Return to Oakpine

by Ron Carlson

From a widely admired author, a poignant novel about homecoming, friendship, growing up, and growing old for fans of Richard Ford and Richard Russo

In this finely wrought portrait of western American life, Ron Carlson takes us to the small town of Oakpine, Wyoming, and into the lives of four men trying to make peace with who they are in the world.

In high school, these men were in a band. One of them, Jimmy, left Oakpine for New York City after the tragic death of his brother. A successful novelist, he has returned thirty years later, in 1999—because he is dying.
With Carlson’s characteristic grace, we learn what has become of these friends and the different directions of their lives. Craig and Frank never left; Mason, a top lawyer in Denver, is back in town to fix up and sell his parents’ house. Now that they are reunited, getting the band back together might be the most important thing they can do.

Return to Oakpine is a generous, tender look at friendship, family, and the roads not taken, by a writer at the peak of his craft.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, Realistic Fiction, Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction, Book Club

272 pages, Hardcover

First published July 11, 2013

About the author

Ron Carlson is an American novelist and writer of short stories.

Carlson was born in Logan, Utah, but grew up in Salt Lake City. He earned a masters degree in English from the University of Utah. He then taught at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut where he started his first novel.

He became a professor of English at Arizona State University in 1985, teaching creative writing to undergraduates and graduates, and ultimately becoming director of its Creative Writing Program.

Carlson also taught at the University of California, Irvine.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Carlson

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book because it’s a story about 4 men in their 50‘s(who were high school friends and are now trying to make peace in their world) written by a man of a mature age. I love chic-lit, so this seemed to be “dude-lit”. I couldn’t pass it up. It begins when one man(Jimmy) returns home to die and at the same time, another (Mason)returns to take care of his parents house. These two men have not kept in contact with their high school friends......they graduated and left town. Jimmy is a novelist and critic in NYC. Mason practices law in Denver. Enter Craig, a high school peer, who never left town and does construction projects and owns the hardware store. He’s the main link, in that he remodels the garage of Jimmy’s family home so he learns of Jimmy’s arrival. Craig also helps Mason renovate his parent’s house. The element that brings them together is that these men were part of a garage band in high school. The fourth guy of the garage band is a local tavern proprietor, Frank. Frank divorced his high school sweetheart and is with a woman 20 years younger. Remembering the garage band days allows the men to explore their youth and what they were like when they had a passion versus how they are now. The reader learns that Jimmy’s father has disowned him, but we don’t know why. There’s a big story behind Jimmy’s alienation which involves all the men. This is an easy to read, pleasing novel about evaluating lives, friendship, and family. It’s about how high school shapes us; how one event can change things forever.

[Melissa Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF on page 8

Life is just too short for this.

Look, I love Ron Carlson. Truly. As an author of literary fiction, and as a person. I enjoyed reading his novels "Five Skies" and "The Signal." I have enjoyed his short stories.

But the 2013 literary novel, "Return to Oakpine," threw up too many red flags in the opening pages for me to continue.

The plot of this book is pretty straightforward: four able-bodied white middle-class men in their fifties reconvene in the small white town of Oakpine, Wyoming, where they attended high school together. These aging men reflect on their lackluster lives for a while, and then they reform their high school garage band and make some music again, performing songs that are probably as lackluster as their lives, but so be it.

I fully admit that this premise does nothing for me. In a world of overwhelming problems to deal with, such as systemic poverty, racism, climate change, the mass death of plankton currently underway, ocean acidification, the ascendancy of porn culture in mainstream media, child sex trafficking, and pretty much NAME THE ISSUE of real life drama with the highest stakes possible, then I must admit that reading about some slouchy middle-class guys in their fifties who sigh and harrumph about their cushioned, privileged American lives is at the absolute bottom of my priority list.

But the glory of literary authors is that an insightful viewpoint and clean, crafted prose can turn any plot premise into the most gripping, high-stakes drama possible.

Herein lies the problem: the storytelling in "Return to Oakpine" is sloppy, and the prose is not crafted or clean.

The novel starts from the point of view of Craig Ralston, one of the four slouchy white men who will be reconvening in Wyoming. His opening pages are dull and unmemorable, but I was thinking, "Okay, whatever, boring white guy is just boring, I'll keep pushing on." Because readers do things like that for authors they love.

Then page 4 arrives, and the narrative shifts into the point of view of Craig's 17-year-old son, Larry. Larry speaks in dialogue that no teenage boy would ever speak in, because only an alien from Planet Xenon would ever talk this way:

(Larry talking to himself outside the house after a run): "I ran around the town. That town is captured in its entirety." (page 4 and 5)

(Larry speaking to his mother after he walks into the kitchen): "You going to get a tattoo? I'm sorry for asking, because your son is not a smartass but is dislocated by your behavior, but what's the answer: is a tattoo next?" (page 6)

(Larry talking to himself in the empty kitchen): "I ran around the town." (page 6)

(Larry talking to his father again in the living room): "Then I ran around the whole town." (page 6)

Ron Carlson usually writes lean, careful prose, but this novel is already repetitive as well as nonsensical. "Your son is dislocated by your behavior" would mean that Larry had to leave the kitchen where his mother is, which does not happen. His mother walks out of the room, so Larry "dislocates" her with his question. He is annoyed that his mother is washing dishes in a black sports bra without wearing a shirt, so Larry's tattoo question is meant to be off-putting snark to drive his mother out of the kitchen, and it succeeds. So, not only does Larry's dialogue sound inhuman, it's not even accurate within the story.

And then there are sentences like this one:

"Larry found his burger under the bun in the cast iron frying pan on the stove and scooped it up with his left hand, dripping grease along his palm, which he licked away while opening the fridge with his right hand and grabbing the glass bottle of milk, half full, setting it down to pull the top off, and lifting it in a long cold drink." (page 6)

I'm not opposed to multiple modifiers, multiple prepositional phrases all using multiple modifiers, or the kind of run-on-ish expository sentence that many literary authors favor.

My problem is the use of detail that does not matter, is inherently useless, and should have been struck. In that sentence, "with his right hand" is useless. The reader can infer that if the burger is in his left hand, then his right hand is the one opening the fridge and grabbing the milk. Whether the bottle is "half full" or not also does not make a bit of difference. This information is not signifying anything about this family or their lives, it's just useless detail. Literary prose has too high a standard to meet for drag like this to appear in a sentence. Ron Carlson knows better, too. I just don't understand the verbosity. Was this not edited? Did an editor just assume Ron Carlson didn't need a red pen anymore, just because he's Ron Carlson? I can't explain this.

The worst offense is that the story is following Larry, giving Larry an intense level of detail about what he is holding in his left hand and in his right hand, how he enjoys running around town and snarking his mother -- when this novel is NOT about Larry. It's about his aging father, Craig, and his father's three aging friends reconvening in Oakpine: Frank Gunderson, Mason Kirby, and Jimmy Brand. This is a novel that will be packed with minutia about these four boring men and their high school lives, told from their points of view. I sure as hell don't need to be spending time watching Larry drink milk and eat a burger his mother cooked for him.

I was hoping to sink into this novel the same way I have with Ron Carlson's other work, enjoying his lean prose and careful observations of life. But "Return to Oakpine" is too poorly written and frustrating. I still love Ron Carlson, but I can't even finish this book, much less recommend it.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

do 50 year olds ever have sex? (i'll not answer that). author carlson sure doesn't think so. some huggin', bit of kissin', a brief torso rub up, but no sex. shame. the high school kids seem to fuck like rabbits in good ole oakpine, but the 50 year olds, nope.
there was a good question here though, in amongst the reminiscences, yuppies bitchin' bout how hardddd life is being a yuppy, a 50 year old yuppy, Q. what does a modern woman want? A. to save the folks in the burning house, to put the fire out, and to be saved from the burning house, by those strong arms.
carlson is probably writing as beautifully as he ever has, and cadences and plant life, and political and social issues, all spot on. i like it better when his stories are about poor people though, his yuppies are so sexless (perhaps carlson has spent too long in huntington beach califa?, that could very easily skew anyone's perspective).
more horses and broke cowboys next time please ron carlson.

ps i DID cry during the battle of the bands/best buddy dying of aids/boy-girl hookup finale. a little anyway.

[Chrissy (The Every Free Chance Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did I enjoy this book: I spent the first two hundred pages wondering if perhaps I’m not quite old enough to enjoy a book as notstalgic as Return to Oakpine. I didn’t notice I’d fallen in love until I’d nearly finished reading, and now I’m wishing I’d have read more slowly and enjoyed it a bit more (insert Yo Dawg meme here). The whole “everything is like high school” theme was a bit too blatant for my taste, and MILD SPOILER ALERT the timing of Jimmy’s death was just a touch too convenient to be believable. Ultimately, though, Carlson’s written a lovely book about human nature that I’m glad I read.

Would I recommend it: You’ll love it if you’re in the mood for nostalgia.

As reviewed by Melissa at Every Free Chance Reviews.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

http://everyfreechance.com/2015/03/me...

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fast read but in this case this is not a good thing. Fast because I was going through the motions but not rememberable. I got about half way into the book. Which I stopped at chapter 6. Yes, this is a shorter book then my usual reading at 264 pages. Anyways, I went to pick up this book again to start reading it and promptly put it back down after a page and a half. The reason for this is because I could not remember anything that happened in the first five chapters/half of the book. None of the characters were engaging with their back stories. I did see some brief glimmer of promise that this book could be good but maybe for someone else.

[Larry H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of books that chronicle the reunion of childhood friends long separated. The opportunity to relate as an adult to people who knew you when you were younger, to see how life has affected them (and let them see how it has affected you), are tremendously compelling narrative devices, and if you combine those with a little bit of emotional poignancy, you've got a winner as far as I'm concerned. So it should come as no surprise that I was utterly taken in by Ron Carlson's wonderful new novel, Return to Oakpine.

In the late 1960s, Craig Ralston, Jimmy Brand, Mason Kirby, and Frank Gunderson were inseparable friends in the small town of Oakpine, Wyoming. During high school, they formed a band, called interchangeably The Rangemen, Wildfire, and Life on Earth. The band brought a fervent excitement to their lives and their small town, and through all of the practices and performances, their friendships deepened, until one day, a tragic accident claimed the life of Jimmy's older brother, Matt, the town's most highly regarded athlete. Unable to deal with his parents' reaction to the accident, as well as his own homosexuality, Jimmy left Oakpine shortly thereafter, moving to New York to become a well-established writer.

Thirty years later, Jimmy, destitute and dying of AIDS, returns to Oakpine. Banished by his father to live in the refurbished garage, Jimmy renews contact with his old friends. Craig and Frank never left the town—Craig took over his family's hardware store, while Frank owns a restaurant/bar. Mason became a successful lawyer in Colorado, but returns home to sell his parents' house, and finds himself caught up in his friends' lives again, while dealing with the dissolution of his marriage and uncertainty about his future.

Meanwhile, Craig's son, Larry, a high school senior, is dealing with many of the same problems his father and his friends did 30 years ago. Caught between loyalty to his best friend Wade and his love for Wade's girlfriend, Wendy, he is ready to leave Oakpine for good after high school, although he and Wendy develop a close relationship with Jimmy. And Craig and Frank both must deal with the women in their lives as well.

It is both nostalgia and Jimmy's looming mortality that push the four to reunite their band. This decision opens up old feelings, brings back long-forgotten memories and joys, and pushes them toward the future, but a future faced together, not apart.

Ron Carlson is a fantastic writer. In his previous books I've loved both his use of language and imagery to capture both emotions and the evocative nature of the West. But I feel he's utterly outdone himself with Return to Oakpine. It's a familiar story, one you've read before and one whose ending you can predict, but it is so beautifully told, so emotionally poignant, it's still as powerful as if you had never read a story with this plot before. While some of the characters' quirks—particularly in dialogue—took a little getting used to, I found myself torn between wanting to devour the story as quickly as possible and wanting to savor it for as long as I could, because I knew I would be sad when it ended.

"If a person was raised here, he knows the way the light falls in this town on any given week, even you who have been absent for years. That isn't true for any other place for you."

Going home after being away for so long isn't always easy, and reconnecting with old friends doesn't always work the way you hope it will. But Return to Oakpine made you long for those feelings, and captured them so perfectly. I know I'm a bit of a sap, but I thought this was really terrific.

[Neil Connelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you've been one of the multitudes following Ron Carlson for years or have only now come across him, this is a book you're sure to treasure. Decades ago, the four members of a small town garage band came together and captured something essential about youth. Now one, a prodigal who has lived in self-imposed exile, has returned home to die. How this shakes things up, for the rich ensemble cast of enthralling characters, gives Carlson a chance to juxtapose the whimsy, joys, and heartaches of being young with the hard-fought concessions and acceptance of experience. Full of lovely sentences, lovely scenes, of course it will have you floating through your own memories, but it also will make you take stock of where you are now. This is a deeply moving novel from a masterful writer.

[Charlene Intriago · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just okay for me. The story was so-so and even though there were a couple of times when I could relate to the story and the characters, it just didn't click for me.

[David Abrams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is there any pen Ron Carlson touches that doesn't turn to gold?

I've fallen headlong in love with every book he's written (with the exception of the best-forgotten Betrayed by F. Scott Fitzgerald, an early clunker from 1977). His short story collection At the Jim Bridger is damn near perfect; The Signal is a harrowing story of wilderness survival; and you won't find a better novel about blue-collar work than in the pages of Five Skies.

In Return to Oakpine, Carlson turns a sentimental eye (perhaps too sentimental for some readers) on life in a small town. Thirty years after they graduated high school, four friends reunite in their hometown, the fictional Oakpine, Wyoming. Frank, a hardware store owner, and Craig, a bartender, never left. Mason, a freshly divorced lawyer, comes back to Oakpine from Denver looking for "a change, an end, some new chapter in this old life." And then there's Jimmy, who left Oakpine for New York City after the tragic death of his brother. A successful novelist, he's come back to live with his estranged parents because he's dying. Carlson deftly captures the pull-and-resistance feeling of going back to your roots. You can go home again, but it's never quite the same, is it? (I speak as one who recently returned to his own hometown in Wyoming after a 15-year absence.)

As Carlson writes of Larry, Craig's ambitious track-star son who runs the length and breadth of Oakpine on a daily basis, "Anybody with any dignity got out of Oakpine....Larry had no idea where he was going, but he was going, that was for sure." Somehow, I get the feeling that if you pay a visit to Craig's hardware store ten years down the line, you'll find Larry there behind the counter.

Return to Oakpine is full of sentences that I kept stopping to re-read, savoring Carlson's wordcraft. For instance, I could practically taste the afternoon of a small town in these fine sentences:

The two men sat in the quiet bar. Suddenly the light dimmed again under a cloud, and it was a moment that went out on them, through the big plate-glass window across the gray street and up above the town in a moment, reaching past the last house and the few bad roads newly bladed into the prairie and the antelope in clusters on greengray hillsides beyond that and then hovering beyond and beyond, the world, their lives, the full gravid sense of afternoon. There was nothing to do or say except ride this part of the day together there, both men feeling the weight register; the men they'd become. It was a beery afternoon in their hometown.

[Vivien · Rating 2 out of 5]

Return to Oakpine is a portrait of western American life. Set in the small town of Oakpine, Wyoming, four men are trying to make peace with who they are in the world.

Decades ago, these men were in a band while in high school. Jimmy ended up leaving Oakpine when his brother tragically died. He became a successful novelist but returns home from New York City after thirty years, because he is dying.

We learn what has become of these friends and the different directions of their lives. Craig and Frank never left; Mason, a top lawyer in Denver, is back in town to fix up and sell his parents’ house. Now that they are reunited, getting the band back together might be the most important thing they can do.

I won this book in a First Reads Goodreads giveaway. My first reaction is that I'm not the target audience. Usually, that doesn't make a difference, but with this book it certainly did. Unfortunately, it didn't make a meaningful impact.

I found this read to be rather mundane and a struggle to get through. With this kind of predictable plot, I found Return to Oakpine just skimmed the surface of the characters. I didn't find any of them engaging.

The main issue is that the book is just too short. A coming of age story needs to have depth and this novel felt condensed. The writing was decent enough to keep my attention to the end. Had the author really dug deep and fleshed out characters, I feel it would have been a more captivating novel.

*Won in a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway

[georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

2013 264 pages

the jacket of this book is a terrific set up for the story. I just needed a hammock to read this tender story of men reuniting after a 30 year separation just due to life choices.

This is a story of how a small town tragedy affected all 4 men and some of the women they knew. High school memories are shared, a garage band was created, whose speciality was "Help me Rhonda" and hearts are healed.

Be prepared to laugh and cry. Be prepared to remember your "first" days in high school. Be prepared to look for more pages.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Carlson novel. I am familiar with his short stories and it was a fine experience reading him in a longer format. I just love the pace and settings of Western novels and this one fits that genre like a well worn pair of jeans. There's a nostalgic warmth to it. He accurately captures the small town feel- some things never change- while also creating a vivid picture of each character trying to put their own stamp on life. I love the things that connected the different generations - the guitar, the band, football, the town, memories of being in each other's houses. I really enjoyed the familiarity between the characters- their dialogue flows naturally like it does when you've known someone three decades or longer.

Carlson has a kind of subtle swagger to his writing that is both sentimental and straight forward. It has a unique pull and push that makes reading his stories a lot like a ride- most of the time you're just taking in the scenery, but every now and then a moment comes along that you'll remember and think about for a long time.

[Kerry Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like all of his books and short stories. Return to Oakine is easy to read and gives a very melancoly feeling of homecoming back to one's roots and childhood memories. The somewhat sad ending is not a surprise. The beauty of his language about nature is outstanding and I have a very visual experience evoked by his descriptive style.

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Carlson is an exciting short story writer; this novel is as exciting as a barcode.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something special about the friendships that are forged in young adulthood. There is also something about midlife that inspires the reexamination of life. Ron Carlson vividly tackles both of these themes in his latest novel Return to Oakpine. Set in a small town in Wyoming, the novel explores the lives of four friends, once members of an aspiring garage band, thirty years after their high school graduation. Craig Ralston married his high school sweetheart and manages the hardware store that was once his father’s. Frank Gunderson owns a bar in town and has spent much of his life regretting never having gotten out of Oakpine. Mason Kirby, a flourishing Denver lawyer, has returned home to fix up his parent’s home to be sold. Finally, Jimmy Brand, a successful writer, and in many ways the group’s touchstone, has returned to Oakpine to live out his final days. The impromptu reunion challenges the friends to look at the events of the summer that tore them apart, and also to consider the men they have become, there is even talk of getting the band back together. Carlson’s inclusion of youth in the form of Craig’s son Larry, illustrates the universal growing pains suffered by each generation. Return to Oakpine is a tribute to home towns, friendship and youth, as well as an exploration of paths not taken. Eloquent and heartfelt it is a novel that is deeply moving, and quite simply unforgettable.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pub date July 2013, sold to me by the publisher as 'man lit' (as opposed to chick lit).

Kind of a mellow flowing picture of life in a small town, and how life turns full circle. Some of the descriptive passages were just beautifully written. I particularly liked Lenny-and his youth, energy, and magical descriptions of running. It almost inspires me to do the same-almost.

Summary from publisher: In the small town of Oakpine, Wyoming, four men are trying to make peace with who they are in the world. In high school, these men were in a band. One of them, Jimmy, left Oakpine for New York City after the tragic death of his brother. A successful novelist, he has returned thirty years later, in 1999--because he is dying. With Carlson's characteristic grace, we learn what has become of these friends and the different directions of their lives. Craig and Frank never left; Mason, a top lawyer in Denver, is back in town to fix up and sell his parents' house. Now that they are reunited, getting the band back together might be the most important thing they can do. Return to Oakpine is a generous, tender look at friendship, family, and the roads not taken, by a writer at the peak of his craft.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part "coming of age" and "what have I done with my life" themes give this book energy and soul. The descriptions of light,landscape, and weather are evocative. Four 50 somethings reunite in a small Wyoming town. Two of them have stayed there. Two have returned, one to die. The teenage son of one of the men is featured as well- a great description of running by him sounds like something out of Zen. There was an accident that caused a brother to leave town. Carlson introduces them all to us at a leisurely pace as we discover their past, present and future. It's not predictable. It's beautifully written as it melds time and space and generations into a place. There's the quintessential high school small town football game and then there's the battle of the bands. There's also the clash between white and blue collar-men getting back to their roots or what's really important-they see it now some 30 years later. Lots of stuff in this great book. It's like Brokeback Mountain meets John Updike.

[David Pace]

This is an exquisitely wrought book of middle-aged male friendship and its accompanying longing for the ineffable. It is also a lovingly detailed look at small town Mountain America life. That said, life in a the small Wyoming town of Oakpine is not rendered here in a sentimental way. In fact the catalyst for the story is the return of Jimmy who is dying of AIDS. What happens to 50+ year-old-men who once jammed together in a garage band before a tragic accident shortly after high school graduation? Where does everyone go, physically and spiritually? Jimmie ends up in New York City where he becomes an author. Others stay put, or move to nearby Denver to become an attorney. But all of them in this stellar novel gather to pay tribute to the life they once had, the women (and men) with whom they once coupled, had kids, and divorced...or not. And to their haunting past as it is reflected in the present, in their lives, and in the vast landscape and sky of the West. Carlson's language has the authority and tenderness that only a master of the art form can offer.

[Nancy Rossman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm on the fence 4 or 5.

It is such a beautifully written, nostalgic piece without sentimentality and this, I find, is rare. I didn't skip a word, I sighed, I cried, and in the end felt the author resolved all the drama in a most believable way.

For men who have had friends and you're close but you don't talk the way women do, but some how you know each other. It's a look, a feeling, a thought immediately shared without speech and you think you'll have these friends forever, but you don't. Life happens. Then, tragedy happens, as it does in all lives and the four men are reunited after 30 years. Most things are the same as far as feelings go but now NOW you talk. That is what this wonderfully crafted novel is about.

Recommended. Especially for men over fifty. Or women who want to try (!) and understand them. Ron Carlson does seem to get it right on the money.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The two books of Carlson’s that I’ve read have been about friendship between men -a topic I don’t see a lot of. The first one I read didn’t do much for me, but I loved this one. Great character development, with Oak Pine playing a lead role. Men and women from multiple generations created friendships while playing football, writing, repairing houses, and playing in a garage band. Although male characters dominated, Carlson did a good job with the women, too. Some of the writing was incredibly powerful. The short story within the story was one particularly excellent section of writing. A good book for book clubs.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was such a mediocre book. The premise sounded interesting: four friends and bandmates reunite after 30 years when one of them has returned to their hometown of Oakpine, WY terminally ill. I've seen it billed as guy-lit, the female version of chick-lit, but the pace was too slow (even the book's barely 200 pages) and the dialogue often felt stilted. This book kept showing enough promise to keep me reading to the end, but it never really delivered.

[Robert Morgan Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enormously touching novel. Carlson does his usual good job of avoiding treacly, sentimental pitfalls--difficult in a story like this, with a large cast of characters constantly looking back at halcyon days and dealing with the wreckage of life. Best Battle of the Bands scene in any novel. Some very nice descriptive touches--surprising at times. Neither overwritten nor dumbed-down for middle America. Celebratory with just the right amount of cynical edge.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good story. Maybe I identified with the characters and the timeline, having graduated in 1970 . There are so many books out now with a gay friend, but this one stands put. You can go home again.

[Peg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely writing that enabled me to be in Oakpine with these people.

[Thomas Cooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Carlson is so good in the small moments, that one overlooks the moments towards the end of his novels when they veer to sentimental. I think most readers will know by halfway through that Mr. Brand will forgive and accept his son. And that’s okay; not all novels have to be Agatha Christie whodunnits.

Too many pages go to Frank and Sonny who are really minor characters. Larry is dynamite, and his opening pov is some of the strongest parts of the novel.

The ending with the battle of the bands was a bit hoakey, but oh well.

When Carlson tones it down, it gets better and better. Did Mason and Jimmy have a few nights together in high school? Carlson never comes out and says it, but I think it’s layered well enough that there can be arguments for both sides.

In the end, you get a rich, inhabited novel, with gems:

“A week later Larry Ralston came walking up the smooth driveway of the new house on the scrub oak hill, the house they’d just moved into last spring, taking those long rolling strides he took after a run, his hands on his hips, each breath three gallons of September, still a touch of summer in it, and he’d was smiling sand shaking-his-head happy.”

“He came to the end of the dark rocky lane, which years before had been a real road, when two bars and the Trail’s End Motel lit that far edge of town, enough neon to beckon some and warn others.”

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A "nice" book that had some potential for me, but just didn't quite make it.

Return to Oakpine is the story of 4 middle aged men who grew up together in a small Wyoming town. During their youth, they developed a close bond while playing together in a garage band and by experiencing a tragedy that devastated the family of one of them.

After drifting apart through adulthood, one of them returns home to live out his final days. This brings the four men, and their significant others, together again.

This book had some beautifully crafted parts, and portions that made me reflect on life, as well as chance vs. choice. But, the prose felt a bit disjointed to me and the last 2-3 chapters felt rushed even though this is a "minimal action" book.

Many fellow readers have praised the works of Ron Carlson, so considering that praise, and the fact that this book was fine enough, I will certainly read another book by this author. However, this one was just OK for me.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this novel is set in a small town in windswept Wyoming, the themes are applicable to small towns, no matter the geography. High school friendships, neighborliness and love of, almost worship of high school sports are found throughout small towns.
The book focuses on the reunion of four men who were classmates. Their lives are diverse but show the possibility of change. Two characters show the satisfaction of working with their hands. As my father & husband also enjoyed seeing the results of their toil, this was relatable. This slow, character driven book is not for everyone but I enjoyed it.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Fiction)

This is the story of four middle-aged friends who once played in a band while growing up together in small-town Wyoming. Two eventually moved away and two stayed in Oakpine. But when the friend who became a famous musician comes back home to die, the friends get together to play again.

Return to Oakpine was a little too commercial for me, but if you like a story that follows comfortable and predictable lines, then you might quite enjoy this. 3 stars

[LisaMarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boooring! I tried to make it to when Jimmy, the dying writer, comes on the scene, or the first ensemble scene of all these guys together, but I only made it to p.19. I could just tell by the tone and style it wasn't something I'd be able to get into. Not that it's corny or badly written, just not for me.

[Michel Gerebtzoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Premier roman de Ron Carlson pour moi et malgré quelques erreurs de traduction et des adolescents peu crédibles je me suis laissé emporter par l'histoire. Probablement parce que j'ai le même âge ou presque que les quatre amis, que ces questionnements sont aussi parfois les miens et que je suis dans le bon état d'esprit pour entendre le travail manuel et la cuisine loués...