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"Well, then, where's he been?"
"You don't know what--"
"Just let me know."These are, respectively, the first line of dialogue, the last said between family members, and the last line of dialogue in Jane Smiley's rewriting of King Lear. It begins with a question, and ends with unanswered acknowledgments of unknowing. The novel is about family, and the overwhelming debt and gratitude one generation demands from the next, and the defiance, conciliation, and denial by which the ne ...more
Wow. This novel surprised me with its twists and turns.
Through the narrator, Ginny, we learn that life on the farm in Iowa is not as serene and simple as one might imagine. She describes beautiful truths about life, contrasted with the reality of it: "What Rose and I once did in our pond, simply float on our backs for what seemed like hours, soaking up the coolness of the water and living in the blue of the sky, was impossible here... There was nowhere to be privately, contemplatively immersed, ...more
Through the narrator, Ginny, we learn that life on the farm in Iowa is not as serene and simple as one might imagine. She describes beautiful truths about life, contrasted with the reality of it: "What Rose and I once did in our pond, simply float on our backs for what seemed like hours, soaking up the coolness of the water and living in the blue of the sky, was impossible here... There was nowhere to be privately, contemplatively immersed, ...more
Took several tries to get through this, but when it caught, it caught. By the end, I was mesmerized by the spiral of self-destruction and misery that overtook everything. I couldn't help myself - I had to know how it ended. Well written and haunting.
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