A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Last summer I read Horse Heaven by Smiley at the beach. Scorewise, I think I would have given it a #3, Liked It Very Much. As I was heading to the beach again this month, I thought I'd grab another one of her books. Plus, it was a Pulitzer Prize winner so I thought, how can I go wrong?
Writing-wise, Smiley is a master. Her descriptions of the land are exquisite, and the way she wraps her words around the characters...wow. Of the father in the story: "He was never dwarfed by the landscape-the fields, the buildings, the white pine windbreak were as much my father as if he had grown them and shed them like a husk." The land in this book is as much a character as any of the people. Smiley writes about it with a startling intimacy. I live in Minnesota, I have spent some time in Iowa, but never would I have been able to describe it the way she does. She also writes of family relationships with bewildering accuracy. Between a man and his father-in-law: "It took me years to understand the depth of Pete's disappointment when his enthusiasms met with my father's inevitable skepticism". Of sisters: "The fact was that we had known each other all of our lives but we had never gotten tired of each other." Of aunts and nieces: "She knew one of the great family truths, that aunts always help, while moms always think it would be good for you if you did it yourself". Of a preacher come to reign in a floundering member of his flock: "He pushed his thumb down on the latch and opened the door in a smoothly aggressive way, as if, I though meanly, he was practiced at taking advantage of small openings."
I enjoyed the first part of the book very much and throughout I enjoyed the writing-she is top notch in terms of turning a phrase and making you appreciate her words. That said, the reveal that was central to the story (not going to spoil it here) was in my mind overkill and unnecessary. Its not that I did not buy it per se, its that I thought it was too much, too little, too late. I mean, the guy was enough of an asshole to trigger everything that happened without that jab. I think mostly I was disappointed that that was shoved into a book that otherwise, I was enjoying very, very much. It distracted me and took away from my enjoyment. Which maybe it was supposed to, I don't know. I suspect that at the time this book was written, this was a shocking reveal that stunned the reader. In this day and age, perhaps I've just become numb to the shock value, and I just found it sad, but not profoundly so.
Ultimately, I thought that this was somewhere between a #3-Like It Very Much for the writing and frankly, the first 2/3s of the book, and #5 Good Enough, because I really did not like the last 1/3 or where it ended up. So have fun sorting that one out.
Writing-wise, Smiley is a master. Her descriptions of the land are exquisite, and the way she wraps her words around the characters...wow. Of the father in the story: "He was never dwarfed by the landscape-the fields, the buildings, the white pine windbreak were as much my father as if he had grown them and shed them like a husk." The land in this book is as much a character as any of the people. Smiley writes about it with a startling intimacy. I live in Minnesota, I have spent some time in Iowa, but never would I have been able to describe it the way she does. She also writes of family relationships with bewildering accuracy. Between a man and his father-in-law: "It took me years to understand the depth of Pete's disappointment when his enthusiasms met with my father's inevitable skepticism". Of sisters: "The fact was that we had known each other all of our lives but we had never gotten tired of each other." Of aunts and nieces: "She knew one of the great family truths, that aunts always help, while moms always think it would be good for you if you did it yourself". Of a preacher come to reign in a floundering member of his flock: "He pushed his thumb down on the latch and opened the door in a smoothly aggressive way, as if, I though meanly, he was practiced at taking advantage of small openings."
I enjoyed the first part of the book very much and throughout I enjoyed the writing-she is top notch in terms of turning a phrase and making you appreciate her words. That said, the reveal that was central to the story (not going to spoil it here) was in my mind overkill and unnecessary. Its not that I did not buy it per se, its that I thought it was too much, too little, too late. I mean, the guy was enough of an asshole to trigger everything that happened without that jab. I think mostly I was disappointed that that was shoved into a book that otherwise, I was enjoying very, very much. It distracted me and took away from my enjoyment. Which maybe it was supposed to, I don't know. I suspect that at the time this book was written, this was a shocking reveal that stunned the reader. In this day and age, perhaps I've just become numb to the shock value, and I just found it sad, but not profoundly so.
Ultimately, I thought that this was somewhere between a #3-Like It Very Much for the writing and frankly, the first 2/3s of the book, and #5 Good Enough, because I really did not like the last 1/3 or where it ended up. So have fun sorting that one out.
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