“Why hell, look at us. Old men alone. Decrepit old bachelors out here in the country seventeen miles from the closest town which don't amount to much of a good goddamn even when you get there. Think of us. Crotchety and ignorant. Lonesome. Independent. Set in all our ways. How you going to change now at this age of life? I can't say, Raymond said. But I'm going to. That's what I know.”
Kent Haruf was an American novelist known for his vivid portrayal of rural life in the American Midwest. His works delve into the complexities of human nature and the diversity of society, earning him a dedicated following among readers. more
“.. And you want to ‘reform’ people like that when dynamite is so cheap?”
“They had something to do. They could escape from themselves.”
“I wonder if the small town isn’t, with some lovely exceptions, a social appendix?”