Shotgun Lovesongs: A Novel

In Shotgun Lovesongs we experience a progression through time as five lifelong friends nurture and later renegotiate friendships.The setting is Little Wing, Wisconsin.Hank married Beth and is bound to the family they created and the family farm.Beth, Hanks wife, held a special place in the heart of each friend.Ronny went on to be a handsome rodeo rider, but was destroyed by the rough rodeo circuit and alcohol .Sometimes he looks like his old self, but in reality, he is badly brain damaged.Kip, a successful Chicago commodities trader has returned to Little Wing, to restore it's decrepit mill.Lee,a newly successful musician is drawn back home periodically to refresh.In audio, the individual characters are a unique blends of energy, love. humor and all give you that true feeling of what it means to be home.However, the story is authentic and some very rough turns must be negotiated."The bonds this group formed in childhood remain intact through a decade of physical separation and sporadic contact, but when they reunite in Little Wing they learn none of them are the boys they once were and their relationships with each other are now complicated by the men they have become."...a ballad of friendship, love and home....Perhaps my small town roots made the story more endearing.But I would encourage anyone to explore this novel.By the way, "Lee's haunting first album lends the novel its name.. "4 ★

Character-driven contemporary fiction about the adult lives of five childhood friends from a small town in Wisconsin. Beth and Henry are a married couple with two children working a dairy farm to eke out a living. Kip is a broker, recently returned to the area from Chicago to renovate an old mill. Ronny is an ex-rodeo star with an alcohol dependency and an injury that has left him not quite as sharp as he used to be. Lee is a musician who is now famous but returns often to his hometown. The book’s title comes from the name of his first album. The story is in first person in alternating chapters by each of the five primary characters. It is about life, love, change, and personal growth.

It is a quiet book with not a great deal of action, as is typical of character-driven novels. The dramatic tension comes from the jealousies that develop in long-term friendships, mostly over the varying degrees of success in jobs and relationships. The characters are deeply developed, and it is easy to become involved in their lives. The writing is eloquent but not over-wrought. Butler excels at scene-painting. He vividly describes the beauty of rural Wisconsin. For example:

“I wish you could see a sunrise from the top of those grain silos, our own prairie skyscraper. I wish you could see how green everything is in the spring, how yellow the corn’s tassels even a few months later, how blue the morning shadows are, and creeks winding their own slow paths, the land rolling and rolling on and on, studded here and there with proud red barns, white farmhouses, pale gravel roads. The sun emerging in the east so pink and orange, so big. In the ditches and valleys, fog collecting like slow vaporous rivers, waiting to be burned away.”

This book has something to say about home, trust, creativity, loneliness, loyalty, and friendship. It is an ode to American small towns. My only quibble is with the ending, which felt abrupt and did not quite match the rest of the book. I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to reading more of Butler’s work.

No bookshop close by and in need of reading matter for a 14 hour flight, I picked this up at a US Target store. Very skilfully woven tale of friendship in small town Wisconsin.

With a premise that didn’t initially attract me, this book managed to capture my attention and made me enjoy its reading.

Bart, Teddy, and Cole have been friends since childhood and run a modest construction company in a small town in Wyoming. One day, they receive a million-dollar offer to build a mansion in the middle of nature in record time, which, if they succeed, could change their lives, but the path to achieving it has a high price. The American dream longed for by so many can turn into a nightmare. How far are they willing to go to achieve it? What will be the cost?

In a magnificent setting where the cold and snow in the heart of nature will be the protagonists. A hostile environment that will test their resilience and ingenuity. Described in a very visual and cinematic way, we will soon feel part of that place. Simultaneously, we will discover Gretchen, the owner of this land, and the reasons behind her decisions. What mystery does the house conceal, and why is it necessary to finish it by a specific date?

The strength of this novel lies in how the author creates constant tension on each page and how he skillfully handles the psychology of the characters. The vulnerability of the human being, their miseries, frustrations, and internal conflicts will be showcased, putting their friendship and loyalty to the test. Ambition and selfishness will drive them to continue while also becoming their own enemies. Addictions and mismanagement of the situation will provoke an unexpected twist that turns a story of learning into a thriller, captivating the reader until the last page. Based on a true story, although some events may seem unbelievable, it will become an addictive novel that grows from less to more.

With a simple, human, and surprising ending that prompts reflection on the price of certain decisions made. And a good dose of social criticism about the capitalist world we live in.

A highly recommended book!! And an author I will continue reading. (Translated from Spanish)

Four friends, Leland, Henry, Ronny, and Kip, grow up in Little Wing, WI, and this story follows them as they become adults, get married, have families, and live their lives. Divorces, fights, joys, sorrows.
Lee is a famous musician, Henry a farmer and part-time painter, Ronny a drunk, Kip owner of the town mill event space. Lee is in love with Beth, Henry’s wife, and longs for her all of his life. It causes a rift between Lee and Henry.
I enjoyed this story about these friends and their heartaches and how their friendship changed in this small town.

Very enjoyable book.
I loved entering the lives of these four friends from the Midwest and being a spectator of their experiences, at times joyful and carefree, at others complex and unresolvable like life itself.
There were moments that kept me on edge and awake in the early morning, unable to close the book until I knew how things would turn out.

I enjoyed reading a story like this, written by a man and based on the interpersonal relationships of four friends. The emotions, the descriptions, the seasons, all so well written that it transported me to those moments and places.

For me, highly recommended without a doubt. (Translated from Spanish)

3.5 stars

I enjoy the descriptions of small town life. The 5 different fist person narratives sound too similar, as most everyone else has said when reviewing the book. I really like the walks down memory lane for each character, mostly about events in another character's life. I can see where the author was presumably headed, but he seemed either too anxious to publish, or the editor didn't push for a grittier tone.

And I had NO idea it's based on Justin Vernon, his split from DeYarmond Edison (later Megafaun), and his retreat back to Wisconsin to write music and start Bon Iver.

A surprise book (Translated from Spanish)

First book of this month, which has been very musical. I liked the story; it seemed to speak from a specific, somewhat peripheral geographic point, from which it constructs a narrative about how people relate to modernity and its values (success, freedom, fame, and progress). It provides context and intertwines these with others such as love, family, friendship, responsibility, and home. Some stay, others leave, and some, sometimes, come back. I looked up the musical themes mentioned in the book and, warning you that my knowledge of popular music in English is very limited—really very limited—this book gave me a song for my personal repertoire: "American Pie." (Translated from Spanish)

Three Weddings and a Blizzard, or, Love, Cheesehead Style.

I've been meaning to read this since it first came out since it is set in Wisconsin, a couple hundred miles upstate from the dairy farm where I grew up. While I didn't recognize a lot of the book as being necessarily authentic or particular to Wisconsin, it was a perfectly acceptable low-key domestic drama of friendship in a small town for a little group of thirtysomethings. The characters are likable and my time spent with the book was pleasant.

My only criticism is the town seemed populated by maybe four other people beyond the friendship group, with the nearly total absence of parents in the lives of the friends being probably the biggest fault. How do you claim to depict rural life in Wisconsin without having busybody moms, dads, aunts and uncles?

Precious novel about life, friendship, love, and fame. Written with a lot of sensitivity and realism. (Translated from Spanish)

Authentic characters - 5 friends who have known each other since kindergarten in the small town of Little Wing, WI - and the down-to-earth stories of their lives. I wonder if the author knows the artist Justin Vernon (who formed the band Bon Iver) who also lived in Eau Claire, WI, as there seem to be some parallels with the life of Leland in the book. I thought it was a very good debut novel.

Lee, Kip, Henry, Ronny, and Beth all grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. Henry and Beth got married, had kids, and are running a farm. Lee became a famous musician who misses home. Kip moved to the city and made lots of money, but also wants to come home – he has bought the old mill in town to fix it up and make something out of it. Ronny was a cowboy on the rodeo circuit, but due to some trouble with alcohol, he hasn’t been able to do that for a while, and many people think he’s “simple” now. The book starts off with Kip getting married, so everyone is home for the wedding.

The book changes perspective with each chapter; each chapter is named with the initial of the person whose perspective it is we are following. It also goes back and forth in time from what is happening now to everyone’s memories of what happened before.

I really liked this. I thought it did a good job of portraying small towns. I just wish Beth had had some female friends of her own – mostly she was friends with Henry’s friends, but there wasn’t much in the way of other women friends in her life. I didn’t agree with everyone’s decisions in the book (especially at the end), but overall, I really enjoyed the book.

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler, published 2014 is a story of men's friendships set in current times in Wisconsin. It was like an ode to the midwest for me. The setting was Wisconsin but Minnesota got a lot of honorary mention being the nearest large airport and city. The story offers nothing new in originality or inventiveness. The plot is complete with different POV that allow for character development. We have the man who stayed in the home town, married his childhood friend and farms. We have the bull rider who is "broken" and alcoholic, the composer and singer of the album Shotgun Lovesongs and the man bought the old mill. I enjoyed the book but there was a lot of sexual content, a lot of heavy alcohol consumption and heavy on the swearing. it is a debut novel. My rating for the book is 2.71

I read this aloud to my husband while on a cross country road trip. As we drove along, our feelings about each character changed as each of them fleshed out their side of the story. Lots of discussion material for a book club. According to my husband, there was just enough sex to keep it interesting. On the down side, it was uncomfortable for me to say aloud the f-bombs and other raw language and there were times when the author's word or word order choice made me trip over my tongue.

While the underlying story is relatively simple and there's not a lot of action in this novel, this is probably the sleeper hit of the year for me. Set in rural Wisconsin, five friends (4 male, 1 female) who have grown up together each choose different paths for themselves as adults. As they explore young adulthood and middle age, their lives continue to converge & diverge.

I really did love this book. Nickolas Butler truly has a gift for writing real, honest characters in real, honest situations. The lack of so-called action in this story is practically irrelevant because the prose is so beautiful and it gave me all sorts of warm fuzzies just reading (listening to) it. Though certainly not a requirement, it will especially appeal to those with Midwestern roots. I highly recommend the audio as well. Read by a host of narrators, it was superbly done and added even more enjoyment to this story.

With beautiful prose and interesting characters, this book earns your affection almost immediately. If you’ve ever lived in a small town, you will probably feel like you “recognize” Little Wing, the book’s fictional town close to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The story is centered on six friends in their early thirties - Henry and Beth Brown, Leland (Lee) Sutton, Ronny Taylor, and Kip and Felicia Cunningham, all of whom are anchored to Little Wing by a deep sense of place.

Lee is supposedly based in part on Justin Vernon, lead singer of the band Bon Iver, who came originally from Eau Claire where the author grew up. Lee, a successful folk-rock musician, has his biggest fans among his hometown friends, and it is in his hometown where he also finds his inspiration, as revealed by these poetic passages:

“And in the fields as it is in the forests: the springtime prairie fires and tire fires and sit-spreaders slowly spraying the fields with rich, rich manure. Sandhill cranes and whooping cranes in the sky big as B-52s and all the other myriad birds come back home like returned mail, making the night sky loud as any good homecoming party. And then summer comes, the green coming in such profusions that you think maybe winter never even happened at all, never will come again. . . .”

. . .

“Late-night softball games at rural diamonds behind crossroads taverns where the sodium-nitrate lights bring in billions of bugs and moths … and in the backyards clothes pinned to lines snap in the cooling-down breezes that signal autumn’s arrival, that elegant season, that season of scarves and jackets, that season of harvest and open night windows and the best season for sleep.”

When Lee was answering questions about how to learn to sing, he’d say:

“Sing like you’ve got no audience, sing like you don’t know what a critic is, sing about your hometown, sing about your prom, sing about deer, sing about the seasons, sing about your mother, sing about chainsaws, sing about the thaw, sing about the rivers, sing about forests, sing about the prairies. But whatever you do, start singing early in the morning, if only just to keep warm. And if you happen to live in a warm beautiful place … Move to Wisconsin. Buy a woodstove, and spend a week splitting wood. It worked for me.”

Around this hub of Little Wing, and the old mill at the center of town which serves as its focus, the characters spin their interconnected stories in alternate chapters. Henry and Beth are the paragon of a married couple to which the others aspire, yet they have their own struggles. Lee is their tragic muse, whose life seems so glamorous, but he can’t always get what he wants. Ronny is the damaged alcoholic they all take care of, and Kip and Felicia represent the Outside - the world beyond Little Wing.

The characters argue with one another, but in the end, they are each other's families, each other's homes. As the author alerts us in his epigraph from Moby Dick, the feelings they have for each other are deeply rooted: “But, heave ahead, boy, I’d rather be killed by you than kept alive by any other man.”

I loved this book up until the end, when it just… ended…. But I guess that’s part of why I keep thinking about the story.

Evaluation:Excellent writing with a story that merits a broader audience.

follows the lives and relationships between four lifelong friends in a small town. very good!

Great book about a group of lifelong friends from a small town in Wisconsin, told from from five friends viewpoints. All come across as believable, and likable.
Two downsides to the book.
1. You don't want it to end.
2. It will be awfully hard for the author to write his follow up to this book.

We invited him to all of our weddings; he was famous. We addressed the invitations to his record company’s skyscraper in New Your City so that the gaudy, gilded envelopes could be forwarded to him on tour—in Beirut, Helsinki, Tokyo. Thus begins the story of five friends, Hank (Henry), Lee (Leland), Ronny, Kip and Beth, who grew up together in the small town of Little Wing, Wisconsin and who are preparing to attend Kip’s wedding to Felicia. Hank is the farmer who married Beth who loves being married to Hank and raising her family yet is still her own person, Lee the famous musician who rocketed to fame as a result of his album, “Shotgun Lovesongs,” Ronny, the retired rodeo performer who suffered a brain injury that stopped his career short but still wishes he could be travelling, and Kip, who has come back to renovate the local mill after making it big on the Chicago exchange and is about to marry Felicia. Their lives are both intertwined and yet have grown apart in some ways, the interconnections sometimes coming in unexpected ways.

I was torn between the parts of this novel I loved and the parts I just didn’t care much for at all, so am giving this a three. The characters are well drawn out and believable, particularly Kit and Ronny. By the end, they were probably my favourite characters of all, along with Lucy. Perhaps because I don’t like the taste of alcohol, although my friends and extended family mostly do, nor do I enjoy the feeling of inebriated, I got bored with the antics of drunk people in real life at a very young age, and this wasn’t any better for me in this novel particularly given that they were well beyond their college years, despite the affection I felt for some of the characters. While I understand that plenty of people swear, sadly myself included at times, I don’t need to read as much of it as was in the book to get the idea. I felt a mix in some of the other things. If you don’t mine reading scenes of people in their thirties high on pot with alcohol at almost every social gathering they have and/or swearing doesn’t bother you, you may well enjoy this book better than I did.

Audiobook performed by Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Scott Shepherd, Scott Sowers and Gary Wilmes

Henry, Kip, Lee, Ronny and Beth (Henry’s wife) have known each other since they were children growing up in the same small town of Little Wing Wisconsin. All but Henry (who stayed on his family’s dairy farm) have left for a time: Beth went to college, Kip worked as a commodities broker in Chicago, Ronny rode the rodeo circuit, and Lee is a hugely successful folk-rock musician with a number of hit records. Now, they’ve all come home to Little Wing. Kip has purchased the old feed mill with plans to turn it into a destination in that corner of Wisconsin. Ronny, his rodeo career ended after he suffered a traumatic brain injury, is looked out for by everyone in town. Lee has a recording studio in the converted schoolhouse on the outskirts of town, where he comes home to recuperate after a tour.

This is a distinctly Midwest novel. Butler writes prose that is poetic and atmospheric. His descriptions of the landscape make this fictitious town an important character in the novel.
The October air filled with corn dust enough to make each sunset a postcard, with colors like a benign nuclear explosion. And then snow. Snow to cover the world, to cover us. Our world left to sleep and rest and heal underneath those white winter blankets. The forests that in October threw hallucinogenic confetti at the world now withdrawn, bereft, composed, and suddenly much thinner, looking like old people who know their time has just about come.

More importantly, this is a novel of friendship, and of men growing to adulthood. Each of the characters, including Beth, has a chance to narrate. So the reader gets some insight into each of their inner thoughts and feelings, the ways they interpret one another’s actions and why they react as they do. The reader also has the opportunity to hear their observations on the others in the quintet. It seems that the central relationship being explored is that of Hank and Lee – best friends despite their very different lifestyles, loyal to one another without question, loving one another despite a major falling out.

Kip seemed to me to be nearly an outsider. His concerted efforts to leave Little Wing and be a big shot in Chicago has changed his perspective in such a way that he doesn’t seem able to fit in. Whatever effort he makes just misses the mark, and seems to come only from his own need to be recognized rather from any genuine concern for his friends or the community. As the only woman with a voice in the novel Beth provides an interesting counterpoint. And it is through Beth’s eyes that the men’s wives/girlfriends are shown.

And then there is Ronny – my favorite character in the group. A handsome, strong man with an injured brain, an alcoholic kept from drinking by all his friends (who seem to do nothing but consume alcohol), he longs to get back some independence.
I want to break out of here so bad and I don’t even know where I want to go. Maybe Anyplace, I guess. I know they think I can’t take care of myself, but I sure as hell can. I’m not a smart man – I know that – but I ain’t dumb. And the way things are, it’s like I’m in a cage. … I am a man. I’m a goddamned person. And I’m restless as hell.
My heart just breaks for him.

Highly recommended for readers who enjoy character-driven novels.

The audiobook employs five different performers – each taking on one of the major characters. I found this very effective. It really helped to make each of the men unique. And having a woman voice Beth’s chapters lent a quality of gentleness and femininity to an otherwise tough and masculine book.

Beautiful! A sweet little metaphor sneaked in at the end.

This is the story of 4 friends, 4 weddings, one divorce, one shooting and one carefully guarded secret.

Friendships - are the centerpiece of this book.
Male friendships in a small midwestern town.
Male friendships that span decades - and that fray and tatter and rebuild.

I liked this book.

I liked Henry and Beth - the down-to-earth, live on the farm, stalwart couple with their own secrets - Henry paints landscapes and burns them before anyone can see and Beth was not always the mild-mannered house wife!

I liked Lee the rock star who made it big - yet carried a part of Little Wing with him in his lonesome songs.

I liked Kip the stock broker who came home to show the town how important he was by trying to restore the long defunct feed mill. Kip who was all 'bluster and strut' to hide his real longing to just watch the sun come up over the mill each day and belong.

And I really liked Ronny the washed up rodeo rider. Ronny with a heart of gold and a brain sloshed around too often from booze and bulls. Ronny who loves deeply and openly and isn't afraid to share that. Ronny who is sort of the butt of all jokes - but the real glue.

This is a melancholy look at what happens when you have to grow up - and leave behind what you thought you knew for what really is.

I liked this book!

I LOVED the audio of this first novel by Butler and am only sorry that he doesn't have more books of his out there for me to read/listen to. His writing is a visual experience----especially gripping in the last "scene" of the novel. Listening to each of five people, each in a different voice was a special way to do this audio and it absolutely worked.

I gave this book 2 weeks of my life and I almost got halfway through, but I just can't face reading any more.

This is a first novel, and boy does it show. The basic storyline is about 4 guys from a small town in Wisconsin who are now grown up and leading very different lines. One has stayed a small town boy and is a farmer with a sickeningly perfect wife and 2 perfect children. A second made his fortune in trading and has come back to restore an old mill to deliver a new place of energy to the town. A third has become a global rock star but is greatly troubled by his new life (yeah, sure). The fourth was a rodeo star, but had some accident so dull I now can't remember what it was - he now apparently has brain damage, although when he's leading the narration his thoughts are totally lucid and self-aware.

It's too much - I can't read another paragraph full of cliches and similes, simpering narrations, and unbelievable characters. It's one of those books where you're continuously conscious of what the writer was trying to achieve but couldn't pull off. With a great book, I almost forget there even is a writer behind it. This was like all the worst aspects from a Creative Writing course thrown into one book. You could tell he had some awful future Hollywood movie in mind as he was writing, and the dialogue in particular was cringeworthy.

The only positive I can take from this book is if this guy can get published to minor critical success, then there's hope for us all.

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.

A few good friends grow up together in Little Wing, Wisconsin. There's Henry, a good man and husband to Beth. He’s the stable and solid one who stayed in town and took over his father’s farm. Lee is a successful musician who travels the world but still longs for the normalcy of his friends’ lives. Then we meet Kip. He’s a successful businessman who just returned to town from Chicago. He's also kind of an asshole who’s always trying to prove something, but usually just sends up pissing people off. Finally there's Ronnie, the rodeo star who was injured and lost some of his mental abilities. He’s sweet and enthusiastic, but sometimes frustrated by his situation.

Though it's set in Wisconsin (not my home state), the descriptions of bitter Midwestern nights or sultry summer days are so achingly familiar. Some of the moments described felt like my own childhood. The point of view rotates between each of the characters, giving us a chance to see the situations through their eyes.

The story is about what we expect from life versus what we end up with. It’s about wanting whatever's on the other side of that fence where the grass is always greener. It's about the complications that life throws our way and the friends that stick with you through it all.

The writing and characters drive the story much more than any major plot point does. We stumble through everyone's lives alongside them, connecting at weddings and other major events, but it’s really about the moments that don't seem big at the time, but later mean everything.

It reminded me and some ways of A Visit from the Goon Squad and in others of The Interestings. It was less precocious than The Interestings and felt more like people I might actually know. It's not as complex as A Visit from the Goon Squad, but has the same feel of overlapping lives with the vein of music running through it all. Considering that I loved both of those books, it’s not surprising that this one worked so well for me.

BOTTOM LINE: This was a fast read for me and I really liked it. The people felt familiar and their lives were so relatable. Perfect to read while sitting on the back porch and sipping a Leinenkugel.

*The audio version was really good!

Good, old fashioned small-town Wisconsin setting. Nicely written - kinda funny and sad, just like real life. Great characters that are easy to care about and hard to leave. Nickolas Butler knows this existence and describes it beautifully.

Yee hah, I really enjoyed this good ol' Midwestern boy story of the men (and a few women, but flunks the Bechtel Test because they only appear as attached to men) of Little Wing, Wisconsin. There's Lee, a famous singer modeled on - hmmm - Garth Brooks? Not sure. Hank the farmer, Beth, Hank's wife, Ronny the former rodeo and recovering alcoholic, and Kip, the rich one. It's a well told story, a simple ode to a small town that held everything for everyone until the mill went under and it became just another drive-by. The friendships are rich and real, and the only jarring note is Lee's marriage to a big movie star. The occasions when Little Wing celebrates together, the "we" parts, are the best. The chapters alternate in the voice of each main character and it flows seamlessly until the rowdy ending. Not much dramatic tension, but you might enjoy passing a few lazy afternoons with this one.

I really fell headlong into this book, grateful that I had left in on my TBR shelf for so long. It's been a hideous winter here in New England so a story like this can be an escape. It is a simple one told about the lives of four friends and one of the excerpts shown here were right on the mark:
" I tell my children when you are caught in a lie, or when you do something wrong, just STOP. Don't make excuses. Don't keep talking. Don't try to explain yourself. Just own up to what you've done wrong. when you do that, things inevitably work out better. You LOOK and FEEL better. More likely than not, you also catch the other person off guard."
So eloquently put and so true. Enjoy the story.