Rating: 
Summary: it did win the pulitzer
Review: I don't feel qualified to write a review of this book. It won the Pulitzer Prize. That is a bit daunting to consider. The book was excellent, well crafted, and moving. It is a feminist/agrarian reading of King Lear. A Thousand Acres is also more than that. It is an attack on farming and of the relations between the sexes. For all of the technical greatness of the book, it is not without flaws.One flaw is the ending. Without giving anything away about what happens, the ending is too neat. In a stunning ending (stunning in the events leading up the conclusion), Jane Smiley cheats reality by having everything tie up neatly for one of the primary characters. Granted, this is fiction, but considering how well Smiley crafted this novel, i was left feeling cheated by the conclusion. All in all, it is a great novel. In the declining tradition of agrarian literature, A Thousand Acres is a return to this tradition. It just happens to be an unfair indictment of the farm tradition. We have to remember one thing: all farm life is not like this novel. Smiley got a lot of things right, but not everything.
Rating: 
Summary: waste of time
Review: This book was a big disappointment especially since it received the Pullitzer and National Book Critics awards. The characters were poorly developed. Some authors make you feel like you've known a character for years in just a few sentences but with this book, I couldn't get a real sense of the personalities even by the end of the story. And they were all so nasty and boring and the same after all that had happened to them - nothing learned, nothing changed, no redemption. What was the point of this book? I also thought that the whole subject of sexual abuse was given incredibly superficial treatment. It seemed it was thrown into the plot the way you throw a few extra bouillon cubes into a pot of soup to make it taste better because you can't be bothered with going through the effort to make soup stock from scratch - but the soup tastes artificial! There were so many loose ends and items that didn't seem to make sense. I don't need everything answered by the end of a story but it makes for a much more satisfying read when you can understand why a character acted in the way he or she did. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Parts of it were really good
Review: This is the first book I've read by this author, I borrowed it from someone. After reading some of the reviews here, I get the impression that it probably was not the best way to start reading Jane Smiley. It was a very disturbing book in many ways, but I knew that I was not out to read a romance novel. The biggest complaint that I had, though, was that the author seemed to go on so many tangents throughout the book. I expect quite a bit of history on the characters in the beginning of the book, but once the story starts I like it to keep moving. It seemed like the first 20 chapters or so, would start with a long detailed description of something from the main character's childhood, then the last half of the chapter would go the the plot of the book, and then the next chapter we're back in childhood again. Because of this I found the book to be somewhat boring and that's why I'll give it only three stars. But when the story was moving (especially at the end) I really enjoyed it. I also think that I would have enjoyed the book more if the author had spent a little more time on certain issues. It felt like there were some loose ends in the story that weren't explained very well, like why did Ty suddenly become so cold to Ginny? And I also would have liked a little more drama between Jess and Ginny, that part of the story just didn't seem exciting enough compared to the rest of the book; it almost seemed like it didn't belong in there. And why did Pete do what he did at the end? And more should have been spent on the actual reason behind Ginny's miscarriages, the mental problems, and why so many died of cancer in the neighborhood. That was a very important part of the book but you really have to pay close attention to get that aspect of the story. Just not enough detail where it mattered, and too much detail where it didn't, that's the biggest complaint I had about this book. Overall, except for some boring parts, I did enjoy reading this book, despite the disturbing characters and storyline.
Rating:
Summary: a worthy skim
Review: i didn't like it much - thought it was pretty flat and long and unspecial - a worthy skim. although i thought jane smiley could write well, i felt the whole subject was mediocre and kind of negative - all the characters cheating and lying and double-crossing each other and never being honest... it's like, why would a writer put out such energy to create a quality book about people who just "live life", and are on nothing resembling a spiritual journey? Very little redemptive about the book. i guess that's where jane smiley's at on some level...kinda stuck.
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: I don't disagree with a single good thing that's been writtenabout this book. Personally, I found it well-written and unusuallyengaging. Taking a story about a farm and, without much action,creating such a compelling novel is no mean feat. That being said, Ihave a hard time finding lots of value in this book for tworeasons: 1) As other people have mentioned, this book is basically adowner. Amidst the pain there are no lessons learned, no redemption,no resolution. Perhaps there is value in this, and I am too shallowto see it. I will say that you feel a bit let down by the end of thebook, because none of the characters that you have come to care abouthave grown or prospered in any way. 2) The story winds up going overthe top ... I really enjoyed reading the book for the author'swriting style and her observations and insights. Still, I am not 100%sure that she put these tools to their best use.
Rating: 
Summary: Captivating
Review: I thought that Jane Smiley was able to captivate the reader by her characters and the way in which she conveyed those characters by the written word. She wrote in such a way that she brought the reader right into the story itself. You felt like you were looking over the shoulder of Ginny Cook while reading each word. I would highly recommend the book although I would not give it five stars because of the language. It was a bit melancholy at times, but that's life. Contrary to other customer reviewers, I thought the book was well written and well thought out. I had a difficult time putting this book down. It was a very good read.
Rating:
Summary: Feminist Gothic
Review: Usually an author has to achieve a certain level of competence and quality in a book before a publisher will buy it. But this one was so poorly written, and the author so unable to get me interested in the characters as people, that I stopped reading about halfway through, wondering how the book had ever made it past the publisher's desk. Only by skimming through to the end did I find out why: all the protagonist's troubles could evidentially be traced to her father's sexual abuse of her earlier in her life, which she apparently had repressed and only discovered later on (in the portion I hadn't read) though newly discovered "repressed memories." So it had been published as an "important book" because of this politically correct and trendy subject matter. Radical feminists who enjoy reading about how all men, especially fathers, are no better than dogs, may like this book. The rest will be bored.
Rating:
Summary: Very well written but implausible at times
Review: Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres," is about a father, and his decision to turn over his 1,000-acre farm to his three daughters. Larry Cook, the father, is a tough man and decides to cut his daughter Caroline out of the deal because she doesn't like the fact that he is giving away the farm, which causes great conflicts throughout the story. Arguments flair as Larry slowly begins to deteriorate into a drunk, and the daughters are left to face the grim reality of life. I have never read a book as dark as this one. Smiley portrays a dark hue throughout the book, indirectly showing the reader the evilness and hatred between the characters as well as the feelings of watching a loved one deteriorate. I have always known the mid-west as a bright place of happiness, instead of a dark, gloomy place of fighting and argument. It is a very different vantage point. The setting was in rural Iowa. From a reader's point of view, I think Iowa is boring. As the story began, she painted a picture in my head of where this place was and what it looked like. She gave me history about the family and other background elements that I didn't know would be so important until later. The placement of these elements, allowed the plot to go anywhere and gave us material to base our thoughts and feelings on. Smiley writes about the characters in a way that makes it almost painful to learn about them. It is only over a long period of time, that reader gets a full picture of what a character is really like. Over the course of the story, the actions of the father, really got to me. I began to dislike him more and more because of the fact that one moment, he would be outspoken and then another he wouldn't say a word, even if asked, really started to annoy me. The actions and mannerisms the characters have, are so lifelike, they too give the reader insight on the situation and the character: "Daddy, have you got those pills the nurse gave you? The question went unanswered, so unanswered that it got to be like a question that no one had ever expected would be answered. Whether or not he had the pills turned out to be none of my business. That was the answer." P 150. Smiley uses vivid description and imagery throughout the book because it is the only way the tone and feel of the book could be captured. She doesn't lull back and forth between average description and juicy description. The entire book is packed with description, such as in the following passage, which is a "downtime" in the book. "My father was sitting up at one end of a bench, leaning back against the wall with his eyes wide open. A square of white gauze was pressed to his cheek with adhesive tape that ran into his hair. Instinctively. I followed his gaze, just to check on what he might be thinking about before disturbing him." P 145. Overall the book was very well written. With its intricate and slow building of characters, and vivid description, the story has power. On the other hand, some of the plot twists were implausible. Some of the characters actions were a little too animated at times. I don't believe this book is for everyone because it's really dark and depressing as well as it might seem a little slow for some.
Rating:
Summary: Heavy Duty Reading
Review: My reading group recently chose this book as our September selection. Several of us walk our dogs together in the morning and each time we met, we would mention how depressing this book is. You actually couldn't put it down - but, you were haunted by the family depicted in this epic. During our group meeting, we had so many questions that were left unanswered. Why this? Why that? What were they thinking? Would I recommend this book? Maybe. If you need to feel that your family, no matter how dysfunctional, is normal - this is the book for you. Would I read it again? No. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Should you read it? That is something only you can determine.
Rating: 
Summary: If I could give it ZERO STARS I would
Review: I read this book alongside King Lear, and while I respect Smiley's skill as a writer in general, this book was NOT well written. In the future, Ms. Smiley, please let Shakespeare stick to his strengths, and you to yours. Thank you.
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