Ageing Larry Cook announces his intention to turn over his 1,000-acre farm--one of the largest in Zebulon County, Iowa--to his three daughters, Caroline, Ginny and Rose. A man of harsh sensibilities, he carves Caroline out of the deal because she has the nerve to be less than enthusiastic about her father's generosity. While Larry Cook deteriorates into a pathetic drunk, his daughters are left to cope with the often grim realities of life on a family farm--from battering husbands to cut-throat lenders. In this winner of the US 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Smiley captures the essence of such a life with stark, painful detail. --Amazon.com

An excellent twist on Shakespeare, 13 Sep 2008
Sometimes prize winners disappoint, but not in this case. I approached the book with some scepticism having read that it was based on Shakespeare's 'King Lear' but after the first few chapters I was hooked. The story not only transplants the events of the famous play into 1970s Iowa, but also takes a very different angle to the generally accepted view of Lear as victim, Goneril and Reagan as scheming villainesses.

Narrated by Ginny, the eldest daughter and equivalent of the play's unsympathetic character Goneril, 'A Thousand Acres' makes the behaviour of the older girls seem more reasonable and less selfish, and calls into question the motivations and behaviour of their father Larry. Giving the narration to Ginny was a clever move, as it allows us to sympathise more with the sisters, though at the same time it isn't necessarily excusing all of their actions.

Anyone who has read, watched or knows of the play will know that all of this doesn't end happily. The book is extremely readable and exquistely well paced, drawing the reader in bit by bit, taking the storyline from mundane normality of farm life into a tragedic battle in which the characters themselves seem slightly bemused to find themselves. It's utterly believable throughout and packs an emotional punch.

Whilst it does follow most aspects of King Lear, cleverly adapting them to suit the modern setting, there are also some departures. This adds to the interest if you are familiar with the play, as you're always looking to see when comparison situations will come up or if things will differ from the original.

Despite never having visited America, I felt like I knew not just the scenary of the setting but the mindset of the locals, the politics of it, even though the community of the novel is very different from anything I have ever lived in. Smiley's prose integrates the reader effortlessly in the world of the characters.

I would highly recommend this book, it is original, intriguing, well written and one of the best things I have read all year.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 29 Sep 2007
Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

Old-fashioned 70's Feminist Misandry, 17 Dec 2006
There is plenty to admire in this book, which is why awarding it only one star wouldn't have felt right. I did not found the main characters convincing or `alive', there is no wit or irony in the book, and the story as a whole doesn't gel. But Smiley is a hard-working writer, and there is a wealth of detail about farming and farming techniques (presumably the result of detailed research) which feels educational. You come away feeling that you've learned something.

Also, although it suffers from many of the weaknesses of contemporary novels (especially the feeling that the whole is less than the sum of its parts) there is a passion which burns at the core of this book so you do feel that it is at least about something. It was apparently born out of a feminist desire to rewrite King Lear (sort of) from the point of view of the daughters. The daughters point of view, it transpires, is that of man-hating 70's feminists. Their world is one in which men are generally vile, sly and treacherous. There are only so many evil acts that you can pile onto the shoulders of the poor males, without turning the book into a melodrama (an ever-present threat); so Smiley has to work hard to convey their blanket wickedness by tone and atmosphere, and sometimes she struggles. When Harold, a neighbour, is blinded in a horrific accident, for example, and one of the daughters compares him to Hitler and says that he deserves no pity, the other daughter effectively poses the question - and you can't help feeling that she is articulating the very question that Smiley must have been asking herself, seated at the keyboard at this point - exactly what he has done that has put him so far beyond the pale. She resolves this little problem by coming up with an anecdote about how years earlier he apparently deliberately drove over a fawn on his cornpicker, and then callously left it to die - not so much melodrama as Disney.

Throughout the book, you never have a clue what the characters will do next, and this is mainly because they aren't credible personalities. Their dialogue is usually done well, but their actions aren't convincing. Yes some fathers abuse their children. But I wasn't at all persuaded that such men are remotely like the characters in this book.

Smiley's strength is in the externals, and in the detail - but she often overdoes even that. There are an awful lot of lists. A character can't open a medicine cabinet without Smiley listing every single thing inside it.

Smiley is described in the blurb at the back of the book as a `militant liberal'. She describes herself as a `nice person'. And yet ethically this is a dodgy book. We would know exactly what to think of it if the target were homosexuals, Jews, women, Muslims, etc. It is to be hoped that a future, more enlightened generation will also know what to think of a book that treats men as this one does.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 05 Nov 2006

Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

A difficult and unrewarding read, 17 Mar 2006
I chose to read this after my mother gave it to me and I read all the rave reviews on the cover. Although I found it very well and emotionally written I have to say, I didn't like any of the charachers and therefore couldn't empathise or really care about what happened to them.

Ginny especially came across as a very weak person and I believe the tiniest details of her everyday life (her houshold jobs, the dinner, what she was wearing etc.) was recounted to reflect that not much else was going on in her head. This was probably to blank out her horrific childhood of course but when it came to it she refused to stand up for herself or even confide in her husband and tried to poison the person who brought it all out into the light. Rose was probably the best of a bad lot!

Even so, it did keep me engaged if only to find out if Larry got what was coming to him. But alas no! Read if if you don't mind feeling a curious anxiety but I have enough of that in real life.

An excellent twist on Shakespeare, 13 Sep 2008
Sometimes prize winners disappoint, but not in this case. I approached the book with some scepticism having read that it was based on Shakespeare's 'King Lear' but after the first few chapters I was hooked. The story not only transplants the events of the famous play into 1970s Iowa, but also takes a very different angle to the generally accepted view of Lear as victim, Goneril and Reagan as scheming villainesses.

Narrated by Ginny, the eldest daughter and equivalent of the play's unsympathetic character Goneril, 'A Thousand Acres' makes the behaviour of the older girls seem more reasonable and less selfish, and calls into question the motivations and behaviour of their father Larry. Giving the narration to Ginny was a clever move, as it allows us to sympathise more with the sisters, though at the same time it isn't necessarily excusing all of their actions.

Anyone who has read, watched or knows of the play will know that all of this doesn't end happily. The book is extremely readable and exquistely well paced, drawing the reader in bit by bit, taking the storyline from mundane normality of farm life into a tragedic battle in which the characters themselves seem slightly bemused to find themselves. It's utterly believable throughout and packs an emotional punch.

Whilst it does follow most aspects of King Lear, cleverly adapting them to suit the modern setting, there are also some departures. This adds to the interest if you are familiar with the play, as you're always looking to see when comparison situations will come up or if things will differ from the original.

Despite never having visited America, I felt like I knew not just the scenary of the setting but the mindset of the locals, the politics of it, even though the community of the novel is very different from anything I have ever lived in. Smiley's prose integrates the reader effortlessly in the world of the characters.

I would highly recommend this book, it is original, intriguing, well written and one of the best things I have read all year.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 29 Sep 2007
Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

Old-fashioned 70's Feminist Misandry, 17 Dec 2006
There is plenty to admire in this book, which is why awarding it only one star wouldn't have felt right. I did not found the main characters convincing or `alive', there is no wit or irony in the book, and the story as a whole doesn't gel. But Smiley is a hard-working writer, and there is a wealth of detail about farming and farming techniques (presumably the result of detailed research) which feels educational. You come away feeling that you've learned something.

Also, although it suffers from many of the weaknesses of contemporary novels (especially the feeling that the whole is less than the sum of its parts) there is a passion which burns at the core of this book so you do feel that it is at least about something. It was apparently born out of a feminist desire to rewrite King Lear (sort of) from the point of view of the daughters. The daughters point of view, it transpires, is that of man-hating 70's feminists. Their world is one in which men are generally vile, sly and treacherous. There are only so many evil acts that you can pile onto the shoulders of the poor males, without turning the book into a melodrama (an ever-present threat); so Smiley has to work hard to convey their blanket wickedness by tone and atmosphere, and sometimes she struggles. When Harold, a neighbour, is blinded in a horrific accident, for example, and one of the daughters compares him to Hitler and says that he deserves no pity, the other daughter effectively poses the question - and you can't help feeling that she is articulating the very question that Smiley must have been asking herself, seated at the keyboard at this point - exactly what he has done that has put him so far beyond the pale. She resolves this little problem by coming up with an anecdote about how years earlier he apparently deliberately drove over a fawn on his cornpicker, and then callously left it to die - not so much melodrama as Disney.

Throughout the book, you never have a clue what the characters will do next, and this is mainly because they aren't credible personalities. Their dialogue is usually done well, but their actions aren't convincing. Yes some fathers abuse their children. But I wasn't at all persuaded that such men are remotely like the characters in this book.

Smiley's strength is in the externals, and in the detail - but she often overdoes even that. There are an awful lot of lists. A character can't open a medicine cabinet without Smiley listing every single thing inside it.

Smiley is described in the blurb at the back of the book as a `militant liberal'. She describes herself as a `nice person'. And yet ethically this is a dodgy book. We would know exactly what to think of it if the target were homosexuals, Jews, women, Muslims, etc. It is to be hoped that a future, more enlightened generation will also know what to think of a book that treats men as this one does.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 05 Nov 2006

Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

A difficult and unrewarding read, 17 Mar 2006
I chose to read this after my mother gave it to me and I read all the rave reviews on the cover. Although I found it very well and emotionally written I have to say, I didn't like any of the charachers and therefore couldn't empathise or really care about what happened to them.

Ginny especially came across as a very weak person and I believe the tiniest details of her everyday life (her houshold jobs, the dinner, what she was wearing etc.) was recounted to reflect that not much else was going on in her head. This was probably to blank out her horrific childhood of course but when it came to it she refused to stand up for herself or even confide in her husband and tried to poison the person who brought it all out into the light. Rose was probably the best of a bad lot!

Even so, it did keep me engaged if only to find out if Larry got what was coming to him. But alas no! Read if if you don't mind feeling a curious anxiety but I have enough of that in real life.

No pain, no gain, 01 Jul 2008
`How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these?' asks the author of his own characters, about two thirds through Crossing to Safety; that seems to be the challenge Stegner set himself.

The novel, running from the 1930s to the 70s, revolves around the friendship between two couples, the Langs and the Morgans, in which the men are both literature professors. The Langs are rich and endowed with extended families and the Morgans are self-made and orphans. They all lead full lives in which they remain by-and-large happily married.

Stegner is erudite, and he obviously loves the places he describes, from Madison, Wisconsin to Florence and including the secluded lakeside spot in New England where much of the book is set. But it is difficult to identify with characters whose lives are so uneventful. From the beginning, one of the protagonists is dying, but because the story is told from the perspective of the old Larry Morgan, that only comes out as looking back on a life well spent. The characters barely struggle, and when they do, Stegner chooses to skirt around their conflicts. The reader is left to enjoy his detailed and moody descriptions, his poetic quotes, and the contrasts between the depression and post-war eras: pleasant because the book is well written, but not very exciting.

`You don't,' would be my answer to Stegner's question. Judging from other reviews, obviously, I've come to the wrong conclusion.

Elegant and Poised, 14 Aug 2006
This novel captures the interace between two couples as they grow and mature both together and apart. The perspective of the elderly narrator brings a careful sensitivity and honesty to the relationships and the execution of the final set pieces is pitched just right. If you enjoyed any of the John Updike Rabbit books, or have enjoyed William Wharton's Tidings or Dad then you will love this.

A Gift To Be Savoured.......So Rich In Content, 08 Nov 2003
Crossing to safety is a novel which I took my time with, and savoured every written word. This was a blessing for it was my first experience with this author, and now having the majority of his books on my wish list, I'm going to have a ball.

We read about Larry and Sally Morgan and Charity and Sid Lang; two couples who meet in Madison Wisconsin, where their husbands are professors at the same university. The two couples become fast friends like love at first sight and soon they are so together and tight, sharing everything.........food, houses, money, children; whatever. The Langs who are wealthy are unstiningly generous with their possessions. There is no adventure too exciting that they cannot enjoy with the Morgans; no country too far that they cannot visit together and enjoy it's culture; no meal too costly or exotic that they cannot share and the beat goes on.

THE LANGS AND THE MORGANS leave no holds barred. They openly display their affection for each other, refusing to hide the fact that they enjoy their friendship which is based on love and trust. Their frienship endures and suffers all things, be they good, bad or indifferent, also creating bonds within their own families. Sid cannot live without Charity who is a perfectionist and a very dominant character, and Larry who holds a special bond with his wife Sally even more so, after a severe turn of events.

The novel starts with Larry as the narrator of the story. The couples are now in their sixties and the Morgans have been summoned from their New Mexico home to the Langs Vermont home retreat. A location where memories are still fresh and alive of past summers days and nights, and where presently there are experiencing some crucial developments. Developments important to them all and their children.

Larry takes us into the story from the beginning when they first meet in Wisconsin, until the present where they have gotten on in age. Bless someone with this great book as it is fitting gift for any occasion and will make an indelible mark on that person's life. Well written and highly recommended!!!

A must read, 20 Aug 1999
I discovered Wallace Stegner through my sister in San Francisco. I first read Crossing To Safety ten years ago and have reread it again and again. This story of friendship touched me greatly and I have shared it with many friends. I also recommend The Spectator Bird and A Shooting Star.

Beautiful, serious and thought provoking, 14 Aug 1999
A provocative story about the bond of friendship. Stegner's characters are vital, fully realized, complex, and thouroughly engaging. Though the story starts in simpler times, Depression era, the issues here (love, loyalty, staying true to one's self) remain relevant. The writing is poetic, even elegiac. I haven't been moved so deeply by a writer since my first introduction to Steinbeck's East of Eden. I've just finished Angle of Repose and I'm just starting The Spectator Bird. At this rate, I'll be through the Stegner catalog before Fall. I just can't get enough of this beautiful storyteller.

An excellent twist on Shakespeare, 13 Sep 2008
Sometimes prize winners disappoint, but not in this case. I approached the book with some scepticism having read that it was based on Shakespeare's 'King Lear' but after the first few chapters I was hooked. The story not only transplants the events of the famous play into 1970s Iowa, but also takes a very different angle to the generally accepted view of Lear as victim, Goneril and Reagan as scheming villainesses.

Narrated by Ginny, the eldest daughter and equivalent of the play's unsympathetic character Goneril, 'A Thousand Acres' makes the behaviour of the older girls seem more reasonable and less selfish, and calls into question the motivations and behaviour of their father Larry. Giving the narration to Ginny was a clever move, as it allows us to sympathise more with the sisters, though at the same time it isn't necessarily excusing all of their actions.

Anyone who has read, watched or knows of the play will know that all of this doesn't end happily. The book is extremely readable and exquistely well paced, drawing the reader in bit by bit, taking the storyline from mundane normality of farm life into a tragedic battle in which the characters themselves seem slightly bemused to find themselves. It's utterly believable throughout and packs an emotional punch.

Whilst it does follow most aspects of King Lear, cleverly adapting them to suit the modern setting, there are also some departures. This adds to the interest if you are familiar with the play, as you're always looking to see when comparison situations will come up or if things will differ from the original.

Despite never having visited America, I felt like I knew not just the scenary of the setting but the mindset of the locals, the politics of it, even though the community of the novel is very different from anything I have ever lived in. Smiley's prose integrates the reader effortlessly in the world of the characters.

I would highly recommend this book, it is original, intriguing, well written and one of the best things I have read all year.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 29 Sep 2007
Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

Old-fashioned 70's Feminist Misandry, 17 Dec 2006
There is plenty to admire in this book, which is why awarding it only one star wouldn't have felt right. I did not found the main characters convincing or `alive', there is no wit or irony in the book, and the story as a whole doesn't gel. But Smiley is a hard-working writer, and there is a wealth of detail about farming and farming techniques (presumably the result of detailed research) which feels educational. You come away feeling that you've learned something.

Also, although it suffers from many of the weaknesses of contemporary novels (especially the feeling that the whole is less than the sum of its parts) there is a passion which burns at the core of this book so you do feel that it is at least about something. It was apparently born out of a feminist desire to rewrite King Lear (sort of) from the point of view of the daughters. The daughters point of view, it transpires, is that of man-hating 70's feminists. Their world is one in which men are generally vile, sly and treacherous. There are only so many evil acts that you can pile onto the shoulders of the poor males, without turning the book into a melodrama (an ever-present threat); so Smiley has to work hard to convey their blanket wickedness by tone and atmosphere, and sometimes she struggles. When Harold, a neighbour, is blinded in a horrific accident, for example, and one of the daughters compares him to Hitler and says that he deserves no pity, the other daughter effectively poses the question - and you can't help feeling that she is articulating the very question that Smiley must have been asking herself, seated at the keyboard at this point - exactly what he has done that has put him so far beyond the pale. She resolves this little problem by coming up with an anecdote about how years earlier he apparently deliberately drove over a fawn on his cornpicker, and then callously left it to die - not so much melodrama as Disney.

Throughout the book, you never have a clue what the characters will do next, and this is mainly because they aren't credible personalities. Their dialogue is usually done well, but their actions aren't convincing. Yes some fathers abuse their children. But I wasn't at all persuaded that such men are remotely like the characters in this book.

Smiley's strength is in the externals, and in the detail - but she often overdoes even that. There are an awful lot of lists. A character can't open a medicine cabinet without Smiley listing every single thing inside it.

Smiley is described in the blurb at the back of the book as a `militant liberal'. She describes herself as a `nice person'. And yet ethically this is a dodgy book. We would know exactly what to think of it if the target were homosexuals, Jews, women, Muslims, etc. It is to be hoped that a future, more enlightened generation will also know what to think of a book that treats men as this one does.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 05 Nov 2006

Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

A difficult and unrewarding read, 17 Mar 2006
I chose to read this after my mother gave it to me and I read all the rave reviews on the cover. Although I found it very well and emotionally written I have to say, I didn't like any of the charachers and therefore couldn't empathise or really care about what happened to them.

Ginny especially came across as a very weak person and I believe the tiniest details of her everyday life (her houshold jobs, the dinner, what she was wearing etc.) was recounted to reflect that not much else was going on in her head. This was probably to blank out her horrific childhood of course but when it came to it she refused to stand up for herself or even confide in her husband and tried to poison the person who brought it all out into the light. Rose was probably the best of a bad lot!

Even so, it did keep me engaged if only to find out if Larry got what was coming to him. But alas no! Read if if you don't mind feeling a curious anxiety but I have enough of that in real life.

No pain, no gain, 01 Jul 2008
`How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these?' asks the author of his own characters, about two thirds through Crossing to Safety; that seems to be the challenge Stegner set himself.

The novel, running from the 1930s to the 70s, revolves around the friendship between two couples, the Langs and the Morgans, in which the men are both literature professors. The Langs are rich and endowed with extended families and the Morgans are self-made and orphans. They all lead full lives in which they remain by-and-large happily married.

Stegner is erudite, and he obviously loves the places he describes, from Madison, Wisconsin to Florence and including the secluded lakeside spot in New England where much of the book is set. But it is difficult to identify with characters whose lives are so uneventful. From the beginning, one of the protagonists is dying, but because the story is told from the perspective of the old Larry Morgan, that only comes out as looking back on a life well spent. The characters barely struggle, and when they do, Stegner chooses to skirt around their conflicts. The reader is left to enjoy his detailed and moody descriptions, his poetic quotes, and the contrasts between the depression and post-war eras: pleasant because the book is well written, but not very exciting.

`You don't,' would be my answer to Stegner's question. Judging from other reviews, obviously, I've come to the wrong conclusion.

Elegant and Poised, 14 Aug 2006
This novel captures the interace between two couples as they grow and mature both together and apart. The perspective of the elderly narrator brings a careful sensitivity and honesty to the relationships and the execution of the final set pieces is pitched just right. If you enjoyed any of the John Updike Rabbit books, or have enjoyed William Wharton's Tidings or Dad then you will love this.

A Gift To Be Savoured.......So Rich In Content, 08 Nov 2003
Crossing to safety is a novel which I took my time with, and savoured every written word. This was a blessing for it was my first experience with this author, and now having the majority of his books on my wish list, I'm going to have a ball.

We read about Larry and Sally Morgan and Charity and Sid Lang; two couples who meet in Madison Wisconsin, where their husbands are professors at the same university. The two couples become fast friends like love at first sight and soon they are so together and tight, sharing everything.........food, houses, money, children; whatever. The Langs who are wealthy are unstiningly generous with their possessions. There is no adventure too exciting that they cannot enjoy with the Morgans; no country too far that they cannot visit together and enjoy it's culture; no meal too costly or exotic that they cannot share and the beat goes on.

THE LANGS AND THE MORGANS leave no holds barred. They openly display their affection for each other, refusing to hide the fact that they enjoy their friendship which is based on love and trust. Their frienship endures and suffers all things, be they good, bad or indifferent, also creating bonds within their own families. Sid cannot live without Charity who is a perfectionist and a very dominant character, and Larry who holds a special bond with his wife Sally even more so, after a severe turn of events.

The novel starts with Larry as the narrator of the story. The couples are now in their sixties and the Morgans have been summoned from their New Mexico home to the Langs Vermont home retreat. A location where memories are still fresh and alive of past summers days and nights, and where presently there are experiencing some crucial developments. Developments important to them all and their children.

Larry takes us into the story from the beginning when they first meet in Wisconsin, until the present where they have gotten on in age. Bless someone with this great book as it is fitting gift for any occasion and will make an indelible mark on that person's life. Well written and highly recommended!!!

A must read, 20 Aug 1999
I discovered Wallace Stegner through my sister in San Francisco. I first read Crossing To Safety ten years ago and have reread it again and again. This story of friendship touched me greatly and I have shared it with many friends. I also recommend The Spectator Bird and A Shooting Star.

Beautiful, serious and thought provoking, 14 Aug 1999
A provocative story about the bond of friendship. Stegner's characters are vital, fully realized, complex, and thouroughly engaging. Though the story starts in simpler times, Depression era, the issues here (love, loyalty, staying true to one's self) remain relevant. The writing is poetic, even elegiac. I haven't been moved so deeply by a writer since my first introduction to Steinbeck's East of Eden. I've just finished Angle of Repose and I'm just starting The Spectator Bird. At this rate, I'll be through the Stegner catalog before Fall. I just can't get enough of this beautiful storyteller.

Don't bother, 07 May 2008
I picked this up whilst on holiday in LA, thinking it would be a laugh to read a novel set in LA whilst actually in LA. Boy was I wrong. This book is so boring. It has no real storyline and is just dull, dull, dull.

A wonderful novel, 14 Apr 2008
This is a novel of great richness and complexity. It's about the war and it's about what it means to be American at that moment in March 2003 when Bush - or rather puppetmasters Cheney and Rumsfeld according to Smiley (her political stance is clear) - decided to blame Saddam Hussein for 9/11. And it's about Hollywood and movies and people who make movies and people who think of life in terms of movies (I wonder how many movies are mentioned). But mainly it's about language and about stories. And the pages swarm with wonderful stories.

Smiley's people, 07 Apr 2008
I thought this was one of the oddest books I've ever read. Jane Smiley plays the astonishing gamble of writing over 600 pages about wealthy/rich, pampered, oversexed Californians to whom nothing much happens. One relationship breaks up, another is crystallised, and a third recovers from the damage inflicted by the outbreak of the 2nd Iraq war. Oh, and a proposed film is discussed at lot. That's not much plot development for such a long book. There are many, many pages of esoteric discussion and long, rambling anecdotes that become incredibly tedious. Really disturbing is the introduction of two young Russian women who seem to serve no purpose other than to service the sexual desires of two of the male characters, a device that I found misogynistic, amazing from such an author.

Jane Smiley is so ironic and funny, and so good about people, that she kept me reading, and at times there are breathtaking insights into how self-deceiving individuals can be. In particular, Day Six section 1 is masterly, utterly brilliant writing. But she can't make this book work, and I found myself skipping the last fifty pages or so. You start to lose the will to live when Elena begins moaning for the nth time about Iraq. And by that time Paul, the most interesting character by far, had been edged off stage.

I recommend the amazon.com reviews for some very polarised reactions. Even diehard US fans seem to find this hard going.

Sexy _and_ Anti-War - what more could you want?, 17 Mar 2008
It is a very different kind of Smiley book than I've read before - certainly there is imputed tragedy in the opening days of the Iraq war but nothing like the Lear-esque Thousand Acres, and while there is plenty of the narrative and verbal cleverness as you'd expect, in the main this is a study of character.

And what a study, as it weaves through the consciousnesses and points of view of almost all of the family, friends, and hangers-on of one Hollywood writer/director in the 10 days following the 2003 Oscar ceremonies. A conscious homage to Bocaccio's Decameron, this is a wonderful and searching look at relationships, familial responsibilities and taboos (if such things can be said to exist in anything goes Southern Cal), and even a philosophical take on what it means to be an American in a time of "war."

Will I ever get to the end . . .? , 03 Jun 2007
Loved Horseheaven and bought this on the strength of that. There is minimal plot, it seems self-indulgent; pride won't let me abandon it but it is a real struggle to finish. Maybe it is too West Coast for us British to relate to, or am I being over generous?

It takes a great deal of faith to gear a novel this horse-besotted to the general public. Horse love is one of those things either you get or you don't, and for the vast majority of the populace, horse stories tend to read like porn written for 13-year-old girls. The good news, then, is that while a love of all things equine is not a prerequisite for enjoying Jane Smiley's Horse Heaven, a love of human perversity is. Racing, after all, is at worst a dangerous, asset-devouring folly and at best an anachronism, as one of her horse trainers notes:

The Industry Leaders had made it their personal mission to bring horse racing to the attention of the general public, with the NFL as their model and television as their medium of choice, which was fine with Farley, though his own view was that horse racing out at the track, newspaper reading, still photography, placing bets in person, and writing thank-you notes by hand were all related activities, and football, ESPN, video, on-line betting, and not writing thank-you notes at all were another set of related activities.

A crucial piece of information for Smiley fans is that, among her many novels, Horse Heaven most resembles Moo (and there's even a pig!). In fact, with these two books it appears that this versatile author has finally found a home in which to unpack her impressive gifts: that is, the sprawling, intricately plotted satirical novel. Her target in this case is not academia but horse racing--less commonly satirised but, here at least, just as fruitfully so. Wickedly knowing, dryly comic, the result is as much fun to read as it must have been to write.

None of which means that Horse Heaven is a casual read. For starters, one practically needs a racing form to keep track of its characters, particularly when their stories begin to overlap and converge in increasingly unlikely and pleasing ways. Perhaps it says something about the novel that the easiest figures to follow are the horses themselves: loutish Epic Steam, the "monster" colt; the winsome filly Residual; supernaturally focused Limitless; and trembling little Froney's Sis. And that's not to forget Horse Heaven's single most prepossessing character, Justa Bob--a little swaybacked, a little ewe-necked, but possessed of a fine sense of humour and an abiding disdain for winning races by anything but a nose.

Then there are the humans, including but not limited to socialite Rosalind Maybrick, her husband Dick (who manufactures "giant heavy metal objects" in "distant impoverished nation-like locations"), a Zen trainer, a crooked trainer, a rapper named Ho Ho Ice Chill, an animal psychic and a futurist scholar, as well as attendant jockeys, grooms and hangers-on. (Not to mention poor, ironically named Joy, a few years out of Moo U and still having problems relating.) It's a little frustrating to watch this cast come and go and fight for Smiley's attention; you glimpse them so vividly, and then they disappear for another hundred pages, and it breaks your heart.

But there are certainly worse problems a novel could have than characters to whom you grow overattached. A plot this convoluted would be one, if only it weren't so hard to stop reading. There are elements of magic realism, astounding coincidences, unabashed anthropomorphism. (At one point--while Justa Bob throws himself against his stall in sorrow at leaving his owner's tiny, wordless mother behind--this reviewer cried, "Shameless!" even as she began to tear up.) Improbably, it all works. Horse Heaven is a great, joyous, big-hearted entertainment, a stakes winner by any measure, and for both horse lovers and fans of Smiley's dry, character-based wit, a cause for celebration on par with winning the Triple Crown. --Mary Park

An excellent twist on Shakespeare, 13 Sep 2008
Sometimes prize winners disappoint, but not in this case. I approached the book with some scepticism having read that it was based on Shakespeare's 'King Lear' but after the first few chapters I was hooked. The story not only transplants the events of the famous play into 1970s Iowa, but also takes a very different angle to the generally accepted view of Lear as victim, Goneril and Reagan as scheming villainesses.

Narrated by Ginny, the eldest daughter and equivalent of the play's unsympathetic character Goneril, 'A Thousand Acres' makes the behaviour of the older girls seem more reasonable and less selfish, and calls into question the motivations and behaviour of their father Larry. Giving the narration to Ginny was a clever move, as it allows us to sympathise more with the sisters, though at the same time it isn't necessarily excusing all of their actions.

Anyone who has read, watched or knows of the play will know that all of this doesn't end happily. The book is extremely readable and exquistely well paced, drawing the reader in bit by bit, taking the storyline from mundane normality of farm life into a tragedic battle in which the characters themselves seem slightly bemused to find themselves. It's utterly believable throughout and packs an emotional punch.

Whilst it does follow most aspects of King Lear, cleverly adapting them to suit the modern setting, there are also some departures. This adds to the interest if you are familiar with the play, as you're always looking to see when comparison situations will come up or if things will differ from the original.

Despite never having visited America, I felt like I knew not just the scenary of the setting but the mindset of the locals, the politics of it, even though the community of the novel is very different from anything I have ever lived in. Smiley's prose integrates the reader effortlessly in the world of the characters.

I would highly recommend this book, it is original, intriguing, well written and one of the best things I have read all year.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 29 Sep 2007
Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

Old-fashioned 70's Feminist Misandry, 17 Dec 2006
There is plenty to admire in this book, which is why awarding it only one star wouldn't have felt right. I did not found the main characters convincing or `alive', there is no wit or irony in the book, and the story as a whole doesn't gel. But Smiley is a hard-working writer, and there is a wealth of detail about farming and farming techniques (presumably the result of detailed research) which feels educational. You come away feeling that you've learned something.

Also, although it suffers from many of the weaknesses of contemporary novels (especially the feeling that the whole is less than the sum of its parts) there is a passion which burns at the core of this book so you do feel that it is at least about something. It was apparently born out of a feminist desire to rewrite King Lear (sort of) from the point of view of the daughters. The daughters point of view, it transpires, is that of man-hating 70's feminists. Their world is one in which men are generally vile, sly and treacherous. There are only so many evil acts that you can pile onto the shoulders of the poor males, without turning the book into a melodrama (an ever-present threat); so Smiley has to work hard to convey their blanket wickedness by tone and atmosphere, and sometimes she struggles. When Harold, a neighbour, is blinded in a horrific accident, for example, and one of the daughters compares him to Hitler and says that he deserves no pity, the other daughter effectively poses the question - and you can't help feeling that she is articulating the very question that Smiley must have been asking herself, seated at the keyboard at this point - exactly what he has done that has put him so far beyond the pale. She resolves this little problem by coming up with an anecdote about how years earlier he apparently deliberately drove over a fawn on his cornpicker, and then callously left it to die - not so much melodrama as Disney.

Throughout the book, you never have a clue what the characters will do next, and this is mainly because they aren't credible personalities. Their dialogue is usually done well, but their actions aren't convincing. Yes some fathers abuse their children. But I wasn't at all persuaded that such men are remotely like the characters in this book.

Smiley's strength is in the externals, and in the detail - but she often overdoes even that. There are an awful lot of lists. A character can't open a medicine cabinet without Smiley listing every single thing inside it.

Smiley is described in the blurb at the back of the book as a `militant liberal'. She describes herself as a `nice person'. And yet ethically this is a dodgy book. We would know exactly what to think of it if the target were homosexuals, Jews, women, Muslims, etc. It is to be hoped that a future, more enlightened generation will also know what to think of a book that treats men as this one does.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 05 Nov 2006

Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

A difficult and unrewarding read, 17 Mar 2006
I chose to read this after my mother gave it to me and I read all the rave reviews on the cover. Although I found it very well and emotionally written I have to say, I didn't like any of the charachers and therefore couldn't empathise or really care about what happened to them.

Ginny especially came across as a very weak person and I believe the tiniest details of her everyday life (her houshold jobs, the dinner, what she was wearing etc.) was recounted to reflect that not much else was going on in her head. This was probably to blank out her horrific childhood of course but when it came to it she refused to stand up for herself or even confide in her husband and tried to poison the person who brought it all out into the light. Rose was probably the best of a bad lot!

Even so, it did keep me engaged if only to find out if Larry got what was coming to him. But alas no! Read if if you don't mind feeling a curious anxiety but I have enough of that in real life.

No pain, no gain, 01 Jul 2008
`How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these?' asks the author of his own characters, about two thirds through Crossing to Safety; that seems to be the challenge Stegner set himself.

The novel, running from the 1930s to the 70s, revolves around the friendship between two couples, the Langs and the Morgans, in which the men are both literature professors. The Langs are rich and endowed with extended families and the Morgans are self-made and orphans. They all lead full lives in which they remain by-and-large happily married.

Stegner is erudite, and he obviously loves the places he describes, from Madison, Wisconsin to Florence and including the secluded lakeside spot in New England where much of the book is set. But it is difficult to identify with characters whose lives are so uneventful. From the beginning, one of the protagonists is dying, but because the story is told from the perspective of the old Larry Morgan, that only comes out as looking back on a life well spent. The characters barely struggle, and when they do, Stegner chooses to skirt around their conflicts. The reader is left to enjoy his detailed and moody descriptions, his poetic quotes, and the contrasts between the depression and post-war eras: pleasant because the book is well written, but not very exciting.

`You don't,' would be my answer to Stegner's question. Judging from other reviews, obviously, I've come to the wrong conclusion.

Elegant and Poised, 14 Aug 2006
This novel captures the interace between two couples as they grow and mature both together and apart. The perspective of the elderly narrator brings a careful sensitivity and honesty to the relationships and the execution of the final set pieces is pitched just right. If you enjoyed any of the John Updike Rabbit books, or have enjoyed William Wharton's Tidings or Dad then you will love this.

A Gift To Be Savoured.......So Rich In Content, 08 Nov 2003
Crossing to safety is a novel which I took my time with, and savoured every written word. This was a blessing for it was my first experience with this author, and now having the majority of his books on my wish list, I'm going to have a ball.

We read about Larry and Sally Morgan and Charity and Sid Lang; two couples who meet in Madison Wisconsin, where their husbands are professors at the same university. The two couples become fast friends like love at first sight and soon they are so together and tight, sharing everything.........food, houses, money, children; whatever. The Langs who are wealthy are unstiningly generous with their possessions. There is no adventure too exciting that they cannot enjoy with the Morgans; no country too far that they cannot visit together and enjoy it's culture; no meal too costly or exotic that they cannot share and the beat goes on.

THE LANGS AND THE MORGANS leave no holds barred. They openly display their affection for each other, refusing to hide the fact that they enjoy their friendship which is based on love and trust. Their frienship endures and suffers all things, be they good, bad or indifferent, also creating bonds within their own families. Sid cannot live without Charity who is a perfectionist and a very dominant character, and Larry who holds a special bond with his wife Sally even more so, after a severe turn of events.

The novel starts with Larry as the narrator of the story. The couples are now in their sixties and the Morgans have been summoned from their New Mexico home to the Langs Vermont home retreat. A location where memories are still fresh and alive of past summers days and nights, and where presently there are experiencing some crucial developments. Developments important to them all and their children.

Larry takes us into the story from the beginning when they first meet in Wisconsin, until the present where they have gotten on in age. Bless someone with this great book as it is fitting gift for any occasion and will make an indelible mark on that person's life. Well written and highly recommended!!!

A must read, 20 Aug 1999
I discovered Wallace Stegner through my sister in San Francisco. I first read Crossing To Safety ten years ago and have reread it again and again. This story of friendship touched me greatly and I have shared it with many friends. I also recommend The Spectator Bird and A Shooting Star.

Beautiful, serious and thought provoking, 14 Aug 1999
A provocative story about the bond of friendship. Stegner's characters are vital, fully realized, complex, and thouroughly engaging. Though the story starts in simpler times, Depression era, the issues here (love, loyalty, staying true to one's self) remain relevant. The writing is poetic, even elegiac. I haven't been moved so deeply by a writer since my first introduction to Steinbeck's East of Eden. I've just finished Angle of Repose and I'm just starting The Spectator Bird. At this rate, I'll be through the Stegner catalog before Fall. I just can't get enough of this beautiful storyteller.

Don't bother, 07 May 2008
I picked this up whilst on holiday in LA, thinking it would be a laugh to read a novel set in LA whilst actually in LA. Boy was I wrong. This book is so boring. It has no real storyline and is just dull, dull, dull.

A wonderful novel, 14 Apr 2008
This is a novel of great richness and complexity. It's about the war and it's about what it means to be American at that moment in March 2003 when Bush - or rather puppetmasters Cheney and Rumsfeld according to Smiley (her political stance is clear) - decided to blame Saddam Hussein for 9/11. And it's about Hollywood and movies and people who make movies and people who think of life in terms of movies (I wonder how many movies are mentioned). But mainly it's about language and about stories. And the pages swarm with wonderful stories.

Smiley's people, 07 Apr 2008
I thought this was one of the oddest books I've ever read. Jane Smiley plays the astonishing gamble of writing over 600 pages about wealthy/rich, pampered, oversexed Californians to whom nothing much happens. One relationship breaks up, another is crystallised, and a third recovers from the damage inflicted by the outbreak of the 2nd Iraq war. Oh, and a proposed film is discussed at lot. That's not much plot development for such a long book. There are many, many pages of esoteric discussion and long, rambling anecdotes that become incredibly tedious. Really disturbing is the introduction of two young Russian women who seem to serve no purpose other than to service the sexual desires of two of the male characters, a device that I found misogynistic, amazing from such an author.

Jane Smiley is so ironic and funny, and so good about people, that she kept me reading, and at times there are breathtaking insights into how self-deceiving individuals can be. In particular, Day Six section 1 is masterly, utterly brilliant writing. But she can't make this book work, and I found myself skipping the last fifty pages or so. You start to lose the will to live when Elena begins moaning for the nth time about Iraq. And by that time Paul, the most interesting character by far, had been edged off stage.

I recommend the amazon.com reviews for some very polarised reactions. Even diehard US fans seem to find this hard going.

Sexy _and_ Anti-War - what more could you want?, 17 Mar 2008
It is a very different kind of Smiley book than I've read before - certainly there is imputed tragedy in the opening days of the Iraq war but nothing like the Lear-esque Thousand Acres, and while there is plenty of the narrative and verbal cleverness as you'd expect, in the main this is a study of character.

And what a study, as it weaves through the consciousnesses and points of view of almost all of the family, friends, and hangers-on of one Hollywood writer/director in the 10 days following the 2003 Oscar ceremonies. A conscious homage to Bocaccio's Decameron, this is a wonderful and searching look at relationships, familial responsibilities and taboos (if such things can be said to exist in anything goes Southern Cal), and even a philosophical take on what it means to be an American in a time of "war."

Will I ever get to the end . . .? , 03 Jun 2007
Loved Horseheaven and bought this on the strength of that. There is minimal plot, it seems self-indulgent; pride won't let me abandon it but it is a real struggle to finish. Maybe it is too West Coast for us British to relate to, or am I being over generous?

Understand horses, understand yourself., 06 Oct 2005
As someone whose password for amazon is one of their horse's names and date of birth, I do understand horses, or thought I did until I read this book. Reading this book has altered my view considerably on how I regard my own horses and ponies and has allowed me to acknowledge what I have really always known, that they are all individuals, that there is a key for each and everyone of them and that we have to find it or if we can't, find the human being who can find it. As with relationships, there is an ideal horse or pony for each of us, one that we understand and can respect. There is a passage where I think it is deidre talks about the effect that riders have on horses and then the faults they have are made by the riders. That if someone rides a horse on a tight rein, it becomes shorter and shorter in movement and then this is seen as the horse's problem, when really it is totally manmade. The horses themselves are not over emotionalised, I think Jane Smiley has done a good job of seeing the world through a horse's eyes and recently I acquired a 15 year old welsh mare who had spent all her life in a big grassy space and thanks to this book, I was far more aware of how she felt, more aware of how to please her and more patient with her and with myself. I think she was lucky to arrive just after I read this book and it gave me the confidence to deal with her in a calm and thoughtful manner. Too many so called horse people scream and shout and there is another passage in the book where it says that horses don't like loud or edgy people and they don't. I've seen it time and time again in my own ponies. They take a step back. The louder the people get, the less co-operation the horses have for them. Many insights like that have crystallised what I think and rather than read dozens of 'How to ride, train, do dressage with etc' or even the rash of behaviour books on the market, this book says it all. Jane is not sentimental, she acknowleges that horses, like people, have to do a job, not always comfortably, not always in the best circumstances. The horses themselves acknowledge they have to do a job.

I approached this book with extreme caution as nearly everyhting I read on horses irritates me enormously as most of it is written by people with tunnel vision and a lack of empathy. I wish I read this sooner.

As for the human characters, they too are truly sympathetically drawn. Jane does not criticise, she merely lets them behave and be themselves. Rosalind and her affair was so realistically drawn and the end of it, so unexpected, so likely and her love for her husband who at no time was let of the hook by the author, he remained himself and so did Roz, they just learnt to appreciate each other. So much more realistic than the undying love stuff of other books. Joy is exactly right for depression and again well-drawn and not romanticised, including how it hurts those round her. Deidre is a memorable character.
I learnt a lot about american racing from this book as well. But I also learnt a lot about myself.
And finally I shall be writing out the passage on if you don't take responsibility for your own actions someone else takes responsibility for you and using it with problem teenagers. It is the single most sensible and obvious statement I have heard on dysfunctional behaviour and should be written large in schools and counselling surgeries.

Brilliant, imaginative, 14 Aug 2002
A magnificent adventure into the world of American thoroughbred horseracing. Human characters, equine characters, all painted and explored with exquisite skill by a master of her art. Read this book and be delighted and surprised by the way in which the novel grabs you and turns pages as if it is a pot-boiling thriller, not a book covering a subject which is outside the scope of most people's day to day knowledge and experience.

Smiley is simply the best!

nonsense but enjoyable nonsense, 01 Aug 2000
A ludicrous plot, incredible characters,unlikely dialogue all fail to spoil a story well told. The author has researched flat racing but does not truly understand racing. The enjoyment comes from the interesting people she has created,the varied lives and scenes and the working-out of the tale.

Fabulous, 23 Jun 2000
This is an addictive book, even for me and I know nothing about horses. She writes with Hemingway's gutsiness and Jane Austen's precision - it's wonderful.

An excellent twist on Shakespeare, 13 Sep 2008
Sometimes prize winners disappoint, but not in this case. I approached the book with some scepticism having read that it was based on Shakespeare's 'King Lear' but after the first few chapters I was hooked. The story not only transplants the events of the famous play into 1970s Iowa, but also takes a very different angle to the generally accepted view of Lear as victim, Goneril and Reagan as scheming villainesses.

Narrated by Ginny, the eldest daughter and equivalent of the play's unsympathetic character Goneril, 'A Thousand Acres' makes the behaviour of the older girls seem more reasonable and less selfish, and calls into question the motivations and behaviour of their father Larry. Giving the narration to Ginny was a clever move, as it allows us to sympathise more with the sisters, though at the same time it isn't necessarily excusing all of their actions.

Anyone who has read, watched or knows of the play will know that all of this doesn't end happily. The book is extremely readable and exquistely well paced, drawing the reader in bit by bit, taking the storyline from mundane normality of farm life into a tragedic battle in which the characters themselves seem slightly bemused to find themselves. It's utterly believable throughout and packs an emotional punch.

Whilst it does follow most aspects of King Lear, cleverly adapting them to suit the modern setting, there are also some departures. This adds to the interest if you are familiar with the play, as you're always looking to see when comparison situations will come up or if things will differ from the original.

Despite never having visited America, I felt like I knew not just the scenary of the setting but the mindset of the locals, the politics of it, even though the community of the novel is very different from anything I have ever lived in. Smiley's prose integrates the reader effortlessly in the world of the characters.

I would highly recommend this book, it is original, intriguing, well written and one of the best things I have read all year.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 29 Sep 2007
Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

Old-fashioned 70's Feminist Misandry, 17 Dec 2006
There is plenty to admire in this book, which is why awarding it only one star wouldn't have felt right. I did not found the main characters convincing or `alive', there is no wit or irony in the book, and the story as a whole doesn't gel. But Smiley is a hard-working writer, and there is a wealth of detail about farming and farming techniques (presumably the result of detailed research) which feels educational. You come away feeling that you've learned something.

Also, although it suffers from many of the weaknesses of contemporary novels (especially the feeling that the whole is less than the sum of its parts) there is a passion which burns at the core of this book so you do feel that it is at least about something. It was apparently born out of a feminist desire to rewrite King Lear (sort of) from the point of view of the daughters. The daughters point of view, it transpires, is that of man-hating 70's feminists. Their world is one in which men are generally vile, sly and treacherous. There are only so many evil acts that you can pile onto the shoulders of the poor males, without turning the book into a melodrama (an ever-present threat); so Smiley has to work hard to convey their blanket wickedness by tone and atmosphere, and sometimes she struggles. When Harold, a neighbour, is blinded in a horrific accident, for example, and one of the daughters compares him to Hitler and says that he deserves no pity, the other daughter effectively poses the question - and you can't help feeling that she is articulating the very question that Smiley must have been asking herself, seated at the keyboard at this point - exactly what he has done that has put him so far beyond the pale. She resolves this little problem by coming up with an anecdote about how years earlier he apparently deliberately drove over a fawn on his cornpicker, and then callously left it to die - not so much melodrama as Disney.

Throughout the book, you never have a clue what the characters will do next, and this is mainly because they aren't credible personalities. Their dialogue is usually done well, but their actions aren't convincing. Yes some fathers abuse their children. But I wasn't at all persuaded that such men are remotely like the characters in this book.

Smiley's strength is in the externals, and in the detail - but she often overdoes even that. There are an awful lot of lists. A character can't open a medicine cabinet without Smiley listing every single thing inside it.

Smiley is described in the blurb at the back of the book as a `militant liberal'. She describes herself as a `nice person'. And yet ethically this is a dodgy book. We would know exactly what to think of it if the target were homosexuals, Jews, women, Muslims, etc. It is to be hoped that a future, more enlightened generation will also know what to think of a book that treats men as this one does.

Astonishing Symmetries Sneak Subtleties into a Surprising Story, 05 Nov 2006

Most modern novels fail to surprise me. They telegraph where they are going in such obvious ways that I often feel I could write the next chapters and the ending before I read them. Jane Smiley in A Thousand Acres also telegraphs a lot . . . but underneath those obvious road signs, she's built a more powerful message for those who care to read between the lines. Although most people don't want to read a book as long and as dark as this one, it's well worth your while. The character and plot developments display an amazing set of symmetries that are works of genius.

Those who will love this book the most are people who know farm life in the American Middle West well. Having had a grandfather, father and several uncles who were farmers in Illinois raising lots of corn and hogs, I was first impressed by how well Ms. Smiley captured the attitudes, experiences, psychology and perspectives of the American family farmer during the 1930s through the 1980s. I felt like I was reading the history of my own family for about the first third of the book.

Then, she powerfully shifts the ground as the patriarch of the family, Larry Cook, decides to cede control over the family farm to avoid estate taxes. From there, a superficial reading will see this as a modern version of King Lear. I think that obvious parallel is not an accurate view of the book. Instead, this book takes on the qualities of a Greek tragedy as the characters move inexorably towards their preordained fates. What's the source of the tragedy? It's the pride of the American family farmer who lusts for more land and production.

In fact, this book could have been titled "Life Drains Away" as the forces set into action by the characters create an ironic threat to some of the same characters.

I was most impressed by the subtle case being made for healthier farming methods and changed values among family farmers. Rarely does a novel make such an objective point with such power.

At times, you'll feel that the novel is more than a little over the top. But that's what makes the novel work as a tragic story. I do agree that Ms. Smiley could probably have cut back on some of the darkness, still made her point, and possibly had a masterpiece of a story. But some writers need to shake the heavens with their furies . . . and we can hardly blame them when they succeed.

Well done, Ms. Smiley!

A difficult and unrewarding read, 17 Mar 2006
I chose to read this after my mother gave it to me and I read all the rave reviews on the cover. Although I found it very well and emotionally written I have to say, I didn't like any of the charachers and therefore couldn't empathise or really care about what happened to them.

Ginny especially came across as a very weak person and I believe the tiniest details of her everyday life (her houshold jobs, the dinner, what she was wearing etc.) was recounted to reflect that not much else was going on in her head. This was probably to blank out her horrific childhood of course but when it came to it she refused to stand up for herself or even confide in her husband and tried to poison the person who brought it all out into the light. Rose was probably the best of a bad lot!

Even so, it did keep me engaged if only to find out if Larry got what was coming to him. But alas no! Read if if you don't mind feeling a curious anxiety but I have enough of that in real life.

No pain, no gain, 01 Jul 2008
`How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these?' asks the author of his own characters, about two thirds through Crossing to Safety; that seems to be the challenge Stegner set himself.

The novel, running from the 1930s to the 70s, revolves around the friendship between two couples, the Langs and the Morgans, in which the men are both literature professors. The Langs are rich and endowed with extended families and the Morgans are self-made and orphans. They all lead full lives in which they remain by-and-large happily married.

Stegner is erudite, and he obviously loves the places he describes, from Madison, Wisconsin to Florence and including the secluded lakeside spot in New England where much of the book is set. But it is difficult to identify with characters whose lives are so uneventful. From the beginning, one of the protagonists is dying, but because the story is told from the perspective of the old Larry Morgan, that only comes out as looking back on a life well spent. The characters barely struggle, and when they do, Stegner chooses to skirt around their conflicts. The reader is left to enjoy his detailed and moody descriptions, his poetic quotes, and the contrasts between the depression and post-war eras: pleasant because the book is well written, but not very exciting.

`You don't,' would be my answer to Stegner's question. Judging from other reviews, obviously, I've come to the wrong conclusion.

Elegant and Poised, 14 Aug 2006
This novel captures the interace between two couples as they grow and mature both together and apart. The perspective of the elderly narrator brings a careful sensitivity and honesty to the relationships and the execution of the final set pieces is pitched just right. If you enjoyed any of the John Updike Rabbit books, or have enjoyed William Wharton's Tidings or Dad then you will love this.

A Gift To Be Savoured.......So Rich In Content, 08 Nov 2003
Crossing to safety is a novel which I took my time with, and savoured every written word. This was a blessing for it was my first experience with this author, and now having the majority of his books on my wish list, I'm going to have a ball.

We read about Larry and Sally Morgan and Charity and Sid Lang; two couples who meet in Madison Wisconsin, where their husbands are professors at the same university. The two couples become fast friends like love at first sight and soon they are so together and tight, sharing everything.........food, houses, money, children; whatever. The Langs who are wealthy are unstiningly generous with their possessions. There is no adventure too exciting that they cannot enjoy with the Morgans; no country too far that they cannot visit together and enjoy it's culture; no meal too costly or exotic that they cannot share and the beat goes on.

THE LANGS AND THE MORGANS leave no holds barred. They openly display their affection for each other, refusing to hide the fact that they enjoy their friendship which is based on love and trust. Their frienship endures and suffers all things, be they good, bad or indifferent, also creating bonds within their own families. Sid cannot live without Charity who is a perfectionist and a very dominant character, and Larry who holds a special bond with his wife Sally even more so, after a severe turn of events.

The novel starts with Larry as the narrator of the story. The couples are now in their sixties and the Morgans have been summoned from their New Mexico home to the Langs Vermont home retreat. A location where memories are still fresh and alive of past summers days and nights, and where presently there are experiencing some crucial developments. Developments important to them all and their children.

Larry takes us into the story from the beginning when they first meet in Wisconsin, until the present where they have gotten on in age. Bless someone with this great book as it is fitting gift for any occasion and will make an indelible mark on that person's life. Well written and highly recommended!!!

A must read, 20 Aug 1999
I discovered Wallace Stegner through my sister in San Francisco. I first read Crossing To Safety ten years ago and have reread it again and again. This story of friendship touched me greatly and I have shared it with many friends. I also recommend The Spectator Bird and A Shooting Star.

Beautiful, serious and thought provoking, 14 Aug 1999
A provocative story about the bond of friendship. Stegner's characters are vital, fully realized, complex, and thouroughly engaging. Though the story starts in simpler times, Depression era, the issues here (love, loyalty, staying true to one's self) remain relevant. The writing is poetic, even elegiac. I haven't been moved so deeply by a writer since my first introduction to Steinbeck's East of Eden. I've just finished Angle of Repose and I'm just starting The Spectator Bird. At this rate, I'll be through the Stegner catalog before Fall. I just can't get enough of this beautiful storyteller.

Don't bother, 07 May 2008
I picked this up whilst on holiday in LA, thinking it would be a laugh to read a novel set in LA whilst actually in LA. Boy was I wrong. This book is so boring. It has no real storyline and is just dull, dull, dull.

A wonderful novel, 14 Apr 2008
This is a novel of great richness and complexity. It's about the war and it's about what it means to be American at that moment in March 2003 when Bush - or rather puppetmasters Cheney and Rumsfeld according to Smiley (her political stance is clear) - decided to blame Saddam Hussein for 9/11. And it's about Hollywood and movies and people who make movies and people who think of life in terms of movies (I wonder how many movies are mentioned). But mainly it's about language and about stories. And the pages swarm with wonderful stories.

Smiley's people, 07 Apr 2008
I thought this was one of the oddest books I've ever read. Jane Smiley plays the astonishing gamble of writing over 600 pages about wealthy/rich, pampered, oversexed Californians to whom nothing much happens. One relationship breaks up, another is crystallised, and a third recovers from the damage inflicted by the outbreak of the 2nd Iraq war. Oh, and a proposed film is discussed at lot. That's not much plot development for such a long book. There are many, many pages of esoteric discussion and long, rambling anecdotes that become incredibly tedious. Really disturbing is the introduction of two young Russian women who seem to serve no purpose other than to service the sexual desires of two of the male characters, a device that I found misogynistic, amazing from such an author.

Jane Smiley is so ironic and funny, and so good about people, that she kept me reading, and at times there are breathtaking insights into how self-deceiving individuals can be. In particular, Day Six section 1 is masterly, utterly brilliant writing. But she can't make this book work, and I found myself skipping the last fifty pages or so. You start to lose the will to live when Elena begins moaning for the nth time about Iraq. And by that time Paul, the most interesting character by far, had been edged off stage.

I recommend the amazon.com reviews for some very polarised reactions. Even diehard US fans seem to find this hard going.

Sexy _and_ Anti-War - what more could you want?, 17 Mar 2008
It is a very different kind of Smiley book than I've read before - certainly there is imputed tragedy in the opening days of the Iraq war but nothing like the Lear-esque Thousand Acres, and while there is plenty of the narrative and verbal cleverness as you'd expect, in the main this is a study of character.

And what a study, as it weaves through the consciousnesses and points of view of almost all of the family, friends, and hangers-on of one Hollywood writer/director in the 10 days following the 2003 Oscar ceremonies. A conscious homage to Bocaccio's Decameron, this is a wonderful and searching look at relationships, familial responsibilities and taboos (if such things can be said to exist in anything goes Southern Cal), and even a philosophical take on what it means to be an American in a time of "war."

Will I ever get to the end . . .? , 03 Jun 2007
Loved Horseheaven and bought this on the strength of that. There is minimal plot, it seems self-indulgent; pride won't let me abandon it but it is a real struggle to finish. Maybe it is too West Coast for us British to relate to, or am I being over generous?

Understand horses, understand yourself., 06 Oct 2005
As someone whose password for amazon is one of their horse's names and date of birth, I do understand horses, or thought I did until I read this book. Reading this book has altered my view considerably on how I regard my own horses and ponies and has allowed me to acknowledge what I have really always known, that they are all individuals, that there is a key for each and everyone of them and that we have to find it or if we can't, find the human being who can find it. As with relationships, there is an ideal horse or pony for each of us, one that we understand and can respect. There is a passage where I think it is deidre talks about the effect that riders have on horses and then the faults they have are made by the riders. That if someone rides a horse on a tight rein, it becomes shorter and shorter in movement and then this is seen as the horse's problem, when really it is totally manmade. The horses themselves are not over emotionalised, I think Jane Smiley has done a good job of seeing the world through a horse's eyes and recently I acquired a 15 year old welsh mare who had spent all her life in a big grassy space and thanks to this book, I was far more aware of how she felt, more aware of how to please her and more patient with her and with myself. I think she was lucky to arrive just after I read this book and it gave me the confidence to deal with her in a calm and thoughtful manner. Too many so called horse people scream and shout and there is another passage in the book where it says that horses don't like loud or edgy people and they don't. I've seen it time and time again in my own ponies. They take a step back. The louder the people get, the less co-operation the horses have for them. Many insights like that have crystallised what I think and rather than read dozens of 'How to ride, train, do dressage with etc' or even the rash of behaviour books on the market, this book says it all. Jane is not sentimental, she acknowleges that horses, like people, have to do a job, not always comfortably, not always in the best circumstances. The horses themselves acknowledge they have to do a job.

I approached this book with extreme caution as nearly everyhting I read on horses irritates me enormously as most of it is written by people with tunnel vision and a lack of empathy. I wish I read this sooner.

As for the human characters, they too are truly sympathetically drawn. Jane does not criticise, she merely lets them behave and be themselves. Rosalind and her affair was so realistically drawn and the end of it, so unexpected, so likely and her love for her husband who at no time was let of the hook by the author, he remained himself and so did Roz, they just learnt to appreciate each other. So much more realistic than the undying love stuff of other books. Joy is exactly right for depression and again well-drawn and not romanticised, including how it hurts those round her. Deidre is a memorable character.
I learnt a lot about american racing from this book as well. But I also learnt a lot about myself.
And finally I shall be writing out the passage on if you don't take responsibility for your own actions someone else takes responsibility for you and using it with problem teenagers. It is the single most sensible and obvious statement I have heard on dysfunctional behaviour and should be written large in schools and counselling surgeries.

Brilliant, imaginative, 14 Aug 2002
A magnificent adventure into the world of American thoroughbred horseracing. Human characters, equine characters, all painted and explored with exquisite skill by a master of her art. Read this book and be delighted and surprised by the way in which the novel grabs you and turns pages as if it is a pot-boiling thriller, not a book covering a subject which is outside the scope of most people's day to day knowledge and experience.

Smiley is simply the best!

nonsense but enjoyable nonsense, 01 Aug 2000
A ludicrous plot, incredible characters,unlikely dialogue all fail to spoil a story well told. The author has researched flat racing but does not truly understand racing. The enjoyment comes from the interesting people she has created,the varied lives and scenes and the working-out of the tale.

Fabulous, 23 Jun 2000
This is an addictive book, even for me and I know nothing about horses. She writes with Hemingway's gutsiness and Jane Austen's precision - it's wonderful.

Good Will is great, 05 Jun 1997
Ordinary Love is a decent enough novella, but Good Will is just superb. I've never read anything quite like it. The characters are lovingly crafted, and their unusual setting and lifestyle gives Smiley to fully showcase her descriptive powers.

The most surprising thing is how well she writes from the main character's perspective. His personality as a father and husband is so clearly defined, so original, and so _masculine_ that I often found it difficult to believe that the author is a woman.

Like Smiley's other writings, this story is very much about relationships--familial, neighborly and those between oneself and the world--and how even the most carefully made decisions and choices can dramatically alter an equally well-planned life.

This novella originally appealed to me as a story of escape from society and retreat to nature, but I took away a great many lessons about life as well. Within her beautifully woven tale Smiley manages substantive discussions on racism, money, religion, and sexism--but these scenes are unforced. They are simply _there_, as natural as the lifestyle treasured by the main protagonists.

I loved this book.