A Thousand Acres

Rating:
Summary: If you like the book, DO NOT see the movie!
Review: I loved this book and could not understand how the movie screenplay missed so many pertinent points; but after seeing all the mixed reviews this book received here, I am now realizing how many interpretations it has. First of all, I thought that the characters were so real - there is something of everyone in each of them. As such, it was intriguing to see how each reacted to Larry Cook's announcement, how each adjusted their lives for it, and how their lives were changed because of it. What happened to the Cook's could happen to any family, anywhere. It is a tough book to get through, but stick with it, it's well worth it in the end (which I really liked). By the way, the movie stunk! If you liked the book don't see it.

Rating:
Summary: If you like this type of book
Review: This novel was well written and insightful, but not entertaining at all. This is by no means the kind of book that you "can't put down". Though Ms. Smiley had some very good ideas and insightful thoughts, I found the pacing and characters very boring, especially Ginny, who I found to be far too meek for any lead character. I thought her character had absolutely no life or colour. Fought to finish it. I can understand why it won the Pulitzer, but I personally don't agree with the selection.

Rating:
Summary: A good portrayal of "unfinished business"
Review: I think the book can be enjoyed on its own merits without reference to King Lear. Maybe King Lear inspired Jane Smiley but that does not necessarily meant that she expected readers to know this or relate it all back to her source of inspiration. I think it is a very well-written & masterly book simply because it shows what unfinished business does to people, & also how people can be affected by their relationship to a particular piece of land. I enjoyed it, not just for the pleasure in reading it, also in the thought it has provoked.

Rating:
Summary: Who gives out those Pulitzer Prizes, anyway?
Review: Not bad in style at first, but it gets boring fast. I simply could not get beyond page 50. Fortunately I had borrowed it and didn't actually shell out shekels for it.

Rating:
Summary: It worked for Shakespeare... and for Jane Smiley
Review: When I first read this book, I simply wanted to get through it so that I would be ahead in my American Literature class. My first reading did not do this wonderful novel justice. I have since read it two more times and each time, I realize that I find something else that I missed the other times. Each reading is new and refreshing, although at times, it may seem a little too much like the latest episode of Days of Our Lives. I found a little of myself in each of the characters. Buy it and stick with it... you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: a outstanding book, it really hits home
Review: At the beginning I thought it wasn't interesting, then I just couldn't put it down. This book really hits home, I think, to alot of us who grew up with stern fathers. This kind of reminds me of my husband's father and mine all rolled up into one. Great Book!! Wanting to see the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Boring, very difficult to finish!
Review: I was very disapppointed in this book. There were so many major events that occurred yet there was no detail given. The reader does not get an understanding of why the characters act the way they do. I finished it only because I'm in a book club and wanted to join in on the discussion.

Rating:
Summary: How important are appearances?
Review: In a matter-of-fact style, Smiley releases the skeletons, one-by-one, from the locked closets of the Cook family in rural Iowa. In the midst of her vivid and knowledgeable descriptions of midwest farming, the author slips in one shocking event after the other sandwiching them into a spread upon which the neighbors can feast. The family goes on ingesting business as usual. In their way of thinking, why should a tragic family accident at the quarry prevent a trip to the swimming pool the next day? Taking incredible family dysfunction in stride seems a sad commentary on keeping up appearances in the conservative midwest.

Rating:
Summary: When the Hollywood Butcher makes you re-read the book
Review: There's nothing quite like a cascade of reviews dumping on the film adaptation of a favorite book to make you realize that no, Hollywood really doesn't get it. But you also wonder if you got it right the first time. I went back and re-read A THOUSAND ACRES after finally breaking down and seeing the beautifully cast yet horribly assembled movie. Many film critics who had not read it wondered what on earth all the fuss for the book could have been about (much like they did for MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL), and upon another re-examination of both it and KING LEAR, I am now sure that Jane deserved the Pulitzer, the cash, the praise, all of it. I was a creative writing student of hers at Iowa State University back in the 80's, and will freely admit that I didn't enjoy much of her work (pre-THE GREENLANDERS) that I read. But the turn she took with her tale of Lear is a devastating read. How obvious it seems now to take the one play Shakespeare offers as almost pure anti-feminism and tell it from a woman's point of view. The daughters are not specifically more sentimental, nor mock-heroic, but simply revealed to us in a way that reverses the blanket of ambiguity Shakespeare threw across his three sisters. And the brilliance of letting the father's own psychosis become his counter-part Fool is as strong and successful a choice in "casting" as any post-modernist staging of the play itself that I have seen.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Review: I liked this book because the characters were engaging. Their actions and emotions were very real, and I could easily imagine what they were doing and feeling. I also like the description of the thousand acres of farm land where most of this story unfolds. I was able to picture the landscape and the atmosphere. I felt that this book had a major drawback though. The plot dissappointed me. Even though it was very realistic, I didn't like how the farming fell apart along with the family. I also didn't like the way that Ginny was treated. She got the short end of the deal from her father and her sister Caroline. I give this book a 7 because of the characters, the realism, and the description, but I give it only a 7 because of the plot.