Kent Haruf (1943 –2014) Tribute List

Kent Haruf, the celebrated author of several novels set in Colorado, died on December 1st at the age of 71. Haruf's personal story is a lesson in perserverence: having overcome medical problems as a youth, it took him twenty years to get his first novel published. Haruf's novels prioritize sense of place and description over plot, to the point where the reader feels they've been through something very personal with the characters by novel's end. Here are ten quotes from Haruf's work and an interview with him about what he tried to accomplish and how he went about it.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. sanguine
    confidently optimistic and cheerful
    And they had folded his brother's hands across his suited chest, as if he would be preserved in this sanguine pose forever, but only the heavy callouses visible at the sides of his hands seemed real. It was only the callouses that appeared to be familiar and believable.
    — Eventide
  2. sufficient
    of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement
    He wanted to think of words that would make some difference but there were none in any language he knew that were sufficient to the moment or that would change a single thing.”
    — Eventide
  3. meridian
    an imaginary great circle on the surface of the earth
    The light in the street seemed sharp to her and hard-edged, definite, as if it were no longer merely a late fall afternoon in the hour before dusk, but instead as if it were the first moment of noon in the exact meridian of summer and she was standing precisely under the full illumination of the sun.
    — Plainsong
  4. antic
    ludicrously odd
    and they ate lunch there in the freckled shade of the trees and came back in the late afternoon with the sun sliding down behind them, making a single shadow of them and the horse together, the shadow out in front like a thin dark antic precursor of what they were about to become.
    — Plainsong
  5. plume
    anything that resembles a feather in shape or lightness
    Behind him the pickup lifted a powdery plume from the road and the suspended dust shone like bright flecks of gold.
    — Plainsong
  6. scorch
    burn slightly and superficially so as to affect color
    We have the power to take away your water and to scorch your earth, to rob you of the very fundamentals of life. We can change the actual day into actual night. We can do these things to you. And more. But what if we say, Listen: Instead of any of these, we are going to give willingly and generously to you.
    —Benediction
  7. barrage
    the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area
    I want to think that if I use language very carefully, trying to be certain that each word...is exactly the right one for what it needs to do in every part of a book, then this simple language can be...new all over again, as if the words were minted this very day. It puts a great deal of emphasis on each word—to be exactly the right one, and not to be submerged or obscured by a surrounding dazzling barrage of words.
    — From an interview with his publisher upon the publication of Benediction
  8. benediction
    the act of praying for divine protection
    Dad Lewis, in his last summer, is resigned to death, but he cannot let go of his deep regret and his need for redemption and forgiveness and benediction. He is troubled, most particularly, by the memory of his estrangement from his son Frank, and he deeply hopes to be forgiven for what he’s done years ago.
    — From an interview with his publisher upon the publication of Benediction
  9. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
    But the book makes almost no allusion to the usual trappings of modern America technology. I’m not interested in computers or cell phones or the latest device from Apple. I’m interested in the ongoing nature of humanity, in its timeless universal condition.
    — From an interview with his publisher upon the publication of Benediction
  10. submerged
    beneath the surface of the water
    I want something more than this. I understand that now. I’ve been submerged and abstracted. I wanted something more from you all these years. I wanted someone who wanted me for what I am. Not his own version of me. It sounds too simply to say it that way, but that’s what it is. Someone who wanted me, for myself. You don’t.
    — Plainsong
Created on 十二月 1, 2014 (updated 十二月 1, 2014)

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