Where You Once Belonged

By Kent Haruf

Set in a fictional Colorado town, Kent Haruf's Where You Once Belonged brings to life small town America and the characters that keep the community together.

Heavy-built Jack Burdette is quite literally too big for his boots – and too big, certainly, for the small-town attitudes of Holt, Colorado. But when he fails to make the grade as a college footballer, and takes a job with the local farmers’ cooperative, it seems he has finally settled into the rhythm and routine of everyday life. Outward appearances can be deceptive, however, as Jack proves: returning from a weekend conference with a new wife in tow, then leaving her behind and skipping town with a bundle of other folks’ money.

Nearly a decade later, no one has forgiven or forgotten, and when Jack reappears, resentment runs high. Once again though, it is Jack whose presence – even more than his eight-year absence – proves the most devastating.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Nov 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781509822386

Kent Haruf

Kent Haruf is the author of six novels (and, with the photographer Peter Brown, West of Last Chance). His honours include a Whiting Foundation Writers' Award, the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award, the Wallace Stegner Award, and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation; he was also a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The New Yorker Book Award. Benediction was shortlisted for the Folio Prize. He died in November 2014, at the age of seventy-one.

Reviews for Where You Once Belonged

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Former high school football star Jack Burdette returns to his hometown of Holt, Colorado, in the 1980's, after an eight-year absence. Jack has alienated the townspeople due to his past actions. His friend, Pat Arbuckle, the local newspaper editor, tells the sad story of Jack’s rise and fall.

I enjoyed the first half of this book. The author writes in a clear, crisp style. He maintains dramatic tension by creating curiosity to find out what could have gone so terribly wrong in Jack’s life. It is an indictment of the way our heroes are idolized, and the impact it can have on the psyche of those that buy into the hero worship. Unfortunately, the second half goes downhill, with one completely unrealistic major plot point and an ending I could not appreciate. This book seems to me like a long introduction to another more in-depth story, which remains untold.

[bobbieharv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A villain returns to town and gets thrown in jail; the rest of the book tells us, step by step, about his impact on the town. Lovely spare writing; a plot carefully built. Not quite as magnificent as Plainsong, but close.

[lkernagh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With this one, I have now finished reading all of the novels in Haruf’s oeuvre. Yes, it seems a bit odd to end off with his second book but I wasn’t reading them in publication order. This one did not capture my attention to the same extend as the other books did. With this one, Haruf seems to be experimenting with setting and story structure. Maybe he was still trying to find his writing groove. While still set in the fictional town of Holt, this one takes extra side trips outside of Holt to other urban centres. While this story starts near the ending, once we dip back in time, it has a more traditional story structure with a linear progression of events. I guess every community has its “bad seed/ bad apple”, which in this story is Jack Burdette. Haruf straightforward prose is still evident, but there is an awkwardness to the writing that seems to suit the characters, almost as if the story was writing itself. While Haruf is known for his seemingly simple stories with some tension/ undercurrent simmering below the surface, this story wasn’t as compelling or, IMO, as powerfully written as his other stories. It is not that I have grown tired of Holt and the town folk. Each of Haruf stories – with the exception of Plainsong and Eventide – is populated with predominantly new characters to get to know and different time periods to settle into (although some time periods across the books do overlap). I just wasn’t that interested in reading a story about a small town high school football player and the decisions he makes. I actually perked up when the town’s hopes for retribution falls apart as it meant that Finally something was going to happen. Well, what happened wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but maybe that is the point. Maybe the story with a message about family and community and the bonds we make like Haruf’s other stories. Maybe in this case, it is about the bonds we break or cannot hold onto, or maybe, it is just a story.

[porch_reader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of Kent Haruf's earlier books. Set in Holt, Colorado, this is the story of Jack Burdette. The book begins as Jack has returned to Holt after doing something that the people of Holt cannot forgive him for. Through flashbacks, we gradually learn how Jack went from being a high school football star to a businessman. Told through the voice of Holt's newspaper editor, this book has Haruf's characteristic voice - straightforward and authentic. Although I think Haruf grew as a writer throughout his career, every this early book is well worth reading.

[rbeffa_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well written story that is told kind of slowly. The story of Jack Burdette, small town sports star who runs a little on the wild side but doesn't seem like a bad sort at all. Seems like just about everyone likes him. Except the sheriff. When he went off very briefly to college he went from being the big fish in a little pond to a smaller fish in a big pond. Things didn't work out so he joined the Army and two years later he returned to the small town of Holt where he had grown up. He could be the big well-liked fish in the pond again. Life went on.We know from the first page of the story that something really bad happened with the town and Jack eight years before the telling of this tale. After the first few pages we flash way back in time to when Jack started first grade. The story is told by a man who was once his friend and is now the newspaper editor of the small town weekly paper. Much of the story is about the townspeople of Holt, and this editor, our narrator, Pat Arbuckle. Don't quote me on that name. It may have been mentioned in pieces only once or twice. This is a short novel and it never lost my attention. Good but not great stuff. I can't figure the moral of the story though. It is a story about misplaced trust. The long blurb on the back cover misled me. I would call it at the very least hyperbole.There's another blurb on the back cover credited to the Denver Post: "Where You Once Belonged speaks with the authenticity of ... Hemingway and Faulkner." I certainly got a Hemingway vibe from this, especially in the latter half of the book. The ending was very unexpected. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I did not see the end coming. This is all a little twisty.

[rampaginglibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very well written novel set in a small town--no words wasted. Beautiful words--devastating ending.

[lyndainoregon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Haruf returns to Holt, Colorado, this time with a story of betrayal, redemption, and tragedy.

Jack Burdette was a wild kid who grew up to be a big frog in Holt's little puddle -- high school football star, ex-GI returning to his home town where he stepped into a job managing the local grain co-op.

Burdette is a totally unlikeable character -- a bully, a cheat, and a blowhard -- and perhaps the only false note in the book is the friendship between him and narrator Pat Arbuckle, another hometown boy who grew up to take over his father's small-town newspaper. The friendship has pretty well retreated by the time Jack Burdette betrays the trust of his employer and walks out on his pregnant wife and their two small boys, taking along $150,000 of the co-op's money.

How the town reacts to this betrayal and how Burdette's abandoned wife copes with her situation forms the core of this slim novel, and exposes the heart of small-town America, warts and all. As always, Haruf uses simple language and characters who are readily identifiable without ever becoming cliche, and creates a story that burrows right into the core of who we are.

[maryreinert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jack Burdette was a football hero in Holt, Colorado; he was big, loud, daring, and could be charming. For years he dated Wanda Jo but on a business trip to Tulsa for the local grain elevator where he was manager, he came back to Holt married to a quiet girl named Jesse. The story is told from the viewpoint of Pat Arbuckle, the town's newspaper editor and opens with Jack returning to Holt after a long absence. He is immediately arrested and the rest of the book tells the story of the crime which affected so many people in Holt. This story runs true for a small town. The coffee shop, the local newspaper, and most importantly, the grain coop plays a huge part. Haruf presents characters that are real and although the action is subtle, it has great impact. The story is sad. Lives that were living quietly in Holt were greatly affected by Burdette's crime. There is anger and hatred. The ending is gripping. Another great story of ordinary lives living in quiet desperation.

[appliquetion · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Take a side road and Holt County, Colorado to get a glimpse into the richness of the people who live there. In this book we follow the life of Jack Burdette as he goes from the town hero to the most hated person in town. See how his actions affect the various people in his life as he rushes toward what he wants out of life.This novel delivers a powerful story that had me enthralled to the end. Though I found the ending disappointing and kind of heart wrenching. I enjoyed the various story lines that flowed with in the pages and felt a true connection with the narrator. I would recommend this book for those who love a small slice of life with their coffee at reading time. :).

[almin-70827 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Haruf will always be one of my favorite writers. His characters are so human, all of his endings are true to life, not what you want, but what you should expect.

[zmagic69 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have read all but one of this author's books and they are all solid stories, that you immediately can fall into reading.

[oldblack-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I've never been to America, but Haruf's stories make me feel as though know the small town rural areas pretty well. He had a great way of really putting the reader in the place. I don't think this early work is his best, but it's definitely time well spent to read it.