Reading Order
The Tie That Binds Reading Order
The Tie That Binds (1984) by Kent Haruf is his debut novel — winner of the Whiting Writers' Award and the basis for a modest early reputation that would grow exponentially with Plainsong fifteen years later. The novel is set in Holt, Colorado (the same fictional town as the later novels) and is the story of Edith Goodnough, an old woman who has spent her entire life on the family farm, caring for a domineering father and a damaged brother while her own life narrowed down to nothing. The story is told by Roy Goodnough, a neighbor who has known Edith all his life, and the narrative moves between the present (Edith in her final days) and the past (the history of the Goodnough family across decades). The Tie That Binds announces the concerns that would run through Haruf's career: the Colorado plains as a landscape that shapes character, the working-class agricultural community as a subject worthy of literary attention, the spare prose style (though not yet as refined as in Plainsong), and the specific attention to women's lives in the rural West — the ways in which duty and circumstance can circumscribe a life without any dramatic event. The novel is harder to find than the later Holt books but rewards readers who want to see how Haruf's fictional world developed.
Where to start
The Tie That Binds — any Holt paperback or Vintage edition if available. Best read after Plainsong and the later Holt novels; it is the debut and shows Haruf's development rather than his full achievement.
Complete The Tie That Binds Book List
- 1Buy
The Tie That Binds
Kent Haruf·1984·The novel — Edith Goodnough's life on the Colorado plains, told by neighbor Roy Goodnough; the debut novel that established Haruf's Holt world and his concern with the Colorado plains community; the early version of the style and themes Plainsong would realize fully. - 2Buy
Plainsong
Kent Haruf·1999·The essential companion — Haruf's breakthrough novel and the fullest realization of his Holt world; where The Tie That Binds is the promising debut, Plainsong is the achieved masterpiece. - 3Buy
Eventide
Kent Haruf·2004·The second Holt novel — the direct sequel to Plainsong; the companion in the Holt world. - 4Buy
Our Souls at Night
Kent Haruf·2015·Haruf's final novel — the luminous coda to his career and to the Holt world. - 5Buy
Benediction
Kent Haruf·2013·The third Holt novel — the completion of the Holt trilogy and the most explicit statement of Haruf's themes. - 6Buy
My Antonia
Willa Cather·1918·Cather's great novel about Czech immigrants on the Nebraska plains — the companion in the tradition of American fiction about women's lives in the rural West; Antonia Shimerda's Nebraska is the earlier, immigrant version of what Edith Goodnough's Colorado plains represent. - 7Buy
A Thousand Acres
Jane Smiley·1991·Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning King Lear adaptation set on an Iowa farm — the companion in American fiction about women's lives on the plains and the family obligations that circumscribe them; Ginny Cook's Iowa is the more dramatic, more explicitly tragic version of Edith Goodnough's situation. - 8Buy
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout·2008·Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel in stories — the companion in the tradition of American fiction about women's lives in specific small communities; Olive's Maine coastal world is the northeastern version of Edith's Colorado plains world.
The Tie That Binds — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Tie That Binds about?
The Tie That Binds is the story of Edith Goodnough, an old woman in Holt, Colorado, whose life has been spent caring for others at the expense of her own desires and possibilities. The novel is narrated by Roy Goodnough, a neighbor who has known Edith all his life, and it moves between the present (Edith in her final days, in circumstances that are both difficult and legally complicated) and the past (the history of the Goodnough family: Edith's domineering father Roy Senior, her damaged brother Lyman who lost part of his arm in a farm accident, and the steady narrowing of Edith's own life as she fulfilled the obligations placed on her by her family).
How does The Tie That Binds compare to the later Holt novels?
The Tie That Binds is Haruf's debut and shows him developing the concerns and the style that would reach their fullest expression in Plainsong. The prose is already spare and direct, but not yet as rhythmically refined as in the later novels. The subject — the Colorado plains community, the working-class agricultural life, the specifically female experience of obligation and circumscription — is already clearly Haruf's, but The Tie That Binds is more plot-driven and less meditative than Plainsong. Readers who come to it after the later novels will find it interesting as a predecessor; readers who come to it first may find it harder to get through.
What is the significance of the title?
The tie that binds is a phrase from a 19th-century Protestant hymn ('Blest Be the Tie That Binds'), and it works in the novel as a double image: the bonds of love and community that sustain people in specific places, and the ties of obligation and duty that bind Edith to her family and her land in ways that prevent her from living her own life. Haruf's use of a hymn title is characteristic — his prose and his concerns are saturated with the language of the Protestant Christianity that shaped rural American communities, even when his novels are not explicitly religious.
Where does The Tie That Binds fit in Haruf's career?
The Tie That Binds is Haruf's first novel, published in 1984 when he was 43. It won the Whiting Writers' Award and established a modest reputation. His second novel, Where You Once Belonged (1990), continued in the same Holt setting. Plainsong (1999) brought him national recognition and the National Book Award finalist placement that established his reputation. The Holt trilogy (Plainsong, Eventide, Benediction) and Our Souls at Night (2015) are the work for which he is primarily remembered. The Tie That Binds is now read primarily by committed Haruf readers who want the full context of his development.
What should I read after The Tie That Binds?
After The Tie That Binds, Plainsong (1999) is the essential companion and the novel where Haruf's style and world are fully realized. For American fiction about women's lives in the rural West, Willa Cather's My Antonia and Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres are the most important companions. For the plains tradition specifically, Willa Cather's O Pioneers! is the essential historical predecessor.
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