Plains Song

by Wright Morris, Charles Baxter (Introduction)

Wright Morris (1910-1998) wrote thirty-three books, including The Home Place, also available in a Bison Books edition, and Field of Vision, which won the National Book Award. Charles Baxter is a professor of English at the University of Michigan and the author of numerous works, including The Feast of Love.

Genres: Fiction, Literature, Literary Fiction, Americana, Historical Fiction, American, Womens

229 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Wright Marion Morris was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms.
Morris won the National Book Award for The Field of Vision in 1956. His final novel, Plains Song won the American Book Award in 1981.

Reviews

[Paul Jellinek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met the author, Wright Morris, when I was an undergraduate in the early 1970's. He looked like Mark Twain, only serious. I never read anything of his, but somewhere along the line I picked up a used copy of his final novel, "Plains Song." It sat on my shelf for years, probably decades, untouched. Then recently, I came across his name again in a book of correspondence between Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray. One of the two--I can't remember which--commented on how good Morris's writing was. So that's what prompted me, after all these years, to finally read "Plains Song." It was worth the wait. This is one of those rare books that is the reason that I read, and also the reason I write--although my writing will never approach anything near the level that Morris reaches in this extraordinary novel about a farming family in the Nebraska plains. I've read--and loved--Willa Cather's books and stories about the Nebraska plains, but "Plains Song" is something else entirely. The closest comparison that I can think of is "The House by the Medlar Tree" by Giovanni Verga. Verga, too, manages to completely submerge the reader in a world that has a resonance and a rhythm entirely its own. I confess that there are moments in "Plains Song" when I have no idea what Morris is telling me, but it doesn't matter. Confusion is part of life--maybe its most preeminent part. Thank you, Wright Morris, for creating and sharing such a truly remarkable work of art.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the depiction of the people living on the plains from about 1910 to 1980. The character of Cora holds the book together. The prose is spare but stunning. I wanted to give this small book 5 stars but the ending put me off. A peculiar character is introduced and I just didn't get it. Worth reading but a tad disappointing.

[Mike Zickar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading every National Book Award fiction winner and one of the pleasures of doing so is being "forced" to read something that I would never choose on my own. Plains Song is an interesting choice for the award. The first 2-3rds of the novel is very slow (the last third gallops).

The author does a great job inhabiting the world of women on the Nebraska plains starting from what was probably about 1890. The language is spare, the action is often spare, and the characters are developed in their own meandering way. I never really developed any connections with the main characters, though I don't think that's the real point of this novel.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written, unique novel mainly about generations of the women of the Atkins family. The two main characters are Cora and Sharon Rose. Cora is six feet tall, flat chested, not particularly attractive, but intelligent, hard working and independent. She marries Emerson Atkins. Cora raises chickens and establishes a garden and lawn area. She gives birth to her only child, Beulah Madge. Sharon Rose is the first daughter of Orion Atkins and Belle. Orion and Emerson are brothers who decide to go out West to homestead government land in Nebraska.

An interesting novel where we follow the stories of Cora, Emerson, Orion, their children and grandchildren up to 1980. The last generation manage to have boys. What is unique about this novel is that the characters are sketched rather than fully developed. The novel has good plot momentum as a number of unexpected events occur.

This book won the 1981 National Book Award for fiction.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much as I love broad humor and want entertainment lit under my ass like a string of fire-crackers exploding in a series of hits, the art that sit with me like an old friend and resonate tends towards the quiet. Morris Wright doesn’t turn down the volume in PLAINS SONG, a novel about generations of Nebraskan women, instead, he gives space to the expanse of everyone’s lives. You could say still waters run deep, but that would be a cliche, a crunch Morris wouldn’t lower himself to lean on. His Characters come alive over the course of this short book in ways that we all share. I always had a criticism of the idea of the hero’s journey. Just because mythology shares a plot line across cultures doesn’t make it a template to slap in your narrative. At least, I don’t see anything special about it. What Morris has done is show how existence has nuance and value outside of the storytelling we need yet abuse. That he has done this in a story is but one of the contradictory forces that forges this masterpiece.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When Cora came to the screen, fanning the dead air with her apron, and gazed across the green lawn with its pattern of posts and wickets, the striped balls gleaming like eggs painted for Easter, the sad keening of the mourning doves filled her with a sorrowful pleasure, more satisfying to her nature than a blithe, careless happiness. In the chill of the morning, or the cool of the evening, the air heavy with the drone of insects, Cora’s contentment might be so great it aroused her guilt. What had she done to be favored with such peace of mind?”

American women have had hard lives, and novelists like to turn again and again to the enduring strength of women on the American plains. The subtitle of this novel — “for female voices” — is stirring and appropriate, because it’s the women who matter here. The narrative hinges on Cora, who moves out to a farm with her new husband in the early 20th century, and follows the life of her daughter and nieces. Morris’s prose and the content of his narrative call to mind a less musical Willa Cather, and I liked the novel for this similarity. His style is often abrupt and without fanfare, but I found it appropriate for the scope and backdrop of this story. If anything, the story makes one grateful to have been born a woman at the end of the 20th century instead of at the beginning.

[Sheila Rocha · Rating 2 out of 5]

A somber and darker look at the limited reality of the plains/prairie woman. The starch is thick as life is filled with negation for passion and future.
It is filled with brutal honesty, but requires more character dimension. There must be more to some of the women in his novel.

[Old Man JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely written book that takes place on the Central Plaines and follows the lives of women in one family from the late 1800's to the late 1900's. The writing is fairly sparse and the pace of the book is very slow with no real plot, but still worth reading.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, subtle, heartbreaking ... a writer who could tell a lifetime by painting one downward glance ...

[Susan Bybee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully laconic narrative of three generations of Nebraska women. This is the most authentically midwestern novel I've ever read.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this and feel like I’ve failed a test for not liking it. The writing is sparse to the point of feeling unfinished. Many sentences are so oddly structured I had to re-read them to understand. There’s no plot. The characters are thin, there’s no motivation, no connections, no emotional depth.

I just don’t understand what people like about this.

The Nebraska depictions are satisfying, though.

[Jason Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three generations of women in the Midwest

Wright Morris offers us a peculiar vision of the good old days in “Plains Song.” In his novel, hard work on the land pays off while the dislocation of the seventies undermines the family unit. It is strange reading this after “Prairie Fires” and “The Worst Hard Times,” books that go through great pains to show the harsh realities of farming in the Midwest in the 20th Century. For the harsh reality is that the halcyon good old days were a myth. So what is Morris selling when he somehow ignores the Depression and agricultural malaise of the first half of the twentieth century to spotlight the plight of the small time farmer in the seventies. In truth, farming families have often worked hard with only the occasional boom to make up for years of hard living and financial peril.
To my mind Morris appears to be drawing comparisons between a generation of women that saw marriage as an economic exchange and a later generation of women that undermine the institution in lieu of self gratification. In between lies a generation of women, one of whom embraces the role of mother, while the other seeks out a celibate(?), or perhaps a sisterly, spinsterhood. The speed with which the novel jumps to the present day to layout these comparisons is dizzying. What seems lost in the shuffle is a subplot of a young girl coming into her own, who’s development is suddenly dashed at the whim of a fickle sponsor.
I loved the language and the voice Morris brought to these characters, I just did not appreciate what he had them say.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

National Book Award for Fiction 1981 - Plains Song is the story of the Atkinson family and the woman in that. It centers around Cora who is in her late teens when the book starts and marries Emerson Atkinson, moving in with him and his brother Orion in Nebraska. The book then focuses on Cora's children and grandchildren and their life through the 20th Century. This is a book almost entirely of woman. Most of the children born to the family are girls and their husbands are merely secondary characters. The women in the book are strong willed and in charge of their lives, even Cora who is a farmer's wife.
The issue I had with the book is that I wasn't really invested in most of the characters and therefor I had a hard time telling some of the apart and what daughter went with what mother. But largely this was a good book and worth reading.

[Keiko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for the KCRW Bookworm FaceBook Club discussion.

A slow paced book, not for everyone but I enjoyed it for it's "plainness".
For me, instead of reading in between the lines, it del like I was given the time to reflect on my own life and the women in my own family.

If you are looking for a quick read with romance, mystery and plot twists, this is not for you. However, if you are looking to savor the grit, dry winds, calloused hands and souls of those who lived in the plains (and escaped them), then Plains Song could be a Good Read for you.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A National Book of the Year, Morris' novel describes all the women in three generations of one family and so deftly written that one feels they know them all. When some minor incident in one of their lives makes them think of similar things that happened earlier to them, it wasn't uncommon for me to find myself staring out the window while remembering incidents in my past, too. As a grandfather looking back, however, most of the time I was glad that part of my life was over.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect book for the end of summer, as the sun sets earlier in the evening and the cicadas are dying in the trees. Cora married Emerson and set out to make a home together on a farm on the vast prairie. They had a daughter, Madge, who grew up with her cousin, Sharon, Emerson’s brother Orion’s daughter. Collecting eggs, raising children, the seasons come and go as the cycles of life continue...quietly like a fading summer evening.

[Mary Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are better books on this theme (women who settled the frontier, in this case the Great Plains). This is a multigenerational story of the women in one family in Nebraska.

The character of Sharon drove me crazy. She is the one woman in the family who chooses not to marry and instead, to follow a career and move to the big city (Chicago), but her motivations are not well explained.

[Steve Sanderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first half of this seemingly aimless novel, because of the characterization of Cora and Emerson. I lost the trail with the proliferation of beady eyed characters and hopeless plodding. The theme that life is just putting one foot in front of the other doesn’t appeal. And neither Cora nor Sharon, the principal voices, has a very broad emotional range.

[Sue · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this dull book with underdeveloped characters and wonder why I bothered to finish it. There was nothing written in a positive sense, nothing to make you feel good or enjoy what you're reading. If everyone perceived life in this negative manner wouldn't we all be sad indeed.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great character sketches--loved his descriptions of the women's temperaments and living conditions but the plot was basically non-existent. I kept putting it down and it took me a long time to finish it since nothing was driving the story.

[Cws]

F Mor

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

bleak, but compelling

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did my Master's Thesis on this author's salvaging of the past.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of three generations of women as they farm and raise their children on the plains of Nebraska. Morris examines the relationships of the family as they change through the years.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much too slow for my taste.

Cora's nobility has to do with her ability to bear up without complaint.

[Ilianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too slow.

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

5*

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow read about a family on the plains. Not the best book about that area and era, but a good simple read with no plot. Filled in some time.

[Lynn Feinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t believe I’ve only learned of this author now. Spare writing, characters that get under your skin.