Harpsong (Stories and Storytellers Series)

Stories and Storytellers Series

by Askew

A love story about Dust Bowl heroes who didn’t leave for California Harlan Singer, a harmonica-playing troubadour, shows up in the Thompson family’s yard one morning. He steals their hearts with his music, and their daughter with his charm. Soon he and his fourteen-year-old bride, Sharon, are on the road, two more hobos of the Great Depression, hitchhiking and hopping freights across the Great Plains in search of an old man and the settlement of Harlan’s long-standing debt. Finding shelter in hobo jungles and Hoovervilles, the newlyweds careen across the 1930s landscape in a giant figure eight with Oklahoma in the middle. Sharon’s growing doubts about her husband’s quest set in motion events that turn Harlan Singer into a hero while blinding her to the dark secret of his journey. A love story infused with history and folk tradition, Harpsong shows what happened to the friends and neighbors Steinbeck’s Joads left behind. In this moving, redemptive tale inspired by Oklahoma folk heroes, Rilla Askew continues her exploration of the American story. Harpsong is a novel of love and loss, of adventure and renewal, and of a wayfaring orphan’s search for home―all set to the sounds of Harlan’s harmonica. It shows us the strength and resilience of a people who, in the face of unending despair, maintain their faith in the land.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jessaka · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Publishers Weekly: "Set in Depression-era Oklahoma and drawing inevitable comparison to The Grapes of Wrath, Askew's novel presents the best and worst of humanity in its depiction of hardscrabble lives lived during the Dust Bowl. Sharon Thompson is only 14 when cocksure wanderer Harlan Singer steals her heart and takes her on the road. The pair hop freight trains all around the heartland, earning pennies with Harlan's miraculous and captivating harmonica skills. They encounter both greedy authorities and kind strangers, including a run-in with some railroad police that almost kills Harlan, changing his and Sharon's life forever. Askew's command of language is a pleasure to behold, bringing out the pain and wonder of her story with a bittersweet immediacy."

I love John Steinbeck's books, and this book does remind me of "Grapes of Wrath" but instead of leaving Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, this is the story of those who stayed.

Rilla Askew is a beautiful poetic writer that draws you into this story immediately. This story is not only adventureous but tragic as well.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the age of 14, Sharon Thompson runs off with Harlan Singer and marries him, knowing nothing of his early life. They live on the move as Depression Era hobos. Sharon misses her family and longs for a more settled life, but Harlan is always haunted by his past. They stick together riding the rails in Oklahoma and the surrounding states.

Rilla Askew is a lifelong Oklahoman, and clearly a historian. She uses Sharon and Harlan's peregrinations as a way to give the reader a tour of 1930s Oklahoma and Texas. They pass through the hobo jungles, and the railroad yards where the bulls ruthlessly seek out tramps in the train cars. They see the towns emptied by bank foreclosures, and the farms and homes of good people barely hanging on but willing to offer drifters a meal and a place to sleep.

Askew conveys the feelings of hopelessness, desperation, hunger, and fear of the future experienced by all levels of society during the Depression. Her descriptions of the dry, flat, hot landscape really stayed with me. I could almost feel the grit between my teeth and smell the cinders of a passing train.

The writing is literary, but not the least bit flowery or strained. Only an Oklahoma native could make Sharon's voice ring so true to the place and time.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautiful book. One of those books that you can't help but read every word and savor it. Fourteen year old Sharon is swept off her feet by Harlan Singer, a charming drifter, and runs off with him. They travel through the heart of the Dust Bowl staying in Hobo camps and Hoovervilles, hitching rides on the road with sympathetic people and jumping boxcars as they hide from the railroad "bulls". A very vivid portrait of the time.

[Tyra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed parts of this book...but other parts not so much. It definitely showed another part of the Depression and how people survived.

I wanted more of a story that explained why Sharon was attracted to Harlan, why she agreed to follow/marry him, etc. I needed more about Sharon and her story.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, beautiful, very nearly perfect. This story grows unpredictably, in wild and sometimes breathtaking moves that keep readers--well, this reader--on edge, in the very best way. And the voice! Well, the voices...this is a master of the craft at work. Can't wait for Kind of Kin in January 2012!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with this story!

[Candorman · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of a 14 year old girl being let loose to marry and travel around with a hobo is, to me, a stretch. The narrative of their travels and travails is of little interest. I do not see a point to the narrative, no reason for it to begin, no point to the middle, no foreseeable resolution because there really isn't any problem. I do not find people such as these to be of interest and I do not share in this book's accolades and high rating.

[richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first "5" in awhile. Lovely book about hardscrabble Oklahoma during the depression. Lots of hopping freights, stealing food, hot, dusty Oklahoma, and sweet music from the harmonica. And a great love story. Also, language I haven't heard in may years but so true to country life, some sobering history, and profound truths. I loved this book.

[Annie]

This is one of those books I don't know how to rate. It's beautifully written but I found it terribly depressing. If you like sad Historical Fiction you'll probably love it.

I didn't get Sharon's motivation for following Harlan off the Farm. Ending just kind of fell off with a lot of things mentioned in one the last paragraphs.

Really liked the Somesay voice.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfair to read this immediately after and expect it to live up to The Grapes of Wrath, but this more modern re-telling of the Dust Bowl era in Oklahoma is nevertheless compelling and heart-wrenching. Thanks Kathie!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hauntingly beautiful tale of life in Oklahoma during the great depression. The characters Sharon and Harlon are wove into the scenery of Oklahoma. Stirring, majestic, beautiful...

[Amy Webster-Bo · Rating 5 out of 5]

really really good, once i started i could not put it down, awesome book

[anonymousreader]

to-read

[Lyla Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time. Sometimes Hope is all you have to hang onto. Very well written with amazing characters.

[Brody Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love Oklahoma books!

[Whitney Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rilla Askew's prose in this novel is absolutely beautiful. She tells the story of 14 year old Sharon, who runs away from home to marry Harlan Singer, who, although, handsome and musical, does not have a hardworking bone in his body, thus earning the disapproval of her family. They ride the rails and live on charity for years, facing many hardships along the way. The majority of the middle of the book felt very repetitive to me, although this may have been deliberate, as I am sure a life traveling through the same places over and over again must have been as well. My only complaint was the development of the relationship between Sharon and Harlan: I never really connected with either character, saw them fall in love with each other,or truly felt their grief and heartbreaks. I felt as if both of them were more infatuated with the idea of each other than actually in love (Sharon with Harlan's good looks and musicality, yet resenting him for the same things, and for taking her away from her family. Harlan seemed to idolize the idea of Sharon and her innocence). They never truly knew anything about one another, because they never really told one another the truth. The ending is heartbreaking in that nothing truly good happens to any of the characters, and the missed opportunities were gut wrenching. I did love the poetic changes with the different narrators, especially the parts told from Harlan's point of view.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book, written in three voices: the teenaged bride of a Depression-era itinerant and singer/harmonica player; "Folksay," or the communal (sometimes misinformed) voice of the Oklahoma, Texas, Kansan, and New Mexican towns through which the couple passes on foot and by freight; and "Deepsong," a translation of the unspoken embodied in the land and the singer himself. (A fourth voice does emerge at the very end.) The evocation of time and place is powerful, the language gorgeous, the exploration of themes such as fate, individual responsibility, sin, and redemption serious. Harpsong is also a compelling tale of a marriage, lived under hardship, between two people deeply in love.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the writing of Rilla Askew; an Oklahoman, she writes wonderful fiction that grows out of the history of her state. This story is set in depression era NE Oklahoma, and tells the story of those times through the voice of 14 yr old Sharon Thompson, who sneaks away from her home and family to marry Harlan Singer, a wanderer and musician. Sharon joins Harlan as he "rides the rails" from town to town, crossing several states. The life they live as "hobos" is not romanticized at all, but is written to illustrate the starkness and desperation of that life. Askew writes with such descriptiveness, with language that paints a vivid picture, even when the subject is bleak or brutal. I find her one of the most talented writers of our times.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, this tells the story of a young couple on the road during the depression. They travel by train and by hitchhiking in a "giant figure eight with Oklahoma in the middle--the squeezed-in hourglass place". He is a harmonica (a mouth harp) player, and she is a 14 year-old girl who marries him before she really knows him, and takes on his lifestyle, losing her family in the bargain. It is a picture of what life was like in the dustbowl and the desperation in so many people's lives at that time. Although a sad story, it is poetically rendered with narratives from several point of views which enrich the context of the story.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a mythic figure searching for his soul. The story of a country searching for its soul. Both told by the teenage wife of the mythic figure. The writing style was distracting for quite a while. The graphic depiction of what the Depression did to people and communities is powerful, but the book did not quite feel like a successful novel. I have never gotten around to reading The Grapes of Wrath - perhaps it is time.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good, but bleak, book about a young couple forced to deal with the consequences of running away from home during the Great Depression. I normally don't like books that are this depressing, but I felt the bleakness matched their circumstances, which became increasingly hopeless through the course of the book.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this fictional novel which gives and account of some of the lifestyles that were endured by the impovrished members of early Oklahoma societies. I learned about some of the events in history and gained new insights into how much sacrifice was given by those who fisrt lived in Oklahoma.

[Brenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting narrative that focuses in on the people who stayed in Oklahoma during the Depression of the 1930's, the other side of The Grapes of Wrath, if you will. Told in a disjointed fashion that's very much in character for the protagonist. If you're interested in Oklahoma history, I'd say this is a must read.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much music in this book, yet I didn't so much hear a tune while reading this as I as felt the heaviness and lightness of love, tasted gritty dust and smelled poverty. But then walking today Iris DeMent's "Sweet is the Melody" came into my head and I think this is how I will remember Harlan's tender songs.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for books set in and around northeastern Oklahoma, and I'm predisposed to like Rilla's work because her sister is a friend of mine and we have many other mutual friends, but I think I would have loved this book regardless. It's lovely and lyrical and heart-tugging, and I was thoroughly enraptured.

[Florence Primrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

During the Depression Era a young troubadour arrives at a poor farm

H marries the daughter and they are soon on the road as he searches for a man who had befriended him.

Good descriptions of living in this period.

[Cinsoares · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most unusual book. A sad story but told proudly by its narrator in her naïveté,desperation,hope and pride. A totally believable tale of a harsh time in a harsh land. Everyone has a different interpretation of what is a happy ending.

[Mary Pladsen]

I liked it a lot. So much that I bought my grandson a harmonica for Christmas. I liked the train, the 30's Oklahoma of the book. Poetic, fairly realistic. Just a nice book that I would recommend to pretty much anyone.

[kim McRad · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was a good dustbowl era story, i just didn't like the way it was set up.

[Doris Wedge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love her books. This one follows a young couple as they hitchhike their way through life.