The Hearts of Men: A Novel
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Camp Chippewa, 1962. Nelson Doughty, age thirteen, social outcast and overachiever, is the Bugler, sounding the reveille proudly each morning. Yet this particular summer marks the beginning of an uncertain and tenuous friendship with a popular boy named Jonathan.
Over the years, Nelson, irrevocably scarred from the Vietnam War, becomes Scoutmaster of Camp Chippewa, while Jonathan marries, divorces, and turns his father’s business into a highly profitable company. And when something unthinkable happens at a camp get-together with Nelson as Scoutmaster and Jonathan’s teenage grandson and daughter-in-law as campers, the aftermath demonstrates the depths—and the limits—of Nelson’s selflessness and bravery.
The Hearts of Men is a sweeping, panoramic novel about the slippery definitions of good and evil, family and fidelity, the challenges and rewards of lifelong friendships, the bounds of morality—and redemption.
Nickolas Butler
Nickolas Butler was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His award-winning debut novel, Shotgun Lovesongs, was an international bestseller and has been optioned for film by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Butler graduated from the University of Wisconsin before attending the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and currently lives in Wisconsin with his wife and their two children.
Read more from Nickolas Butler
The Hearts of Men: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Faith: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Hearts of Men
Related ebooks
Flamingo Lane: A Novel of Southern Noir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinter Range: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eleventh Man: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvery Day Above Ground: A Van Shaw Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Country Hardball Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whitecaps on the Lake Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Harvard Bride Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFirefly Cloak Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Welcome Home Door and Other Stories: Tales of Appalachia and Beyond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNemesis: A Novel of the French Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCadillac Orpheus: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Kaminsky Cure: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Avenue Goes to War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lowcountry Bribe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hell's Bottom, Colorado Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Back on Murder (A Roland March Mystery Book #1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cornfields Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSame Beach, Next Year: A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank | Conversation Starters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo Brakes: On the Wing: On the Wing, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMojave Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTennessee's Partner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Seven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Shepherd of the Hills: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor's House Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Little Century: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wish You Were Here: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Governor's Men: A Mountain Brook Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Look Back All the Green Valley: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salvage the Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Hearts of Men
68 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Like other reviewers, I would really like to add an additional half star. I enjoyed reading this book; the writing is very polished and evocative, and the setting is so lovely I spent a few minutes Googling job ads and real estate in Eau Claire. But also like other reviewers, I liked it best at the beginning, when the main characters were young boys in the early 60s. I would like to have seen a little more of Jonathan's life between his time as a kind-spirited, but not particularly brave, boy and his time as a middle-aged man who has apparently lost that spirit.
And of course, the part at the end with Rachel's sexual assault was just ridiculous. All the foreshadowing--her musings on being aware of the enemy, her shooting lessons--went in a completely different direction. I don't know if this was supposed to be deliberately misleading or not, but it felt rushed, and wrong.
Overall, though, I thought it was a really good summer read. Not too heavy, but not too light either. Recommended if you like stories about summer camp and Baby Boomers. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great story that was very moving on CD. Nelson Douty was a friendless boy who was active in scouting but slept in his own tent because nobody wanted to bunk with him. He plays Reveille every morning a scout camp and gets the nickname bugler. His father goes to scout camp with him but ignores him. At home he beats him for infractions. One summer a group of scouts and counselors are discovered watching stag films, smoking and drinking. Nelson was the informer. He is shunned by his fellow scouts and his father derides him for being a snitch.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Upon turning the last page of The Hearts of Men, I have a woman’s heart full of emotions that I am completely unable to express in words.
That is all. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
I bought The Hearts of Men this book from Nickolas Butler at the Lakefly Writers Conference in Oshkosh. He is a Wisconsin writer and I loved Shotgun Love Songs. Mr. Butler’s books are quality and quite frankly, so is he.
Butler read the opening paragraph of this novel and yet I was not prepared for the originality of this story. It follows logical sequences and yet it has twists and turns. I could not have predicted where the story was going to end up.
Butler’s writing kept me turning pages. He made me care about the characters and they have lived on in my mind. To me that is all you require in a book. Yet, Butler’s description of Wisconsin is vivid in details. He goes into literary detail about the characters.
The story as a whole centers on a boy scout summer camp in Northern Wisconsin. This unique character Nelson strives to be the best Boy Scout at the cost of popularity. I believe Butler uses Nelson and the other men in the story (don’t worry it has women too) to explore what it is to be a man. As with all good literary work, it leaves the final decision up to you, the reader. I’m still thinking about it.