Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas ButlerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book, except the ending, but that shouldn't stop anyone. I ran across this title through my work in a library and looked it up here on Goodreads. After I started reading it, I looked it up on Amazon and read some more reviews on Goodreads. I had no idea about the connection to "Bon Iver" as another reviewer mentioned, but I spent a few hours doing some research and listening to some music and became a fan.
When was the last time you read a book that led you to good music? I don't know if that's ever happened to me before, and I loved the book even more for that.
Getting back to the novel itself though, the story takes place in a small Wisconsin town, a farming town, much like many farming towns all across America I imagine. I can certainly imagine this story happening in a small town that I've lived in myself or one of the others nearby. I liked that. I like stories in small towns. I can imagine the bar at the VFW because I've been in a few. So this story struck a chord with me.
I was thrown off for a minute as I went from the first chapter to the second and the narrators changed, but once I adjusted to that and began to pay attention to the "L", "H", "R", "B","K",etc.. at the beginning of the chapter I did just fine. It's a good way to tell this story, switching points of view all the time because it really helps you get the full story. I was fully drawn in to the characters, and I had trouble putting the book down when it was time to do other things.
Now that I've read it, and returned it to the library, I may buy a copy to put on my shelf for when I want to read it again. It was that good.
Highly recommended.
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