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Summary: A Picture of Our History
Review: This is the first book I've read about the Kansas Territory and the struggle to keep it a Free State. It's a good book, though difficult to read at times--it really requires concentration through sometimes dull narrative.I liked that the heroine, Lidie Newton, was a plain, less-than-extraordinary-looking young woman. Not the beautiful, chaste, virginal character dependant upon a man to solve life's problems. Quite the opposite. In fact, Lidie displays incredible strength when she poses as a man in an attempt to find her husband's murderer. There are times when this story drags, but stick with it...we need to be reminded of the struggles against oppression that most of us have never experienced.
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Summary: An overachiever's Huck Finn
Review: I've seen several writers be ruined by fame as they indulge their whims with excessive verbiage; it seems the editors don't mess with prior success. I guess after doing all that research, Smiley couldn't bear to leave any of it out, but it becomes soporific after a while. She as a writing teacher should know the value of dramatizing, showing rather than telling. Too much is narrative summary. Another problem is the narrative style, which while authentically archaic, is is ultimately distancing. The mountain of words drowns feeling and prevents engagement with the characters. There is no sustaining force to carry the reader through: it seems everything is abortive, both figuratively and literally. In idea will come up, only to be dropped a couple of pages later. At least Huck Finn had irreverance, irony, and humor. Mostly, though, the novel (at 450 p.) is underdeveloped! She needed to focus in, develop at least some characters. Thomas is a real nothing and Lidie herself seems to lose personality as the book progresses. The book is exceedingly conventional and adolescent in its appeal. It seems that this story has been done often and better by other writers.
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Summary: Entertaining if you're stuck for something to read
Review: Once I got past the first chapter or two I couldn't put it down. The writing is good. Unfortunately, the story loses its punch as it progresses. Too bad -- I really liked Lidie. Read this book if you're stuck at your in-laws' house for a week (as I was) and there's nothing good on TV.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and sometimes boring presentation.
Review: Some of Smiley's characters were simply unbelievable. I kept thinking the book would get better, so I kept reading. In that way the story did pull me in. The second half of the book did not live up to the "build up" of the first half. In the end , Lidie was a disappointment to me. She lost her fine resolve and was pretty confused by life, or so it seemed to me. The boy Frank dropped out way to early from the story and his demise simply wasn't plausible based on the way in which his character was initially drawn. The book didn't hold together well. It was full of ambiguity. It had moments of greatness and then would drop back into a fit of inaness and boring transgression. I'm glad I read it; I learned a bit about abolitionist history, but it left me feeling hollow.
Rating:
Summary: A good book that could have been much better
Review: Let me begin by saying that this is a good book. You would not be wasting your time by reading it. However, there are several problems with the way this is written that make me think Jane Smiley at some point lost control of what she was trying to accomplish. First, the book is basically divided into two parts--a long segment that takes place in the Kansas Territory, and a not-as-long part that takes Lidie off on the adventures alluded to in the title. The first part is way too long. Although I understand Smiley needed to set everything up in order to knock it down, there must have been a way to do it in fewer pages. Reading about how difficult life is in the Kansas territory gets tiresome after a while, and I was just waiting and waiting for something to happen. When things finally do begin to happen, however, Smiley crams so much action into the second half of the book that there's barely a chance to take it all in, and the various events lose their impact. After the rush of all these events, the book just kind of fizzles out. You never learn what becomes of the rest of Lidie's life, which is pretty frustrating. Another problem is that Lidie herself starts out as a neutral sort of character--she becomes an abolitionist because her new husband is one, but she admits that she has never thought much about the issues herself. Maybe Smiley intended to have Lidie become more righteous and firmly abolitionist as the novel went on, but this just doesn't happen. She seems pretty neutral about the slavery issue right up to the end. Which is not to say that the book doesn't take a stand against slavery--it does, in a powerful way. But it does so through an escaped slave named Lorna, not through the ambivalent Lidie herself. One of the other reviewers here mentions that the book is very historically accurate. This is admirable, and I did learn a lot about the Kansas Territory, which I appreciate. But a novel should do more than just be historically accurate. If you think the subject matter of this book sounds interesting, or if you're a big Jane Smiley fan, you will probably like this one. But if you're just looking for a really good, engaging book to read, I would respectfully suggest you look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding & entertaining!
Review: This was the first Jane Smiley book I had ever read. Part of what attracted me was the settings for the book. I have lived in both Quincy, IL and Lawrence, KS. The historical context was greatly researched. The best part though was Lidie Newton. I loved seeing her grow as a person and come into her own. Well worth reading!
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Summary: A Fascinating Look at K.T.
Review: This work is certainly nothing like Moo, the only other Smiley book I'd read to date. While I enjoyed that book, I REALLY enjoyed this one. The world of the Kansas Territory, seen through Lidie's eyes and described in her 19th century voice, was a revelation to me. I was only vaguely aware of this chapter in our country's history. I was charmed by Smiley's chapter titles, page titles and her consistency in remaining within a sensibility so different from our own. She truly evoked for me how it must have felt to be caught in the time and place of Kansas and Missouri just before the Civil War. I appreciate Smiley's portrayal of both the good and bad of those on both sides of the "goose question." I believe Lidie sees the many shades of gray that existed in a world we've been taught to think of as black and white. This book was an engrossing read and educational, too. Can't ask for a lot more than that!
Rating: 
Summary: I expected better from Ms. Smiley
Review: Jane Smiley is one of my favorite authors (I adored A Thousand Acres). However, this was a huge disappointment. I never could get into the book...it took me almost 2 months to finish. I never got a handle on Thomas: why he married Lidie, was he wise or weak, etc. Despite being written in the 1st person as Lidie, I never understood her either. I came close several times to throwing it aside without finishing, but persevered to the end. Smiley's historical depiction was good, but it didn't seem to flow well with her characterizations.
Rating:
Summary: A long plod
Review: I've not read any Jane Smiley books before and was given this by a friend who loves her work, as a birthday present. I almost gave up on it about three times, but perservered. Problem one: too many minor characters. I had to keep skipping back pages to find out the background to people she'd met when she first arrived in KT. Problem two: too many towns, often mentioned briefly, then returned to later in the book. Problem three: the Lidie of the first half of the book just doesn't match up with the second half Lidie who just gives up her goals and becomes everything she has been rebelling against. It's as if Smiley had a publishing deadline to meet and took the easy route out of the story. Characters weren't clearly drawn, and the KT discussions/meetings about anti slavery were protracted and boring. Lastly, my paperback was printed in a tiny font; very hard to read at night (especially if you're camping). This was my Summer read, and unfortunately it was not up to the standard of those authors I usually choose to take on holiday with me, eg Carol Shields or Anne Tyler.
Rating: 
Summary: An Unexpected Treasure
Review: I've read most of Jane Smiley's books, and found this one in hardcover at rock-bottom-remainder prices. I bought it just because I was out of reading material... It was wonderful! I found the archaic prose style to be absolutely appropriate and nothing in this book was too far-fetched or boring. I guess I expected Thomas to bite it; if I may offer any criticism at all, it would be that the character of Thomas seemed to be a little thinly drawn. I wish Lidie would've dwelled on her relationship to him a little more, but I suppose her reluctance to is in keeping with what a nineteenth-century woman would share with the reader. All in all, I found this to be a very good book, and recommend it highly!
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