A review by emckeon1002
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

4.0

A bit of a rant before the review. I've come to admit that I like a book with a story that carries me, characters who act like you would expect real humans to act, and one that elicits an emotional response. And I want it written well. As an English major four decades ago, I read lots of book which rebelled against plot, character, sentimentality. It was all about intellectual stimulation. I think I understood and was challenged by a lot of Joyce, but I loved Dickens. Nothing wrong with intellectual stimulation, of course, but fancy language, tortured sentence structure, slavery to style (or breaking style), and the need to prove that a work is intellectually and artistically stimulating, in the end, just bores the hell out of me. I close those books and put them down now. Of course, there are books that are written beautifully, plotted well, with strong characters and lovely use of language, that are intellectually stimulating, and that's the best of all worlds. This is a damned good book. It's got a great plot and characters. Written well, with straightforward American English. And it touched me. I picked it up because Butler lives in the town in Wisconsin where Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) wrote For Emma, Forever Ago. There's a character in the book who was obviously inspired by Vernon. The idea of reading about a long-suffering musician who finds fame after holing up in his old hometown, and then returning a star, seemed an intriguing read. It is. It's about friendship, family, love and love of place. I liked it.