New Midwestern Fiction: Nickolas Butler's The Hearts of Men
by eapearce
As a Michigan native, I find it refreshing to read books set in the heartland rather than in the bustling worlds of the coasts, at least from time to time. Nickolas Butler’s first book, Shotgun Lovesongs, perfectly captured life in small-town Wisconsin and his book of short stories, Beneath the Bonfire, spanned the entire Midwest , depicting the unglamorous yet deeply moving lives of farmers, factory workers, bartenders, truck drivers, miners and their families. Both books strike an aching chord with anyone who has lived in the rural Midwest. In his newest novel, The Hearts of Men, Butler again sets readers down in rural Wisconsin, over a time period of over five decades. The book follows the lives of two men, Nelson and Jonathan, who first meet as boys at Boy Scout camp in the 1960s. Their lives take vastly different directions; Nelson fights in Vietnam and eventually becomes the director of the very same Boy Scout camp, while Jonathan becomes a successful businessman with an unhappy marriage. It’s clear that Butler writes from experience—he grew up in Wisconsin and still lives outside of Eau Claire with his family. Nelson and Jonathan seem like more than just characters, but men that he has known, or could know.
The Hearts of Men explores the influence that age-old American institutions like the Boy Scouts have on a person’s life, and deals with the moral and ethical quandaries that we all face over the course of a lifetime. The book reads quickly and smoothly, and is highly recommended by this reader for anyone from the Midwest looking for a novel about home.
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