Crossing to Safety

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent Writing!
Review: I don't know how I got to be in my 40's without having read this wonderful author! My best friend, Sonja, called me a few weeks ago and recommended this as a 'must read' and since she and I have almost identical reading tastes, I immediately went to the library to hunt it down. I was not disappointed.

This is a story of everyman and everywoman; a story of healing in the face of tragedy; a story of living life to the fullest even when life deals you a horrific blow; a story of deep friendship and ultimately survival in this sometimes cold, cruel world.

The writing is poetic, lyrical, intoxicating. I have two whole pages of quotes written down from the book and fully intend to buy my own copy. It's a definite keeper. I highly recommend this author is you're a lover of excellent writing.

Rating:
Summary: A book I hated to see end
Review: A colleague of mine recently finished Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner and encouraged me to read it. I thought we had a copy laying around but instead found that we only had Crossing to Safety so I picked it up and started to read.

This book was perfect for the fall season, I suppose it may be that I only feel that way since I read it in the fall, and if I had read it during the summer I would have felt the same then, but something in the tone and meter just felt so fallish to me.

Self-referentially the author asks in dialogue "How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these?" The first chapter starts in the twilight of the character's life and then invests the rest of the story setting the stage for the setting sun.

The book was a joy to read, due to the rich and beautiful writing. There are times when reading books you skim the sentences, with this book I found my self savoring every word and truly encompassed by the writing. The first half is so lyrical in content, I could in many ways identify with the poor married couple starting life out with nothing to eke by on. As the story progresses the idealism of youth is tempered by the reality of life. Each Eden has its serpent, and life has a way of providing crosses to bear. I wont spoil any of the tale by telling.

This has to be one of the best books I have ever read, a wonderful journey that I did not regret and was sad to see end.

http://www.niffgurd.com/mark/books/2002.html#safety

Rating:
Summary: beautifully written novel
Review: Criticisms, first: Stegner to some extent has "tunnel vision"; he is a member of his-- the World War II--generation. This was shown clearly in "Angle Of Repose" where he expresses some scorn for the 60's generation, throughout. In the case of "Crossing To Safety" he focuses almost exclusively on his own generation, with only the briefest mention of his children's lives, and thus ignores the contempory problems of American society, notably racial equality. Having said this, the book is an instructive, well written, and entertaining portrait of his (and my parents') generation, somewhat more
effective than Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation Speaks" because it
is an extended portrait of two families rather than very brief (usually tragic or heroic) portraits of many families. These
were literary people, though they certainly had many psychological problems, and the question of how they successfully excaped serving in World War II, evades examination.
If one is able to view this work as it is--a somewhat limited work that focuses on the positive aspects and ignores the negative aspects of the World War II generation--then one can perhaps enjoy the descriptions of the Vermont countryside,the portraits of the Harvard-educated New England Brahmins (Charity's parents), the frequent literary allusions, and the pleasures of international travel.

Rating:
Summary: graceful, wistful, romantic novel
Review: Wonderful novel about the lives of two successful couples meeting each other in the Depression and growing together as friends in the years leading to World War II and afterwards. One of the couples is independently wealthy; the other struggles financially, at least at the beginning of the novel. They are literary types. Literature enriches their lives, and is also a source of livelihood(just as music enhanced the lives of my parents who were of the same generation). They are all well travelled, not only within the United States, but also abroad.
Stegner focuses his literary gifts on bringing these couples' lives into focus. Tragedy strikes both couples: Sally, Larry's wife, has polio after a difficult childbirth; Sid, Charity's wife, suffers from a lack of assertiveness in his academic life, is unable therefore to rise in the academic ranks, and is a henpecked husband. Sid's dependency on Charity is one of the novel's main themes. Larry by contrast is quite aggressive, moving to Cambridge after a short time in Madison, Wisconsin,and a visit to Vermont,on the advice of Charity's father. He becomes a successful novelist. Much of the book, perhaps half, is set in Vermont, on a large piece of acreage of inherited property; we get detailed descriptions of the Vermont countryside and we are introduced to Charity's relatives who are Harvard-educated and are New England Brahmins. The final chapters relating to Charity's death from cancer, are poignant, but every chapter enlarges our view of these two couples. Picnics, camping, and travel abroad figure prominently in both couples'lifestyles. There is a fascinating chapter on Florence, Italy, and there are brief descriptions of the activities of both couples' many children (Sid and Charity had more kids than Larry and Sally)and also of their parents, though the personalities of these minor characters are not as well developed as the main protagonists.
Aside from some descriptions of Italian Renaissance religious art, religion "per se" does not play a prominent role in this novel, except mainly as it relates to literature and art and its meaning to the two couples.

Rating:
Summary: Graceful, wistful, romantic novel
Review: A wonderful novel about how successful people acted in my parents' generation--I am 55. Also probably the best book I have read by Stegner, possibly because it is the most contemporary. Better than Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation Speaks" because in that book we only get brief portraits of families, usually in tragedy, whereas "Crossing To Safety" provides a fuller view of American life in the Depression and years leading up to World War II. I will admit I don't still understand the titles meaning. But though the main characters are literary types, they could as easily be business types. The whole country is their playground, from New Mexico to California to Wisconsin to Vermont to Cambridge, and they are international travellers, too. Not that money was not a problem because it certainly was, at least in the early days for Larry and Sally (the other couple inherited wealth). But the lasting impression is of joie de vivre,even in the final moving chapters on the death of Charity. These people made the best of it, whether it be camping for a week or a year in Florence, Italy. Overall they were the lucky ones, although both couples had serious problems, some of them physical, some of them psychological. Sid suffered from a lack of self assertiveness and was always the henpecked husband. Sally had polio after a difficult child delivery. It is a testament to Stegner's writing skills that he could bring these couples' joy in living so clearly into focus--not to mention the joy of country living, particularly in Vermont.

Rating:
Summary: I like the book, but...
Review: Crossing to Safety is one of my favorite books from my college literature class and it has helped me to survive during the hardest times in my life. I would recommend this book to everyone, but I really hated this edition published by Modern Library Classics. There were a lot of misspellings and typos in this edition.

Rating:
Summary: unique and affirming
Review: This remembranceof a friendship between two married couples over a lifetime is a mellow denouement of Stegner's career, written late in his life. It is not only the story of a set of friendships, but also of two different yet equally complex long-term marriages. And it is, on yet another level, as a remembrance by the writer/character Larry, an exploration of how the novel, how art, touches upon reality, real life, when trying to portray "ordinary" lives, without seeming to impose a structure and meaning that misshape that experience. And, on yet another level, it is about the inability of individuals to control his/her life, that there are those elements of chance, both good and unfortunate, which deny that control we sometimes think we have. In the novel's case, the fortunate chance that the Langs meet the Morgans in some small college in the midwest in the midst of the depression; alongside the unfortunate happenstance of Sally Morgan's contracting polio.

The novel tries very hard, through its narrator, to portray ordinary lives(albeit academics and upper/upper-middle class). It is also about the complexities of love, both familial/marital and the love between friends.

And, while unassumingly achieving all that, it brings to the pages the splendid character of Charity Lang, who is at the center of this novel.

That these two couples remain friends, that these marriages - in their complexities of romance and misplaced ambitions and egoisms - forbear in lasting love, is the novel's affirmation.

Rating:
Summary: Loyalty and Friendship
Review: Before reading this novel, I would have named Wallace Stegner as my favorite novelist, and after, that opinion seems to be more firm. Crossing to Safety is a masterpiece which I'm sure will be read for generations and which I think I'll appreciate more as I grow older.

The premise is simple (which I think is always a strength in a novel). Two young, intelligent couples meet during the Great Depression. One man is a great novelist, and he looks back over the years and analyzes the relationships. He looks at each couple and the couples together, and shows their survival together through good times and harsh.

Crossing to Safety is a wonderful novel, dealing with relationships everyone will have sometime in their life. The characterizations are as apt as only Stegner can write them. The insights are profound, even if their not always easy. Stegner is mainly showing how humanity must hold on to one another to survive. We must make ties, and fight the inevitable urge to tear them apart. Stegner's novels are always perfect gems, and Crossing to Safety is one of his best.

Rating:
Summary: I Wanted To Love It...
Review: The premise was wonderful - a subtle, sometimes moving, sometimes disturbing examination of the lifelong friendship of two couples. I didn't have to think twice about buying this one after I read the synopsis. The first several chapters seemed to be living up to its' promise. I was touched by the early scenes where the Morgans and the Langs first met and seemed to know instantly that they had found something special. Charity Lang showed signs of being a wonderfully unforgettable character - sometimes sweet, sometimes manipulative, always fascinating. A little further on, however, something changed. The author seemed to abandon character development and instead concentrate on lavishly detailed descriptions of places and events. He hinted at the passive/dominant relationship between Sid and Charity, but gave us very few first hand glimpses. Instead, we had to take the word of our narrator, Larry, based on his passing mentions of past events and comments to his wife Sally. There was so little actual interaction between the two couples - the one sequence during which they spent a good deal of time together, the hiking trip, was as much about Larry fretting over his career than it was about showing us anything about the relationships - that one wonders how accurate Larry's point of view could be. The hike ends in tragedy, and we jump ahead to more than a decade later in Italy, where the foursome are spending a year together. Much of this sequence, too, involves Larry recalling past events; mentioning in passing, rather than describing, how deeply entwined the two couples lives became as they dealt with Sally's illness and the financial burden it brought upon the Morgans. We see one more example of Charity's controlling personality, before jumping ahead years later to when Charity is on her deathbed. Here, we find the Langs' children and grandchildren, who have apparently grown up with Larry and Sally and consider them family. Again, we must take the author's word for this, as we never see any of these characters develop, and never "meet" them until they've grown up. The Langs' children acknowledge not just the tensions between Sid and Charity, but those between the Morgans and the Langs. They give enticing examples, but never elaborate. On the other hand, the final chapters begin to pick up where the earliest ones left off, showing rather than simply telling what is happening. Sid's anguish is realistically portrayed, as is Larry's helplessness as he witnesses his friend's grief. The conversation between the two men in which Sid admits he was always secretly glad that Larry had been burdened by Sally's disability, because it made them more like equals, was very touching. It was here that Sid really began to come alive for me and made me feel something for him other than contempt for how he let his wife control him. I found myself unable to tear away from the novel during the final scenes. They, along with the earliest chapters, provide an intriguing overview of what could have been an excellent character study. Unfortunately, it was never realized.

Rating:
Summary: A Gift To Be Savoured.......So Rich In Content
Review: Crossing to safety is a novel which I took my time with, and savoured every written word. This was a blessing for it was my first experience with this author, and now having the majority of his books on my wish list, I'm going to have a ball.

We read about Larry and Sally Morgan and Charity and Sid Lang; two couples who meet in Madison Wisconsin, where their husbands are professors at the same university. The two couples become fast friends like love at first sight and soon they are so tight and friendly, they are sharing everything.........food, houses, money, children; everything. The Langs who are wealthy and generous, share their possessions unstintingly with the Morgans. There is no adventure too exciting that they cannot enjoy together; no country too far that they cannot visit together and enjoy it's culture; no meal too costly or exotic that they cannot share and the beat goes on.

THE LANGS AND THE MORGANS leave no holds barred. They openly display their affection for each other, refusing to hide the fact that they enjoy their friendship which is based on love and trust. Their frienship endures and suffers all things, be they good, bad or indifferent, also creating bonds within their own families. Sid cannot live without Charity who is a perfectionist and a very dominant character, and Larry who holds a special bond with his wife Sally even more so, after a severe turn of events.

The novel starts with Larry as the narrator of the story. The couples are now in their sixties and the Morgans have been summoned from their New Mexico home to the Langs Vermont home retreat. A location where memories are still fresh and alive of past summers days and nights, and where presently there are experiencing some crucial developments. Developments important to them all and their children.

Larry takes us into the story from the beginning when they first met in Wisconsin, until the present where they have gotten on in age. Bless someone with this great book as a Mother's day gift, and you will make an indelible mark on that person's life. Highly recommended!!!

Nutface
April 17th, 2002