A Thousand Acres in WACKY READING CHALLENGES

Oct 13, 2019 Pamela rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, pulitzer-fiction, 2019-pulitzer-reading-challenge

It is hard to describe just how excellent A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley really is. A retelling of Shakespeare's classic tragedy King Lear, A Thousand Acres explores themes of revenge, manipulation, violence and abuse, feminism, and rural isolation and retells Lear's story from the point of view of his daughters'. This, of course, makes the story itself alike but also vastly different.

It is narrated by Ginny, the eldest daughter of Larry Cook, Zebulon County, Iowa's largest and most successful It is hard to describe just how excellent A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley really is. A retelling of Shakespeare's classic tragedy King Lear, A Thousand Acres explores themes of revenge, manipulation, violence and abuse, feminism, and rural isolation and retells Lear's story from the point of view of his daughters'. This, of course, makes the story itself alike but also vastly different.

It is narrated by Ginny, the eldest daughter of Larry Cook, Zebulon County, Iowa's largest and most successful farmer. She introduces us to the major characters, her closest sister Rose and baby sister Caroline, the husbands, Ty and Pete, and her father, Larry. She describes carefully each one's character and then begins to cement all of their places in the history of the area among their neighbors and the town. We soon become aware of the interlocking relationships and the secretive nature of life in a small rural community where everyone gossips about everyone else and appearances are everything and must be maintained at all costs. People and farms are successful because they appear successful.

Then at a barbeque thrown by Harold Clark, Larry Cook's best friend, and greatest rival, to celebrate the return of his son Jess, everything changes. Larry Cook suddenly decides to turn over his thousand-acre farm to his three daughters and retire but the youngest, Caroline, voices a less than eager response and is promptly disinherited. The other two and their husbands are surprised but delighted and begin planning for a long-awaited future. The community is amazed. Meanwhile, Harold Clark begins to pit his sons against one another. Changes take place that affect the entire family and change the community. Secrets come out and old abuses are revealed. Larry Cook begins to go mad or so it seems. Daughters take revenge. Families are left in shambles.

This is a tragedy and ends as one. It is also a very human story. Jane Smiley has managed to take a dramatic tale from long ago and tell a compellingly modern story of love, loss, and family.
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