The Hearts of Men audiobook

In a novel stacked tall with men and boys in hiking boots and uniforms, unexpectedly, the one sentence that riveted me was “Her whole life, this boy.” I wept.Please be cautious reading other reviews in any detail. You will find no book report here, as a man-friend of mine calls them, because there are secrets and stunners in this story that deserve to be unearthed by you. That right of discovery is yours. This is your adventure.At first blush, I figured this might be a coming-of-age tale set in a Boy Scout camp and with the usual suspect: a bespectacled young fella who is good to his core but is unpopular and bullied. What we find instead is a series of lives that intersect. They are linked to one another by love and bring us an examination of what it means to be a good man - or a good woman. This ensemble of people is tied together by scouting. The skills and goals of the program trickle in and out of the various characters' worlds - I'm talking values here, not the ability to build an emergency shelter or a survival fire in the snow. It is the well-worn set of values that young men aspire to that really saturate the tale.Forgive me this, but a Scout is:Trustworthy, Loyal,Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.I was pleased to find that the men and women here have good and bad in them - cartoonish clichés totally kill a story for me. Just when the reader is ready to gauge someone, a small pebble lodges itself into the insole of our judgement. Similarly, before we readers judge scouting as some fossilized old program only open to white, conservative, straight Christian boys, the author strikes the first blow at that reputation. There is a timelessness to the teaching of values but also to human fallibility - we see that here. Because earlier sections are set decades ago, we spy certain men behaving badly, and as accurate for many women and kids impacted by that behavior in days past, it is them that we see take it on the chin. This is American Realism in style. The story begins with a veteran of WWI, the camp's beloved old scoutmaster who recalls his days at war. The last section of the book is set in 2019, but we readers have short deployments in Viet Nam and Afghanistan as well. Boys in uniform, men in uniform.As mom to a 15 year old boy who just joined scouting a few years ago, I entirely related to one of the women who is part of this beautiful tale. We want our little boys to learn from other adults that being respectful is important. That honoring all people and keeping our world clean is part of who we should be. We want trustworthy mentors to help keep our children true to themselves and kind to others - to stand up for what is moral and right.If you are a parent, this story will resound with you for I know you want your children to be at peace with themselves as adults. If you have history with scouting, read this. If you are a woman who loves hiking or canoeing or kayaking or watching wild animals - a woman who might have loved to sit around a campfire as a girl - and who wants her own daughter to be able to do so, read this.Without revealing the secrets of the story, it is hard for me to put my reaction into words. Suffice it to say that I love the out of doors, courage, and above all and anything else, my son. My whole life, this boy. Five stars. Favorites shelf.

Full disclosure: I read and loved SHOTGUN LOVESONGS, Nick Butler's previous novel, and I read and loved his stories, BENEATH THE BONFIRE, too. The stories are searing little nesting dolls of beauty and calamity; SHOTGUN LOVESONGS is a kind of bravura tightrope act that somehow manages to edge up against melodrama without ever giving in to the saccharine. It's a full-on character-driven opera with a superstar indie rocker and his old-school high-school buddies at its core, and it doubles down and doubles again on this idea: what if this book forever sought the good in people, even as they engage in reckless, sometimes feckless behavior? What if we (always) looked for the humanity in (always) fallible characters?THE HEARTS OF MEN takes the questions of SHOTGUN and chases them to darker corners, yes, but somehow, in the process, this book becomes even more hopeful, more thrilling -- it's ambitious as hell, nervy, risky, and it succeeds. It's the Great American Boy Scout novel, and if you ever either earned a merit badge or know someone who did, then yes, this will drop you fully back into the days of reveille and mile swims and orienteering. To pigeonhole it as a Scouting novel, though, is to say that CE Morgan's THE SPORT OF KINGS is a Kentucky novel. Butler uses Scouting, and Scout camp, and men and boys and the upper midwest and bars and supper clubs and backyard birthday parties and strip clubs and baseball and fire and adolescence and failed marriages and -- and hope and dogs and rain and rivers and Wisconsin -- he uses all these things the way anybody at the height of his or her craft might. He uses them as the stage against which to play gigantic questions of morality and mortality, consequence and consent.I've been the boys and men in this novel, and I've feared the boys and men in this novel. I could go on forever here, but it comes to this: you fall into a Nick Butler novel. You live there. SHOTGUN LOVESONGS was immersive. THE HEARTS OF MEN is everything SHOTGUN was and then some: so much thornier, more complex, a novel that lives with you for days and weeks and months after you've read it. The language is crisp and musical and arresting; my copy is so dog-eared it's laughable. Here is a huge-hearted writer with another huge-hearted book -- this time big and brawling and historical and once again so, so good.

Tja, welche Figur war mir in diesem Roman sympathisch? Mit Abstrichen Nelson Doughty, ansonsten nicht einer, der in dieser, von Männern geprägten, amerikanischen Welt die Frau als solche weder respektiert, noch achtet. Und wenn doch, dann erst viel zu spät, in der letzten senilen Phasedes Lebens.Nickolas Butler ist hier hart an das Thema herangegangen und hat dies hervorragend, fast perfekt umgesetzt.

First appeared at http://www.thenewdorkreviewofbooks.co...Nickolas Butler writes with more empathy and feeling for his characters — even those who act like jerks — than just about any novelist I've ever read. That was definitely true in Shotgun Lovesongs — one of my favorite books of the last five years. It's true in his terrific story collection, Beneath the Bonfire. And it's perhaps most true in his new novel, The Hearts of Men.This is readily apparent in one of the opening scenes of this fantastic, heart-wrenching novel: Thirteen-year-old Nelson's parents throw him a birthday party, and he waits patiently for the boys in his Boy Scouts troop to arrive. But they never do. It's a long, excruciating day for poor Nelson. But finally, an older boy named Jonathan arrives, shoots some arrows with Nelson, and then having completed his obligation, takes his leave. It's a near-perfect way to open a novel: We immediately feel just gutted for poor, nerdy, friendless Nelson. And then it gets worse: We follow Nelson to his beloved Boy Scout camp in northern Wisconsin. There, he's constantly picked on — the other boys taking perverse pleasure in pulling particularly mean pranks on him. And even more sadly, he doesn't get much support from his father, a typical emotionless 1960s fellow, who doesn't exactly wear his emotions on his sleeve. His father seems more embarrassed by his son than protective of him. Jonathan, the older popular boy, who seems to be a good kid, is Nelson's only agent. So we follow Nelson through various misadventures at scouting camp, and then we jump forward 30 years. In the second part, it's the mid-1990s, and we follow middle-aged Jonathan, who now has a teenage son of his own named Trevor. Jonathan is preparing to take Trevor to the Boy Scout camp, per tradition, even though Scouting isn't really en vogue anymore. Nelson is now the camp's director after a stint in Vietnam, and he and Jonathan have remained acquaintances through the years. Jonathan has kind of morphed from a good kid to a bad father and husband. But he's an affable fellow, so it's hard to dislike him. Throughout this part, we learn a new, more modern definition of manhood in a sort of "what not to do" way. Jonathan pesters his son, has an affair, and just generally does everything a good father and husband probably shouldn't.Finally, the third part, takes place in 2019. This may be the best, and most harrowing, part. It's about yet another trip to the camp — this time with Trevor's son, Thomas. Only this time, Trevor's wife Rachel goes on the trip, which creates some consternation among the other fathers there. Nelson is still there, and he and Rachel become good friends. In this part, we find out what it means to be a truly despicable man. It's a hard section to read at times, but again, probably the best.So on the whole, this three-part novel is about not just want it means to be a good man, but simply what it means to be a good person. Are you a good parent? A good friend? Are you a faithful spouse? Can you be a good person if you're not any one of those things? Butler seems to be wrestling with these questions as much as he asks his reader to. And that's why it's so apparent how much he cares about his characters — which of course, we do too, then.I loved this book. Butler is a must-read writer for me now. And this novel is a sure sign that he's only getting better. Highly, highly recommended!

Nickolas Butler is in a field all his own. He's the meticulous, caring writer who all us grown men wish we knew when we were younger; someone guiding us on an ever-changing path into a more modern, evolved masculinity. At the core of THE HEARTS OF MEN is the Midwest, that glorious and underrepresented landscape in literature, and Butler exposes what truly makes the heartland the soul of our country: its people. The characters in this novel are our childhood friends, our best buddies, and the folks that we grew up side-by-side with who helped to shape us into the individuals we are as adults. With tender detail and a warmth that is unmatched, Butler shows his readers that though tragedy may break our hearts and our will at times, it can also reinforce our foundations and steel our resolve. We may not have been to scout camp to learn these values firsthand as youngsters, but thank goodness Nickolas Butler takes us there and beyond with his unforgettable tale of summers at Camp Chippewa. Young or old, male or female, Midwesterner or not, everyone can benefit from THE HEARTS OF MEN. This is a must-read in our modern American society.

This is a strange book, and looking back it, surprisingly readable as it first I had thought it would be predictable, and it certainly wasn't that. Set in the Wisconsin backcountry, where the author lived for many years, the book tells of 3 generations of scouts at Camp Chippewa. Though the book starts in 1962, few books are set in the very near future, 2019 is the last of the generations. Throughout the three generations of adolescent boys in the summer break earning their badges and 'being prepared' there is a sense of foreboding, a sniff that something bad is about to happen. Amidst the summer fun, is the backdrop of the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars. The two renowned and dedicated lifelong scout leaders have played important roles in those wars, and their lives have changed because of them, but they have returned to the innocence of scout camp. Supposed innocence. A very different type of story therefore, and one that defies a genre tag. Ultimately rewarding, though at times I did wonder where it was going. It's my first Butler, and I am intrigued, and will read more from him.

Después de leer su anterior novela no he tardado en leer esta y me confirma lo buen narrador que es. Esta es una historia mucho mas compleja que la de su anterior libro y aunque la construcción de personajes sigue siendo sobresaliente la propia estructura de la novela hace que algunas veces te quedes con ganas de que hubieran sido tres libros independientes y haber visto desarrollar la vida de todos los protagonista que van apareciendo en cada una de las tres partes de una forma mas completa. Creo que eso es lo que hace que en reseñas mas negativas que he leído la gente diga que les ha decepcionado y que les gustó mas Canciones de amor a quemarropa. Tal vez no sea un libro redondo de 5 estrellas pero a mi me ha emocionado con esta historia de supervivientes a lo largo de 60 años en la que creo que Butler quería sobre todo retratar el cambio de estilo de vida y valores que se ha dado en estados unidos y que realmente es universal al menos en los países del primer mundo. Deseando que se traduzca su recién publicada novela de este año para seguir disfrutando con las historias del medio oeste americano de este escritor.

I liked this story very much with a few reservations that are more of a personal choice, than any criticism of the writing or story. It is an interesting coming-of-age tale and I did not feel any impatience or boredom for even one page.The first third or more of the story concentrates on a teenager, Nelson Daughty. Nelson is kind- hearted and an overachiever, but very, very naive. For whatever reasons, he cannot overcome (although he knows what makes him unappealing) what makes others bully him. Adversity in youth usually does one of two thing, toughens one up or damages someone to the point of suicide or a life haunted by the past. But, Nelson does make one friend, Jonathan, who eventually betrays him too. Nelson has a tough childhoodny ways and the author does not flinch from revealing the darkness in men's (boy's) hearts. I admit some of it was so brutal it made me squirm and feel uncomfortable. I applaud Mr. Butler for this in these politically correct times with snowflakes who don't want to hear anything that upsets them. Nickolas Butler does not soften to make more palatable; get ready for reality.The next third of the book reveals that Nelson his joined the military and has done several tours of duty. He has seen and done things that no one should ever have to do, but I think it has wised him up more even as he holds tight to his personal codes. Oddly enough, he has remained friends with an adult Jonathan. Jonathan has had a very different life. He is the heir to a successful company, has married and now a son of his own, Trevor. For Jonathan's many faults, he does love Trevor. He tries to make Trevor more jaded and cynical for his own good. This does not make for a good father-son relationship. And, they all continue to go to summer camp.The last third, we learn that Trevor has hung on to his values (in contrast to his father) and has married his childhood sweetheart and they have had a son. Trevor also joined the military and learned the brutality of the world. The son, also named Jonathan, and his mother are close. Everyone is still going to this same summer camp, which Nelson now runs 2 weeks of the year.Things I like: It really is an excellent story and well written. It does not flinch from being a 'looking through the glass darkly' type of novel. All people are both good and bad in different ways, it depends on degrees and the ability to control one's darker impulses. Trying to make the right choices, hold on to your values despite what others may think and act like a civilized person instead of a barbarian.Things I disliked: We get to know Nelson well as a character study. Later, as the years go by, we hear less about Nelson as other characters step up into the spotlight. It feels herky-jerky in this respect. I would have preferred the story stay either focused on Nelson or getting to know the other characters as well as we know Nelson. But, these are personal, not professional, preferences. The story stands out as a coming-of-age novel and a refreshing bit of reality as to how people act and think, both good and bad. People that make the right moral choices because they know they are the right ones despite the consequences. People that make the choices with the best intentions but are wrong and can only succeed if they fail. The book is a homage to thinking for yourself and making a choice based on what you have personality experienced and what you hope to achieve. I would recommend this to anyone who likes the type of story that has a trajectory over many decades and doesn't expect people or characters to be all white or black; but shades of gray that we all are.

This book has an incredible mix of small scale and grand scale, as we're focusing largely on members of two families living mainly in rural Wisconsin, but over the course of 70 years, and some of these family members had some remote travel which changed their narratives. It's about a boy scout camp, and two boys who became friends in 1962. It's about bullying and following rules. It's about war and what it does to people to survive one. It's about marriage and raising kids. Its about how men treat women. It's big and it's small, and pretty darn amazing.Ok, moment of true honesty, I probably am more likely to like this book than most of you because:1. I grew up in rural Wisconsin.2. I've been to scout camp, both as a scout and as a parent.3. I was the official bugler for my small town's VFW Post for my entire high school career, and played Taps at many funerals and Memorial Day events.Nickolas Butler, seriously, stop stalking me and mining my life for book ideas already, geez man. Ok, I'm kidding, there is a lot more going on here than just those three things, but I loved Shotgun Lovesongs and this novel was also right up my alley. And I also thought that the audiobook was quite well done, even better than Shotgun Lovesongs as they stuck with one reader who didn't noticeably botch the Midwest accent. They could have used a well placed reference to a bubbler though. The book is really divided up into three different sections spaced decades apart. I think the middle section was probably the toughest as we got to see now adult Jonathan in a pretty bad light, and there was not a whole lot of redemption in this section itself. And then the jump to the third act, when we find out who all is going to camp and why just them, that's a kick to the gut, but well delivered. One minor nit to pick - I thought that the action of the third act was maybe a little too drawn out, we didn't need quite as much foreshadowing that one of the dads at camp was a creep. But then I'm a female reader, and it's not much of a leap for me to reach that conclusion. All of those pages and pages of build up seemed overkill, whereas we could have had more focus on Thomas' experiences at camp and not just Rachel's perspective.Overall it was very satisfying. The parts fit together well. I look forward to reading more by this author.

This book is deceptive in scope. It begins as the simple story of Nelson Doughty, a kid from 1962 Wisconsin with a bad home life who earnestly tries to live a life governed by the Boy Scout creed and merit badge achievements, but who other boys see as too uptight, a civic striver in a changing world. His only friend is Jonathan Quick, who is popular with boys and parents alike, but is deep down somewhat shiftless. A memorable 1962 scout camp experience in the Wisconsin north woods reveals deeper truths about both of them and the changing world they live in.The novel continues through over 50 years of life for Nelson, Jonathan, and their families, ending with a section narrated by the wife of Jonathan's son. Through their lives, we see a changing America, with morals that shift for both the good and bad. The time period covered by this book is pretty much my own lifespan, although I'm a little younger than the two lead characters. I was a boy scout, and an anxious striver like Nelson, but with more skepticism like Jonathan. Still, I related to the book. It rings true for me. I would recommend it as both entertaining and as food for thought for anyone who has lived through the same time periods as the characters.