Rating: 
Summary: Definately not recommended to anyone
Review: I was assigned to read "A Thousand Acres" for my Good Books class. Obviously, my professor thought that it fell into the category of a good book. Nevertheless, let's face it, "A Thousand Acres" isn't very impressive of a book. In this book, we are told every inconsequential tid-bit of information about every single person who is even remotely involved in the story. I think that this book would be much better if the descriptions didn't include such a massive amount of detail. Frankly, I'm surprised that Jane Smiley didn't include the number of zits that each character had throughout the story, why not. We were told everything else about the characters. I like to build my own mental 'portrait' of a character; I don't like when authors paint them in minute detail for me. I didn't see the need for most of the first half of the book. A few chapters would have been more than sufficient. Cutting out the detail-laden narratives would have also made this book much easier to get into. Normally I am able to lose myself in a book that has good descriptions of the characters and the setting, I am not saying that Smiley's descriptions weren't good, just too damn long, but all this book did was make me want to take a nap. After reading "A Thousand Acres," my class was assigned to read Shakespeare's "King Lear". I liked "King Lear" much better, because it was short, sweet, and to the point. Smiley over did it in her 'parallels' to "King Lear." Was Smiley's rewriting of Lear a tribute to Shakespeare? If so, she failed miserably. Perhaps this novel should have been entitled "King Lear goes to Iowa."
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent reading!
Review: I could not put down this book and stayed up most of the night reading it! I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I've read it twice already.
Rating: 
Summary: Dark, brooding, over-the-top. King Lear? Who cares?
Review: As I read Jane Smiley's prize-winning novel, I tried my darnedest not to think about those much-ballyhooed parallels with *King Lear*. I find the "updated version of" phenomenon, which includes, for example, Helen Fielding's *Bridget* diary (*Price and Prejudice* update) to be gimmicky and distracting. Write your own novels, people! That said, I can now declare that I think *A Thousand Acres* is a good, but not "great" novel. Jane Smiley is an excellent writer, and although the book starts a bit slowly, the momentum and intrigue build as pages fly by. Her ability to describe the landscapes, moods, and rhythms of midwestern farm life is commendable, and for me, this proved to be perhaps the most consistently satisfying aspect of the book. The plot can only be described as "dark," perhaps excessively so to seem plausible. Incest, insanity, suicide, the casual plotting of vengeful murders--anything that might form the basis for an extended commentary on the possibilities for depravity in the Human Condition--it's all here! There is so much depravity here, in fact, that after a while I found myself (figuratively) rolling my eyes at each new twist in the plot. A bit over the top, Jane! I confess that I found it dismaying that each and every male character in the book proved himself to be rotten, exhibiting behavior ranging anywhere from insensitive clottishness to manipulative and smarmy don Juanism to ranting, bullying, incest-practicing insanity. What a bunch of great guys! In all fairness, the women in the book aren't much better. The book's protagonist seems to be the one island of reasonableness until the surprising (and in my view, implausible) plot twist that proves that she, too, is capable of ANYTHING (I don't feel I should give the plot away here :-) ). Overall, the book is gripping, well-written, and certainly worth reading. To my taste, however, Jane Smiley has gone a bit over the top in her portrayal of characters and in some aspects of the plot. The book ultimately turns into a veritable caricature of a "dark novel revealing the hideous inner secrets that lie behind the placid facade," blah, blah, blah.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary, haunting story
Review: I read this book five or six years ago and I still remember scenes in vivid detail. The story grabs you and does not let you go. You feel like you are IN the story. Beautifully written. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: dramatic story written without drama
Review: I didn't know the tie in with King Lear. Truth be known, I borrowed this book becase I liked the front cover. I expected a family saga, with sorrows and joys, but only found sorrows. To me it felt like there wasn't any drama, that the farm theme took all that away. Eg: shelled peas, snapped off some broccoli, decided to kill my sister, swept the floors...... etc etc. Basically quite a saga with not too many nice people and not too many see it to the end.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the squeamish reader
Review: I am a college student, and as a logical step after readingKing Lear in my literary analysis class, we then turned our focus on Athousand Acres. I can't say how glad I am that this book fell across my path. Throughout my book my opinions about the characters changed so often, that I didn't know who to trust and who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. I came in with the expectation that Larry and Caroline would be the heroes, and that even though Ginny was the narrator we would clearly realize that she is evil. However, the characterization in this book is so deep and intricate that it is nearly impossible to lable one character as truly evil, except for the surprising conclusion of Larry Cook, whom I hated with a passion. However, this book can not be read with the expectation that it will give the reader pleasure. Instead, it reaches into the very depths of your emotions and twists them around with so vigorous a hand that you are nearly sickened by some of the action in the story. This book has some of the greatest depth I have ever known in a novel, and incorporates many subjects and undertones into its plot.
Rating:
Summary: Smiley's book good and dark
Review: Dear Reader, Smiley's book is a dark view of the farm life thatthis country sees as wholesome and good while in "A ThousandAcres" we see that it is quite corrupt and sometimes vicious. It is a tale of The Cooks, a midwestern farming family, whose patriarchal father decides to split up his land between his three daughters. When he does cruel secrets and intentions appear from out of no where. Be sure to read it.
Rating:
Summary: A real behemoth
Review: This novel really is a powerful and moving book. It can, and does, drag on for awhile. It also was disturbing enough at times to make me what to just put the book down and go to bed. That isn't a bad thing for novel, but incest and abuse are not things I want to read about before I go to bed. The novel's length isn't a bad thing because the novel really deserves a longer time to develop itself and to impact the readers who have decided to stay on the novel and continue reading. It can be a very taxing read, though, and sometimes the appeal you have to one of the brilliantly created characters is all that keeps you from losing all interest. It is well worth the read even if you don't even know the parallels it has to Shakespeare's King Lear. I really had no clue. The more educated readers would probably get more out of this novel than other readers and that is probably it deserved the Pulitzer Prize and acclaim. Any person who's "well read", a teacher, or a reader who reads to just sound intelligent in conversations will probably read this book and jump on its or Jane Smiley's bandwagon. As for myself, I know I still have some more reading to do.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book!
Review: I read this book during senior year in high school and I totally enjoyed it. The parallels and anti-parallels between it and King Lear were startling and I had fun deducing the similarities and contrasts. I found it very interesting how Smiley used common day feelings and experiences to endear the reader to Ginny. The way such a seemingly normal and stable family could degenerate into a dysfunctional abyss is absolutely fascinating. A thoroughly excellent and uplifting read.
Rating:
Summary: Slow at first, but eventually picks up the pace
Review: It took me about 120 pages to get into the story, but whey I did, I thought it was pretty good. Although I didn't like the main character, I thought that the author gave me good insight into how and why she reacted the way she did to her situation. I thought that Smiley's general insight into different kinds of people is what stood out so much in the book. My main qualm is that this book can be hard to get into. I can imagine many readers giving up the book because they are bored by the plot in the beginning. It does get very interesting after a while, though. Although I thought that certain aspects of the book were very good, I don't think that I benefited as a person by reading it. It did not stir me, nor change my views on anything. The main redeeming quality was the insight into the characters.
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