Shotgun Lovesongs

A Novel

By: Nickolas Butler

Narrated by: Scott Shepherd, Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Scott Sowers, Gary Wilmes

Welcome to Little Wing.

It’s a place like hundreds of others, nothing special, really. But for four friends—all born and raised in this small Wisconsin town—it is home. And now they are men, coming into their own, or struggling to do so.

One of them never left, still working the family farm that has been tilled for generations. But others felt the need to move on, with varying degrees of success. One trades commodities, another took to the rodeo circuit, and one of them even hit it big as a rock star. And then there’s Beth, a woman who has meant something special in each of their lives.

Now all four are brought together for a wedding. Little Wing seems even smaller than before. While lifelong bonds are still strong, there are stresses—between the friends, between husbands and wives. There will be heartbreak, but there will also be hope, healing, even heroism as these memorable people learn the true meaning of adult friendship and love.

Seldom has the American heartland been so richly and accurately portrayed. Though the town may have changed, the one thing that hasn’t is the beauty of the Wisconsin farmland, the lure of which, in Nickolas Butler’s hands, emerges as a vibrant character in the story. Shotgun Lovesongs is that rare work of fiction that evokes a specific time and place yet movingly describes the universal human condition. It is, in short, a truly remarkable audiobook—a novel that once listened to will never be forgotten.

©2014 Nickolas Butler (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Fliakos and Shepherd ably handle the sometimes plaintive voices of the male characters, while Hoffman carries most of the emotional weight with her redolent vocal talents.... There's no question that all the narrators connect with the characters' emotional journeys." ( AudioFile)

Quick read!

Good characters! I enjoyed hearing each chapter in a new person's point of view.

On Wisconsin! Great sense of place

As a Midwesterner I enjoyed the setting of prairie and small town. Someone said the subject was the angst of 30-somethings, but I'd say it's more about the universal experience of never being content with what we have, envying someone else, not knowing they are envying you. It's about the age when people look around and wonder if this is how their lives are supposed to turn out. And it's about figuring out what is really important in life.

I usually don't care for books with multiple narrators because I will hate at least one of them but in this book I thought all the narrators were excellently matched with their characters. The one female character may have been less effective, but I think that's because the male author didn't give her as much depth as he did to the men he created.

It may be unrealistic the way some of the characters described the land in such poetic terms, but I thought it fit in just fine.

OH WOW, LOVESONGS

This is a terrific book! Since other reviewers have outlined the plot, instead I'll just review the high points, and there are many. It was very clear early on that this book was written by a man. Each character has a clear voice and although there are women characters in this book, this story just exudes testosterone. And I mean this in a very good way. At times I thought I could smell Henry's sweat or taste Leland's tears. The prose is rich and it gives to the listener.
I knew the characters and felt for them. This story about marriage, friendship, loyalty and unrequited love is a winner. Hooray to this author! I had no problem differentiating characters, there were several narrators and each voice / character is introduced in the beginning of each chapter. Enjoy this book..... it's a good one!!

A beautiful, melodic book about small towns

Shotgun Lovesongs captured the essence of trying to find your place in or escaping from a barely surviving small town. What I wasn't prepared for was the absolutely beautiful writing. Melodic, honest, and heartfelt, this book is the story of childhood dreams and friendships that grow together and apart in thousands of little Midwestern towns.

Expect to Hear Great Things About This Novel

My favorite contemporary fiction selection so far for 2014. This novel focuses on the comings and goings of lives that were once tightly connected in a small Wisconsin town. This is not a sentimental memoir.. it is solid and reeks of truth. Although the novel spans across a couple of decades, it focuses on the present day effects that friendships from the past have on our lives. Narrators are consistant and likable. Nickolas Butler has written a novel of which almost any reader can relate.

Middlin’ “OMG, adulthood” novel

The setup is a pretty familiar one: a tale of five friends who come from the same American small town, go in different directions in life, and then come together again as 30-something adults, finding that they still have some growing up to do.

The writing isn't really anything ground-breaking, but it's not bad either, and I thought that there was a basic honesty to Nickolas Butler's sense of people and places. Two of the five main characters resonated with me. First, there’s Lee, the brooding alt-rock superstar who keeps returning to the town in which he had recorded his first hit album during a depressive phase and -- probably relatedly -- been in love (ah, hipster nostalgia). Then, there’s Ronnie, the former rodeo stud, now living with the after-effects of a brain hemorrhage connected to the alcoholism of his younger days, looked after by neighbors. Both of their restless, slightly-unhinged narrative voices are well done, and are brought to life by the audiobook readers.

The novel's central dramas, though, weren't very dramatic to me. Henry and Beth are both solid, decent midwesterners, but a bit dull as characters (however capable Maggie Hoffman is at reading Beth’s parts), and I couldn't get excited about Beth's one act of “infidelity”, which never seemed to have much emotional conviction on her side. As for Kip, the high-powered broker, he felt tacked-on to the story, never really graduating from a trope to a convincing character. As another user review noted, cutting a protagonist might have forced Butler to add more layers to the others.

Still, just as a cup of microwave soup is sometimes comforting, a well-worn story format is sometimes just fine for my listening needs during a Sunday trip to the grocery story. There are a few moments of familiar poignancy in this tale of people realizing that their youth is over and they must deal with their baggage and make choices about the rest of their lives. What a serious time our thirties are! Some readers may find the (literally) painful male bonding in the last chapter silly, but I liked that Butler finally upped the level of chaos and didn’t go for the easy happy ending.

Shotgun Lovesongs would probably work well as the kind of movie my parents like to stream, if given some charismatic actors, good midwestern panorama shots, and a stirring soundtrack. As a novel, it was a pleasant if not hugely memorable time-passer.

another woman in love with a rock-n-roll singer

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

certain friends of mine would like it very much. friends of mine who, along with me, were very much in tune with the rock-n-roll lifestyle-the fleetingness of everything-what matters once doesn't seem to anymore

Who was your favorite character and why?

lee was my absolute favorite although i did like all of the other one's too. kip grew on me once his relationship with harvey was brought in to the story. it isn't very often that i like all of the narration-but i think everyone did a great job. especially scott shepard- he broke my heart a million times.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

a depth and an addition al layer of the human existence that wouldn't have stood out as much if i had read it.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

i knew someone who died in the snow-when ronnie was walking in the blizzard it was very intense. the love story between lee and beth was very familiar to me. very melancholy love story.

Any additional comments?

loved the title-it was the reason i first noticed the book-it reached out and grabbed me.

More than I thought it would be.

Where does Shotgun Lovesongs rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Near the top.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Shotgun Lovesongs?

Don't know.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Expected it to be a corny love story just to fill time. Liked it so well I bought the audio edition for my sister. It mimicked real life.

Charming story and Great listen

I found this book to be entertaining and enjoyable. I loved the different readers and the way they captured the voice of each character. I disagree with reviews that said each character was too similar and all male dominated which didn't provide balance. FIrst of all, it was about mostly male characters who grew up together which gives them a similar base and a common voice despite their different lives and experiences. Second, there didnt have to be balance with the one female character - the story was primarily about male friendship throughout 30+ yrs. The end did get a bit contrived and it was kind of abrupt so I took off one star for that. However, I think the book captured the essence of small town life and the ebb and flow of long lasting friendships. I enjoyed this audio and I recommend it for a pleasant easy listen!

Walk like a man

I came late to the Nikolas Butler party, but I’m glad I finally got here. So many Wisconsin writers try to articulate the magic of this place, the connection we have with the land, our simple and somewhat goofy – but beautiful – culture – and so many Wisconsin writers end up making us into cartoon characters. Butler, second only to David Rhodes in painting the powerful beauty of rural and small-town Wisconsin, does not make us into cartoon characters. Whether his man-pack of central characters is pissing off a small-town water tower, stepping out onto a wooden porch as the fog lifts at daybreak, or dancing at a wedding that brings the entire community together under starlight, Butler gets it. And he gives it, in a perfect and illuminated package, to the lucky reader.

Butler tells his story through five characters – four men, whose individual voices and personalities Butler draws beautifully – and a woman. Butler’s male characters are pitch-perfect – the high school buddies who all went their separate ways to the rodeo and alcoholism, to the farm, to indie rock stardom, to hedge funds and then back again to their small town roots.
That’s the thing about small town Wisconsin. When you’re from here, it keeps singing you back, not only through nostalgia, but through the rolling landscape, the sound of the trees, and the simple decency of the people. Each male character has a strong, clear voice, real problems, and real dimension.

There’s also a female main character – Beth – who of course is the wife of one of the buddies and the love object of another. Butler is less successful with Beth’s voice, which ultimately comes off as the way a man thinks women think. It’s a venial rather than a cardinal sin, and even as a female reader, I forgave Butler and kept going, because Butler is a virtuoso of showing what Springsteen calls “learning how to walk like a man.”

His portrayal of small-town life – from the pickled eggs on the back bar at the VFW to the brand of beer in our refrigerators to the crushing worry about finances that harry a family farmer every day – is perfect. Butler is a master of creating the magic moments that become the touchstones of our life forever.

A beautiful, masterful book. Magic.