely find readers as a result of Plainsong, a fine story about brothers and loneliness and tenacity in the High Plains community of Holt, Colorado. Haruf's first novel also features the relationship between siblings, the dutiful Edith Goodnough and her simple brother Lyman, both children of failed homesteaders condemned to a hard life on a dryland farm south of Holt. She is, in the words of the narrator, Sanders Roscoe, her admiring neighbor from the adjacent ranch, a person who "continued to endure by plain courage and a clear eye to duty." In her 80 years, Edith has known 4 men well - her own flawed father and his feckless son Lyman - and another father and son, John and Sanders Roscoe, who are the only persons in the world who truly understand her courage, incredible sense of duty, and beauty. But, as Sanders says "understanding it doesn't mean liking it". Edith's story is haunting yet inspirational. Sanders wonderful narration is filled with the stoic truths of the Great Plains: "Life ain't fair" and "If you can't understand it, you just have to accept it" and "It wasn't anybody's fault. It happened; that's all." The tenor of The Tie That Binds is reminiscent of a two very different classics of the Plains: Larry McMurtry's "Last Picture Show" and Ole Rolvaag's "Giants in the Earth." Having grown up on the Eastern Colorado plains, I swear I know many of the characters. They are as genuine as the real article and every bit as tragic. Five stars without reservation.

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You FELT the emotions of this book...
The author did a great job of conveying the frustration and loneliness of the characters. The voice of the story-teller was hard to follow occasionally, but overall I would encourage the reading of this book.