Alone Together. Our Souls At Night, by Kent Haruf

In the last few months, nights became unbearable, memories came crawling back and hit me harder every time, I cry myself to sleep, partly out of indecision, and disappointment. I am twenty one years old, and I feel like my life has ended, not because I am not depressed or anything, it’s the decay of loneliness, deep down I feel that it is only a matter of time and I will go back as I was before, so active, so productive, and social. I wanted to find solace in something, to get out all the heavy thoughts clouding up my consciousness, this time it is a book that I have had in my shelf for a while, but it never appealed to me as the book for my current mood until two days ago, this book is Our Souls At Night, by Kent Haruf. Honestly this book was everything I wanted it to be, it is tender, touching, emotional, and very consoling.

Our Souls At Night follows takes us into the lonely nights of two neighbors, Eddie and Louis who have been familiar with each others, but never were friends until this one night when Eddie came at Louis’ doorstep and asked him if he could share her bed, share their loneliness, to just lay there beside each others, drink some wine or beer and talk each other to sleep. Eddie has a son, and Louis has a daughter, but both of them live alone for years, both of them are haunted by memories, specially at night, you know how it feels to live backwards. Over the time they spend together, they pour their hearts out, they laugh, and they share some intimate regrets, piece of memories, and secrets.

No one expected Kent Haruf to write a book after he was diagnosed with Cancer, even his publisher was surprised, in fact the book was published posthumously in May, 2015. My favorite works of my favorite authors are mostly either their last published books, or their posthumous publication, take of instance Long Day’s Journey Into Night, by Eugene O’Neill; the books that witness the last chapter of an author are the most intimate, the most autobiographical in tone, very insightful. I usually don’t write about the authors, but we can’t ignore how important this book was for Kent, like O’Neill he dedicated the book to his wife, a gift full of love and nostalgia. Kent Haruf and his wife used to spend so many nights late just talking, and chatting.

And just like Kent Haruf, no one expected a revival or romance from Addie and Louis, they as many old people were expected to give in to aging, to die before they stopped breathing, but Addie and Louis both refused this role by sneaking around at night, and sleeping in the same bed, although the reader is confused about weather anything is going happen between them other than the wine and chats. I guess that at such an age what is more important than sexuality is companionship, sharing aloneness with someone else. Addie and Louis have very poignant memories of their spouses, for instance we could feel that the memory of Addie’s dead daughter never left her, and we can still see the shadow of Diane over Louis, and his regrets, so when they are together, the memories don’t go away, except that they are uttered, they are expressed out loud, they are shared. And nothing can be more soothing than a shared melancholic moment.

Although the book is very simple, short chapters and full of dialogue, the thing that renders the characters accessible to the reader, still the book has a layer of complication, a lost unknown past to the readers except for few pieces of memories, dots that we as reader have to connect, it is not necessary though to connect these memories together to enjoy the the experience, but I felt uncertain about their decisions, I felt that for instance Addie had this feeling of guilt, she feels guilty about her dead husband, her dead daughter, and her son, she feels obligated to help her grandson out of guilt mostly, actually her romance with Louis reconnects her with her family.

I am so excited for the Netflix adaptation of this book, I hope it will do it justice, and introduce more audience to the genius of Kent Haruf.

Our Souls At night is a lesson on love, a lesson on fidelity and rebellion.