Shotgun Lovesongs in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jun 07, 2014 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, sfe, contemporary-fiction, literary-fiction, wisconsin, debut, concierge, friendship, library

Audiobook performed by Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Scott Shepherd, Scott Sowers and Gary Wilmes

Henry, Kip, Lee, Ronny and Beth (Henry’s wife) have known each other since they were children growing up in the same small town of Little Wing Wisconsin. All but Henry (who stayed on his family’s dairy farm) have left for a time: Beth went to college, Kip worked as a commodities broker in Chicago, Ronny rode the rodeo circuit, and Lee is a hugely successful folk-rock musician with a number of hit reco Audiobook performed by Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Scott Shepherd, Scott Sowers and Gary Wilmes

Henry, Kip, Lee, Ronny and Beth (Henry’s wife) have known each other since they were children growing up in the same small town of Little Wing Wisconsin. All but Henry (who stayed on his family’s dairy farm) have left for a time: Beth went to college, Kip worked as a commodities broker in Chicago, Ronny rode the rodeo circuit, and Lee is a hugely successful folk-rock musician with a number of hit records. Now, they’ve all come home to Little Wing. Kip has purchased the old feed mill with plans to turn it into a destination in that corner of Wisconsin. Ronny, his rodeo career ended after he suffered a traumatic brain injury, is looked out for by everyone in town. Lee has a recording studio in the converted schoolhouse on the outskirts of town, where he comes home to recuperate after a tour.

This is a distinctly Midwest novel. Butler writes prose that is poetic and atmospheric. His descriptions of the landscape make this fictitious town an important character in the novel.
The October air filled with corn dust enough to make each sunset a postcard, with colors like a benign nuclear explosion. And then snow. Snow to cover the world, to cover us. Our world left to sleep and rest and heal underneath those white winter blankets. The forests that in October threw hallucinogenic confetti at the world now withdrawn, bereft, composed, and suddenly much thinner, looking like old people who know their time has just about come.

More importantly, this is a novel of friendship, and of men growing to adulthood. Each of the characters, including Beth, has a chance to narrate. So the reader gets some insight into each of their inner thoughts and feelings, the ways they interpret one another’s actions and why they react as they do. The reader also has the opportunity to hear their observations on the others in the quintet. It seems that the central relationship being explored is that of Hank and Lee – best friends despite their very different lifestyles, loyal to one another without question, loving one another despite a major falling out.

Kip seemed to me to be nearly an outsider. His concerted efforts to leave Little Wing and be a big shot in Chicago has changed his perspective in such a way that he doesn’t seem able to fit in. Whatever effort he makes just misses the mark, and seems to come only from his own need to be recognized rather from any genuine concern for his friends or the community. As the only woman with a voice in the novel Beth provides an interesting counterpoint. And it is through Beth’s eyes that the men’s wives/girlfriends are shown.

And then there is Ronny – my favorite character in the group. A handsome, strong man with an injured brain, an alcoholic kept from drinking by all his friends (who seem to do nothing but consume alcohol), he longs to get back some independence.
I want to break out of here so bad and I don’t even know where I want to go. Maybe Anyplace, I guess. I know they think I can’t take care of myself, but I sure as hell can. I’m not a smart man – I know that – but I ain’t dumb. And the way things are, it’s like I’m in a cage. … I am a man. I’m a goddamned person. And I’m restless as hell.
My heart just breaks for him.

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy character-driven novels.

The audiobook employs five different performers – each taking on one of the major characters. I found this very effective. It really helped to make each of the men unique. And having a woman voice Beth’s chapters lent a quality of gentleness and femininity to an otherwise tough and masculine book.
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May 17, 2014 Chaitra rated it it was ok

Shelves: ensemble, romance, contemporary-fiction, first-book, music

Not for me, this book. I normally love multiple POVs, and I normally love small town dynamics. This one just felt a little too righteous, a little too small town snooty. And then there's the big red warning sign of the entire town and its relatives being in love with a woman, the book insisting this is so but not showing why.

Beth is the object of contention between two men - her husband, goody-goody Hank and his best friend, the rockstar Lee. The other two POVs are Ronny, a slightly slow alcoho Not for me, this book. I normally love multiple POVs, and I normally love small town dynamics. This one just felt a little too righteous, a little too small town snooty. And then there's the big red warning sign of the entire town and its relatives being in love with a woman, the book insisting this is so but not showing why.

Beth is the object of contention between two men - her husband, goody-goody Hank and his best friend, the rockstar Lee. The other two POVs are Ronny, a slightly slow alcoholic, and Kip, the money maker who seems a typical Wall Street-y ass even though he is based in Chicago. The other two POVs don't matter, even though they're interesting. Beth doesn't matter beyond the fact that she's a bone to be tossed between Hank and Lee. Everyone's feelings vacillates and not naturally. Beth maybe still in love with Lee, but then no. She's not. Lee may have been in love with Beth, maybe still is. But then no he's not. Lee's part time wife, the beautiful actress Chloe is set up as a good person who treats hicks like Beth and Hank nicely, and then she's a manipulative bitch. But then no, she sets Ronny's stripper wife up with a respectable job. I guess this is supposed to mean that the characters weren't black or white, but to me they were just inconsistent.

The storyline that engrossed me most was Kip and his wife Felicia. There isn't much reason, to be honest, they're really paper thin. But they were still more interesting than the people around them. Ronny was alright, and had his alcoholism been explored (there was the perfect opportunity for it to have been), his would have been a compelling story. But it wasn't that type of book. This was a wishy washy angsty bromance novel that wasn't even much of that. Some of the things that bothered me - why paint celebrities with a generic black brush? At one point, Lee muses that the actors he knows are all good-looking but plastic and with vacant expressions (not the exact thing, but that's the gist). Chloe kisses Lee convincingly during their wedding, but that must have been because she's an actress. New Yorkers get the same treatment - Beth looks at her small town monuments with new eyes everyday, but New Yorkers take their skyscrapers for granted. Soulless types populate the big city, and small towns like this book's Little Wing are the most perfect places on earth.

It was annoying. It reminded me of The Art of Fielding which annoyed me similarly and for the same reasons. They have the same structure, the same love triangle that's really a straight line with a lame side added for conflict. They both have better minor characters who aren't developed. This book didn't annoy me to the extent Art did, probably because I loathe music less than I loathe baseball. But still, a disappointment. 2 stars. ...more

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Jan 25, 2018 Zaza rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: small-town, roman-choral, bonne-surprise, lu-en-2018

Nickolas Butler signe, avec "Retour à Little Wing" (ou plutôt avec "Shotgun lovesongs", le titre VO, nettement plus porteur de sens), un premier roman qui m'a beaucoup plu. Il s'agit d'un roman choral, porté par cinq narrateurs qui prennent la parole à divers moments. Ils sont cinq donc, quatre hommes, une femme. Cinq amis ayant grandi et vécu dans la même petite ville paumée de Little Wing, au fin fond du Wisconsin, état rural du Midwest.

Les points communs entre un ex pratiquant de rodéo, un fe Nickolas Butler signe, avec "Retour à Little Wing" (ou plutôt avec "Shotgun lovesongs", le titre VO, nettement plus porteur de sens), un premier roman qui m'a beaucoup plu. Il s'agit d'un roman choral, porté par cinq narrateurs qui prennent la parole à divers moments. Ils sont cinq donc, quatre hommes, une femme. Cinq amis ayant grandi et vécu dans la même petite ville paumée de Little Wing, au fin fond du Wisconsin, état rural du Midwest.

Les points communs entre un ex pratiquant de rodéo, un fermier, un courtier et un songwriter très connu ? Une amitié forte, qui perdure malgré les années, malgré les brouilles, les accidents de la vie, les maladresses, les rancœurs, les secrets ... Il y a aussi cette petite ville donc, archétype de la petite bourgade rurale du Midwest, avec son bar des anciens combattants, son église, et ses lieux de vie et de rencontre locaux.

À Little Wing, comme le dit très justement l'un des personnages :

"Ici, la vie s'articule autour des saisons. Ici, le temps s'écoule lentement, divisé en moments à savourer, comme de délicieuses parts de desserts : mariages, naissances, réussites aux examens, inaugurations décès. Rien ne change beaucoup, en général."

J'ai aimé la lenteur qui se dégage de ce roman, l'atmosphère un peu décalée de cette ville, qui semble suspendue hors du temps. Le destin plus ou moins banal de ces personnages imparfaits m'a fortement éloigné de mes lectures habituelles.

Ronny est certainement le personnage qui m'a le plus émue, il dégage beaucoup de simplicité et de fragilité, c'est le jeune homme que toute la ville a pris sous son aile, le bon copain sur lequel on veille, qu'on traite parfois comme un gosse. Lui aussi est suspendu dans une sorte d'entre-deux, c'est vraiment un personnage singulier. Hank, c'est l'homme de la terre, l’ami fidèle, l'épaule solide sur laquelle se reposer en toutes circonstances. Kip est le personnage le plus difficile à cerner, un mec pas très sympa de prime abord, assez c*n, mais on finit quand même par lui accorder notre sympathie. Quant à Lee … Lui aussi est un personnage singulier, c’est le plus paumé de tous les quatre, et plus on avance dans le roman, plus on mesure l’étendue de sa solitude.

En fait, ce qui est étonnant dans ce livre, c’est cette temporalité assez floue, ainsi que l’âge des personnages. Puisque chaque chapitre est porté par une voix différente, des scènes diverses nous sont contées, et même s’il existe une trame générale dans le livre, on a plus une succession de tranches de vie qu’une réelle intrigue qui occupe tout le roman, avec de nombreuses digressions, ce qui fait qu’on ne sait pas toujours combien de temps s’est écoulé entre tel et tel moment. Ce qui m’a perturbée aussi, même si le terme est un peu fort, c’est l’âge des personnages. Je n’avais pas l’impression de lire une histoire avec des personnages dans leur trentaine, mais j’avais la sensation qu’ils étaient en fait plus âgés, peut-être parce qu’on a l’impression qu’ils ont vécu déjà tellement de choses, et ont pas mal de recul sur le passé.

Je me suis pas mal égarée dans cet avis, mais je peux conclure en disant que j’ai pris beaucoup de plaisir à me plonger dans l’atmosphère si particulière de cette petite ville, dans cette représentation d’une Amérique rurale et pauvre, une Amérique de carte postale un peu jaunie par le temps. ...more

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Aug 01, 2017 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Shelves: friendship, read-in-2017, reading-road-trip-u-s, wisconsin

3.5 rounded down. The story of four friends, Kip, Lee, Henry and Ronny, who grew up in Little Wing, Wisconsin and Henry's wife Beth. The book alternates between all five perspectives and about 50 pages in I realized each chapter starts with the first initial of the character who narrates that chapter which helped clarify things quite a bit. Lee has become a famous musician, Henry runs the family farm, Kip has returned to town after a job in Chicago and Ronny was a rodeo star before a brain injur ...more

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