A Thousand Acres

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: I had seen the movie a long time ago, but was interested to read the book and discover Jane Smiley's style. Many friends had recommended the book and the author. I really enjoyed it, and couldn't put it down. I loved the description of farm life in Iowa. Definitely give this book a try.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: A cheap King Lear rip-off that is often predictable and sometimes just clumsy. A waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: A Thousand Acres
Review: This was an interesting novel that I enjoyed. The tragic events that occur throughout the book stunned me. Some things may seem to be unrealistic but that didn't ruin the story for me. The main character narrates her story and as the ending of the book nears, exciting and crazy events occur. I honestly could not put the book down at points it was so engaging. The feministic views of some characters in this book upset me and that is what makes a book emotionally involving. I would recommend this book to anyone as it is a quick and easy read that will make you think.

Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: I had to write a brief review to level the playing field. The lone crabby reviewer shouldn't be able to reduce an excellent novel to one star.

Rating:
Summary: A classic tragedy
Review: I just finished this book and I really liked it. It's one of the few Pulitzer winners that I have really enjoyed. For those of you not familiar with the book, it is a modern retelling of King Lear. It takes place on a farm in Iowa in the 1970s.

I just read King Lear for the first time this semester. We spent about three weeks on the play-analyzing it, reading it, talking about it. So when I read A Thousand Acres, the play was very fresh in my mind. As I was reading the play, I had several questions: Why did Lear decide to give his kingdom to his daughters? Why was Cordelia the favorite? Why did Goneril and Regan dislike their father so much? These things aren't explained very well in the play; you simply are supposed to intuit the answers or perhaps Shakespeare did not think these questions were important. Obviously, the play is centered around Lear and therefore his viewpoint permeates the entire work. As a reader/viewer, you are supposed to feel sympathy for Lear and admire him for his transformation from a cold tyrant to a flawed, but redeemable man. But the thing is, I did not feel a lot of sympathy for Lear and I sure as Hell didn't admire him.

Throughout the play, I felt that the actions of the eldest daughters were completely appropriate. They did what I would have done in their situation. When we were reading the play for class, I read for Goneril and I empathized with her character. So one of the best things about this book was that I got to hear the story from my favorite character's perspective. Through Goneril's double Ginny, Smiley fleshes out the subtext that I sensed in the play: Goneril and Regan had reasons to dislike their father; he was not a good man.

I particularly like Smiley's writing style. She has a slow, descriptive pace. It is appropriate for describing the rhythmic, ritualistic details of farm life. It lulls the reader so well, that when things start to go bad, it is as surprising to the reader as it is to Ginny. There is a sense of disbelief that this could actually be happening. Anyone who has siblings or has experienced family trouble, understands those shocking, terrible moments when long held resentments come corrosively to the surface, scorching everyone in their path; there is nothing worse than to be betrayed by someone you trust and rely upon. This is what happens in A Thousand Acres and it is beautiful and terrible.

Smiley is very good giving small details that reveal things about the character (Rose's touching of her missing breast, whenever she is upset or needs courage is one stellar example). And the intuitive way Smiley described Ginny's thoughts and her subsequent actions was very well done.

This is dark book. I think it is important to remind oneself that this novel is based on a classic tragedy. It took me a long time to get comfortable with tragedies. I always got annoyed because the characters did things I thought were stupid; it bothered me that the tragic consequences at the end of the play or story could have easily been avoided with a little foresight and common sense. But I was missing the point. Tragedies have a specific agendas, one of which is to show us the folly of human beings. So now when I get frustrated because the characters are unable to save themselves from their own foolishness, I know I am feeling what I am supposed to feel. And I think Smiley successfully executed the tragic model here. She did a really good job actually.

If you tend to get impatient with long descriptions, or if you feel uncomfortable feeling strong, negative emotions, then you should not read this book. This book will put you through the wringer. Personally, I found it exhilarating. I felt cleansed, cathartic after reading it; I was cowed; my own life seemed better.

For me, A Thousand Acres tells the King Lear story from the perspective of the more interesting characters and it does so in a very moving and satisfying way. I recommend it heartily.

Rating:
Summary: Dreadful
Review: It was a travesty when Smiley won the Pulitzer Prize for this dreadful book, an insipid soap opera masquerading as literature. Smiley bastardizes Shakespeare out of recognition when she turns King Lear into a movie of the week set in the plains of Iowa. Smiley decides to give the "Oprah" treatment to Shakespeare: she relocates the responsibility for Goneril and Regan's odious actions from their own sinister personalities (they are two of the Bard's greatest creations) to the Lear character, in this case a (gasp!) patriarch who (what else?) abused the girls as children. By the time you get to the scene in which the daughters, in a laughable excuse for dialogue, announce to each other, "He abused me!"--"Me too!", it's all too embarrassing for words.

Rating:
Summary: Nice writing but story & characters didn't jibe
Review: Here we have, as of 1979, the father, two daughters w/husbands, two kids living/working and totally dependent on this 90 year old working family farm (the third daughter became a lawyer and lives off farm in the big city). All, but one, have lived their entire life on this or another farm, meaning they are proven more than capable and willing to run the farm. YET when threatened with loosing the farm (their only means of income, their only known life) they don't fight to keep it. They do nothing. All they had to do was get through to the father, find out why he suddenly turned on them and correct the situation All they had to do was TALK either direct or via a lawyer to come to a workable agreement. But no one did. Unbelievable. Not real life. There was too much at stake. Would you allow a debt-free, mortgage-free 1000 acre working farm that's been in your family for 90 yrs and is your sole means of support, (your business! for Christ's sake), go without a fight? I don't think so.

Ms Smiley can put word on paper better than your average modern writer, that's for sure. Now if she could just make the characters she creates fit the story. The actions/behavior of the characters in this story are 180 degrees off with the histories Smiley has given them.. Actually none of the characters made sense to me. The ending was flaccid

Rating:
Summary: A 1000 Acre Swamp In Need Of A Drainage Ditch
Review: I purchased this book because it won a Pulitzer prize for the author; my respect for the Pulitzer committee is now vanishingly small. Perhaps this book could have been a good cautionary tale about the hazards for young women when they do not develop their abilities and instead hang all their fortunes on well-meaning promises of youth. Or this could have been a good tale of how to develop a quality life after experiencing a father with a fixation on being in control, and who prefers to ignore his sexual abuse of his daughters. It might have been a lot of things. As it is, the only lesson I could precipitate from this story is "trust no one", which in this case includes the author because the personality profiles drawn in one part of the book conflicts with a later profile of that same personality (authors who uncaringly contradict themselves are themselves abusive, because the time their readers spend in such mush is deemed of no value).

Rating:
Summary: See the book on Ginny's terms alone, please
Review: I've read some virulent commentary on good books before, but some of the reviews of "A Thousand Acres" really bite the big one. It always stuns me that people inject their own personal morals onto fiction and then get disappointed when the story doesn't pan out as they wish.

Personally, I enjoyed this book tremendously, but not for the much-hyped King Lear comparison. If you forget about that and remain in Ginny's frame of reference, you can see that this story is ALL about betrayal. She is betrayed at so many levels - her husband (married her for the farm), her father (abused her), Jesse (sleeps with her then with her sister, Rose), Rose (her only confidante becomes her sexual rival), Catherine (Ginny raised her after the mother's death and she dismisses Ginny), her mother (early death), her neighbor (knew that abuse was going on but did nothing), and even the land (poisoned wells lead to miscarriages). I completely understand why Ginny decides to avenge the ultimate betrayal, that of Rose; and why she runs away from the land to spend the rest of her life anonymously. Ginny is a well-drawn character of a trusting sheep-like woman, reared to submissivness, who fights by flight.

The only reason why I give this novel 4 instead of 5 stars is because Smiley never gives clear reasons why the father gives the land to his daughters in the first place. Considering his tyrannical, bullying nature, his affinity for drink, and his pride, I just don't understand the motive. Of course, as the book progresses, neither does he, and maybe that's why we are left to wonder. Since the book is told through Ginny's eyes, we know she doesn't really know, either.

I recommend this book for those in love with prose and who like the characters to be three dimensional.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, but unbelievable in parts
Review: This is a pretty easy read, a good beach book that still has literary merit and credentials (it won the Pulitzer Prize). While I enjoyed it as a whole, there were some serious problems that prevents me from giving the book 4 or 5 stars.

Right at 400 pages, this book was much longer than necessary. it takes quite a while to get to any interesting plot, and although the writing is skillful, and the reading enjoyable, I spent a lot of time wondering if this book was ever going to develop a story. I think Smiley would have benefitted from more rigorous editing.

I also found some of the characters to be underdeveloped and their actions therefore unbelievable. Ginny's (the narrator) father at first seems to be a man who is tough but lovable, gruff but affectionate at heart. This could not be further from the truth. Perhaps I misread the character, but his actions were constantly surprising me. Ty, Ginny's husband, also acts in a manner that doesn't at all fit with Smiley's characterization, by siding with her father in the family conflict. In fact, how he or any other character in this book could take the side of Ginny's father seems to me absurd, but they do.

I notice from the other customer reviews I am not alone in this analysis. I would recommend this book for vacation or travel reading, as its easy and interesting, but if you're looking for a unified and coherent novel that will have a lasting impact, skip this and pick up some Richard Russo or Ann Tyler.