Book Bites: The Evening Shades

The Evening Shades by Lee Martin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The short, short version is that the Evening Shades is a stellar sequel undone only by its even more stellar original.

The Evening Shades is a quiet yet powerful story of dignity and picking up the pieces of a shattered life. Martin's prose is spare and beautiful; he captures the settings and people of American Midwest in a way that is absolutely true. It is a delight for the reader to walk among them. The story of unlikely love between Henry Dees and Edith Green, both outcasts, is sweet but not saccharine, simple and lovely in a way that reminds of Kent Haruf. The major knock against The Evening Shades is that it doesn't quite reach the heights or create a the same tension of its superlative predecessor, The Bright Forever. There are also some minor issues with pacing; once the plot 'happens,' it happens quickly. Anyone seeking a literary page-turner, though, will find a lot to like in The Evening Shades.

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