What was that? The lack of quotation marks alone are enough to get on anyone's last nerve. I thought everyone learned how to use quotation marks back in the fourth grade, but Mr. Haruf obviously did not. The countless number of run-on sentences didn't help much either. I don't understand how it got the excellent reviews that it did. The plot was dull and it left me feeling as though it didn't end. Why did Guthrie's wife act the way she did and leave her little boys? Victoria's mother is introduced only to kick her daughter out of the house. I wanted to like Victoria's character, but she too proved to be just as boring as the rest. This book proved to me that just about anyone can get a book deal these days.