Dad Lewis, the main character in Kent Haruf’s new novel Benediction, is terminally ill and has
accepted that his life is coming to an end. He also knows he has plenty of
regrets about it, the biggest one being that he has not seen or spoken to his
son Frank in years. Like Dad, Reverend Lyle also lives in the small town of
Holt, Colorado—although he was recently relocated to the town when he ran into
problems at his previous church in Denver. In Benediction both men try with varying degrees of success to make
sense of their lives.
Dad is well respected in Holt and has run the local hardware
store for years. He has always been very set in his feelings about right and
wrong. On his death bed he thinks back to a former employee who he discovered
was stealing from him. Dad made the man promise to leave Holt and refused his
repeated requests to repay the stolen money over a period of time. This decision
did not work out so well for Dad in the long run.
Reverend Lyle gives a
sermon on forgiveness that causes most members of his church in Holt to walk
out and two men in the town to beat him up later on. From the reaction of his
wife and his son John Wesley it is obvious that he has received such adverse
reactions to his sermons before.
In addition to Dad Lewis and Reverend Lyle, the book
features a number of other prominent characters whose lives intersect
throughout the course of the story. Benediction
has a nice mix of dark and sweet moments and Dad is treated as a complicated
man still able to rectify some things but unable to change others. Haruf’s
spare, concise prose is a delight to read and makes a book thin on plot move
along at a nice clip.
John
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