Our Souls at Night Review
I am grateful to the weather because my misty eyes were hidden behind my sunglasses when I listened to this audiobook while on my walk [in public]. Kent Haruf is canceled for the grave crime of absolutely destroying my heart.
Our Souls at Night is a novella that is a character study of Louis and Addie and does not have a whole lot of plot. The characters are so well set up and explored in the short number of pages that I did not “miss” a plot at all. Addie, a 70-year-old woman whose husband has passed and whose son has grown up and moved away, approaches Louis, a similarly lonely man in her neighborhood with a proposal to spend their nights together for companionship. They start sharing a bed and talking through the night because “the nights are the worst,” for loneliness. The growth of their friendship is really wholesome and gave me all the feels. Loneliness and companionship are something to which people of all ages can relate but I appreciate that these characters are elderly. Most of the books about friendships I have come across either center making new friendships early in life or older people growing their existing friendships that they made early in life. This is a new friendship made and grown late in life.
This book is about reclaiming youthfulness even when actual youth is a distant memory. Louis is initially worried about what their small town might say about them “seeing each other,” but Addie reminds him that it does not actually matter what other people might think — they are lonely and when they hang out they stop being lonely. In the end, no one in the town really thinks much about them, but they do get criticism from their adult children. The plot of the second half of the novella is the two of them trying to deal with their respective children and their [unnecessary] judgments. Louis’ conversation with his daughter is one of my favorite exchanges in the story:
“You’re acting like a teenager.” “I never did anything like this as a teenager.”
His daughter is pretty easily convinced as she finds “I made a friend and now my life is fuller,” a compelling argument. Addie’s son, Gene, however, does not appreciate this argument and does everything he can to try to separate them. Because he’s the worst. Gene is dead to me.
Addie and Louis fill in each other’s gaps (a la Chloe Brown), but Gene cannot accept that. Gene’s narrow-mindedness on this front also damages his own son, Jamie. As Addie gets even more worn down by Gene and his bullshit nonsense, she relies increasingly on Louis, which makes Gene more hell-bent on trying to destroy her happiness. We do not like Gene. Gene is canceled.
Addie and Louis’s conversation about Gene’s interventions hit me in the feels. Obviously, I have never had my offspring try to destroy my relationships, but when Addie says she can’t be brave anymore…my heart.
I can’t be brave anymore
This was a short read and I am sure I will return to it at some point because having my heart destroyed is one of my favorite hobbies. I also want to see the movie adaptation starring Jane Fonda even more now that I have read the book. Fonda was already a huge selling point for me (she is on another level of ICONIC), but now that I am familiar with the story, I need more of it in my life. I am just hungry for more emotional destruction. Why am I like this?
