Rating: 
Summary: A Travesty
Review: I am a big fan of Smiley's; LOVED A Thousand Acres, Age of Grief and others. But I could not get through this. It is such a disappointment when someone with Smiley's demonstrated talent writes something so meandering, and so infused with trite analysis of the greediness of the 1980's. And the gratuitous and repetitive sexual scenes were something new and unwelcome from Smiley. Smiley has written so much that is wonderful; I wouldn't recommend spending time on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Delightful, Interesting, Memorable
Review: I am a fan of Smiley's, although I enjoy some of her works more than others. This one was right up there with Thousand Acres for me. I felt the tension throughout the story and found her characters and their attitudes thoroughly evocative of the times. I read it months ago and the characters remain with me now.
Rating:
Summary: Most BORING book ever
Review: I decided to read this book because of Jane Smiley's reputation. After an entire book of weakly drawn characters and a plot that is so transparent I wanted to scream - absolutely nothing of any significance happens. I kept reading because of her reputation. I wish I hadn't wasted my time on what I would consider one of the most BORING books ever written. Some of my children's beginning chapter books are more interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Mildly interesting
Review: I expected big things from this book after reading a glowing
review in the San Jose Mercury News. It was supposed to be a
cautionary tale on 80's greed, about how a good guy gets caught
up in financial roulette. It didn't read that way to me. The
business transactions seemed pretty routine for your average
entrepreneur. I'm not sure the main character is really all that good of a guy.
And the ending felt anti-climatic to me. I was like:
"Is that it?" The author does build up some interesting characters
and some interesting situations, and she can write some vivid
scenes, but I felt generally disappointed when I finished reading
it.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointed
Review: I finish 99 percent of the books I read if only out of vanity. This one I didn't even skim to the end to see if it got better. The excerpt I read on Amazon was promising enough for me to buy the book. I am also a Smiley fan and have read and enjoyed most of her books. And I don't mind reading a novel about real estate in the 80's, although I was quite young then. I would read a book by Smiley about filing tax returns, at least I would give it a decent chance before puttting it aside.This book was just - dull. It made no impression on me, except that I could think of half a dozen things I'd rather be doing. I didn't even care enough to hate it or get angry that it had wasted my time. The three stars are because Smiley on a bad day still writes better than most writers on a good day. It's well-written just not interesting.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautifully written Disappointment
Review: I have been an unabashed Jane Smiley fan for many years. I thought that "Moo" and "Horse Heaven" were two of the best novels of the past ten years. I am sorry I can't say that about "Good Faith." Jane Smiley is one of our best writers so it came as no surprise that this novel was well observed and crisply written. But it seemed to me that Ms. Smiley didn't have much to say. The '80s were a time in which many small time business people got in over their heads and when the bubble burst -- as bubbles inevitably must - failed, as a lot of banks and savings and loans who ill-advisedly lent them money did as well. Joe Stratford, the easygoing protagonist, is a real estate broker who goes into business with a charismatic and, as it turns out, crooked ex IRS agent, Marcus Burns. Most of the book is spent describing the details of the purchase of a large estate for development, the development itself and, finally, the crash and its aftermath. Beyond that, there was not much in "Good Faith." To me the 400 plus pages that Smiley spent on the dreary details of a business failure were hardly more interesting than the foregoing short description - that is not very interesting at all.
Rating:
Summary: Details, lessons, danger
Review: I love Jane Smiley's books. Each one is memorable and beautifully crafted. Again, her attention to detail, the inner voice of the characters and the sense of danger (as in 1000 acres and this one). Either it all falls apart or it all comes together (1000 and moo, repectively).
What makes this one interesting is that it is written from the male character's point of view so completely; day to day life, his habits, his business dealings, his sex life (wow!), his family are all captured. Again the range of characters are all so interesting, and even though there are quite a few of them, I never felt confused by this.
I wonder, what is the lesson in the book? Was it the 7 deadly sins? Was it about the idea of relationships vs. contracts and the danger of confusing the two? Maybe the Greek Tragedy where Joey's downfall was as a result of his own greed? On a practical note, I was left with the notion that the book was unrealistic in order to bring about the final calamity. Where is their skeptism? Why did they trust Marcus? Why not investigate him? Didn't their incorporation protect them from all their losses? Wouldn't the banks chase him? Why didn't Joey get a private eye to follow him? Wouldn't they have a lawer actively involved in all their real estate transactions who would want to build in more safegaurds? These questions kept bothering me .(Sounds like another book in another section of the book store perhaps.)
I also found the S & L story confusing. I know this was pivotal to the house of cards that was built, but I felt like I was not quite understanding how that all worked. It is hard to explain a situation that exists better in graphs and diagrams and spreadsheets. Maybe words are not enough here. (Throw in some archtectural renderings, permit applications and geologists reprorts too!).
I liked "Greek chorus" around Joey such as Gordon saying to "keep your distance" and Jane saying "he's a crackpot" and Felicity saying that she was "affectionate but not kind" and George using the card game approach of limiting how much you gamble with.
By the way, I am reminded a little of a wonderful novel by Richard Ford titiled "Independence Day."
In the end, was Joey at peace or was he about to go down another dangerous slope with someone we all knew he shouldn't trust...Had he learned or was he still too open to tempation? We are left hanging, but this isn't all bad or unexpected.
Rating: 
Summary: Another great book by Smiley!
Review: I've enjoyed all of Smiley's books but this one reminded me of people I know. Joe, for instance, reminds me of an army major I once served with. The story, too, is one that you can easily see happening - we all know of cases in life where it sometimes seems like people have sort of stumbled onto a path that's heading toward something bad but (whether you're reading this book or watching something like this happen to friends), there's not much you can do but watch the train wreck start to happen and try to anticipate what the next steps of each of the characters will be. This is definitely worth reading - even my husband liked it, and he tends more toward action thrillers. (Joe's uncanny resemblance to our army officer colleague made it intriguing to him, too - I wonder if Ms Smiley knew him, too? The world is small...) Good book - read it!
One comment must be made about the review by "SC" of November 17, 2004. It's fine, SC, if you don't agree with Smiley's opinion piece/political analysis of the red state/blue state divide **PUBLISHED IN SLATE.com, NOT THIS BOOK!** but criticizing THIS book for a political opinion published elsewhere is ridiculous. It is completely inappropriate of SC to leave this sort of negative and completely irrelevant comment about Smiley's OTHER WRITINGS when SC is supposed to be reviewing THIS BOOK!
For example, in my opinion (and in my dad's, as well!) William F. Buckley has contemptible political opinions. Nevertheless, my dad loved his books and would never mix his dislike of Buckley's politics with his criticism or praise of Buckley's fiction. SC has posted this same commentary UNRELATED TO EACH BOOK THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE REVIEWED under almost all of Ms Smiley's books. SC's "thought police" activities have no place here - attacking an author for political opinions unrelated to the book being reviewed is contrary to the intent of the rating program.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful bits, but boring overall
Review: I, too, am a Smiley fan: the Age of Grief is spectacular (and Moo hilarious), and this book started along similarly spare, beautiful lines. And the goal: to probe big issues of trust, infidelity (as always, with her), and business through reallllly small time real estate in northern PA - it's a noble one. It seemed like she got the details right, and Joe, her flat, dull, straightforward hero, was to me at her most engaging when he talked about the random sales he was making at the beginning of the book. My two largest problems:
- too talky. The whole thing is dialogue, essentially, and dialogue ultimately about a particular real estate transaction in far too much detail. We're supposed to get the hang of Marcus (the interloping deal-crazy source of action) and Joe through their talk, but it's just talk, no distinctive voices, no distinctive observations, long paragraphs, etc. The exception here is Felicity, the temptress, but her sing-songy weirdness was, though distinctive, not very plausible. Or alluring.
- too flat. Exhibit A here is all the attention given to food. The food's always boring. It's burgers and fries and other sandwiches and potato chips. And yet people are always going to eat, where they can have long, long conversations over uninteresting, uninterestingly described food, which nonetheless earns pages of copy. So in the end, I stopped caring. I did finish the book, and good on Jane Smiley for putting me in a world, and engaging difficult issues, but this book should have been more written. And shorter. Three stars, though, only because I hold her to very high standards. You won't feel like someone stole your time if you read this.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful bits, but boring overall
Review: I, too, am a Smiley fan: the Age of Grief is spectacular (and Moo hilarious), and this book started along similarly spare, beautiful lines. And the goal: to probe big issues of trust, infidelity (as always, with her), and business through reallllly small time real estate in northern PA - it's a noble one. It seemed like she got the details right, and Joe, her flat, dull, straightforward hero, was to me at her most engaging when he talked about the random sales he was making at the beginning of the book. My two largest problems:
- too talky. The whole thing is dialogue, essentially, and dialogue ultimately about a particular real estate transaction in far too much detail. We're supposed to get the hang of Marcus (the interloping deal-crazy source of action) and Joe through their talk, but it's just talk, no distinctive voices, no distinctive observations, long paragraphs, etc. The exception here is Felicity, the temptress, but her sing-songy weirdness was, though distinctive, not very plausible. Or alluring.
- too flat. Exhibit A here is all the attention given to food. The food's always boring. It's burgers and fries and other sandwiches and potato chips. And yet people are always going to eat, where they can have long, long conversations over uninteresting, uninterestingly described food, which nonetheless earns pages of copy. So in the end, I stopped caring. I did finish the book, and good on Jane Smiley for putting me in a world, and engaging difficult issues, but this book should have been more written. And shorter. Three stars, though, only because I hold her to very high standards. You won't feel like someone stole your time if you read this.
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