The Hearts of Men by Nickolas Butler
This book follows two young boy scouts and their progeny from the early 1960s until today. The first, known as bugler because his job is to sound reveille for the camp every morning, is, in the opening scenes, ruthlessly bullied for his insistence on following the rules. The other seems to walk the line between sincerity and obfuscation, kindness and cruelty, friendship and exploitation. There is little plot to speak of, save the passing of time and events that reveal who these two men really are. But that was enough to draw me in. The author really brought these characters to life for me; even in the first few pages, I felt like I knew them and the internal struggles they were facing. Like a lot of books I've read lately, though, the ending felt a bit...blah. It seems like wrapping up a story is the hardest part of telling it.
