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Summary: A story for friends
Review: My fiance and I gave a copy of this book to our best friends, and it has been a topic of conversation ever since. It's a beautifully written story about people who you wish were real - they're just the kind of people you'd like to meet. Share this one with the people you love.
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Summary: A Great American Novel
Review: This fine book was introduced to me by members of our book group. It is about the friendship between two couples from different backgrounds that spans over 30 years. The book traces their friendship, its positives and negatives, and how their friendship both enriches and in some respects limits each person. More dynamically, it is also a book about idealism and how dreams are compromised and modified as people age. I strongly recommend this book to all lovers of fiction.
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Summary: The power of friendship
Review: Wallace Stegner tells the story of two couples who form a close, lasting friendship.There are few "thrilling" moments in this gentle novel -- any suspense that Stegner creates comes from anticipating what the characters will think and say, rather than what amazing actions they will perform. White-knuckle adventures aren't necessary, though. Stegner's book was compelling enough that I wanted to return to the book whenever I had to put it down, and I missed the characters when I finished. I not only know people like Sid, Charity, Sally, and Larry, I feel as if I know these specific people. One of the central messages of this book, (and Stegner does not hide his messages, but rather weaves them into the story and repeats them often) is that life can be cruel, but that the love of friends and family helps to ease the pain. The people that love us help us to cross to the safety of happiness.
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Summary: A book for anyone who appreciates great prose
Review: This book is worth reading for the sheer enjoyment of the words and how the author chose to craft them into sentences. (That the story is a compelling and remarkably accurate portrayal of adult friendship is a bonus.) There were places in this book where I had to pause to regain my composure after being moved to tears--not by anything particularly sad in content, but by the simple beauty of the writing. Relish this one.
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Summary: the best book on my shelf
Review: In Crossing to Safety, Stegner skillfully opens up to us 4 ordinary people's lives - two professors and their wives. It is a timeless human story, examining realities, not romantic fantasies. The conflicts in the drama are the same conflicts we all deal with - those of ordinary relationships. This is a book about friendships and marriages, and what regular folks do to survive them. The reader becomes the fifth friend, forced (sniffling) to say goodbye to the other four on the last page. After finishing Crossing to Safety, I didn't want to read anything else for a couple weeks.
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Summary: Beautifully Understated
Review: Crossing to Safety is powerful in its understated emotional scope and Stegner is masterful in his artful and sympathetic rendering of true to life characters. This book touches on so many of life's subtle complexities and beauties as understood over a lifetime of friendship between two compelling couples. Stegner skillfully utilizes academic and intellectual references to the advantage of the plot and the characters without seeming pretensious. Rather than presenting a high speed plot Stegner writes with a pace that is as true to life, about events that are as touching as they are believable. Crossing to Safety calls for a sophisticated reader willing to be engrossed in the challenges and triumphs of four compelling characters. The premise of the novel is a deep and beautiful friendship, but from that premise it explores the richness of life itself.
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Summary: Excellent story of strong couples
Review: I found this book to be an extraordinary story. It's the story of a very deep friendship between two couples. I loved his characterization of Charity. She's the kind of bossy, pushy person who is lovable at the same time. I would definately recommend this book to anyone who is interested in love stories that are a bit unusual.
Rating: 
Summary: Crossing to Safety
Review: I have talked to others and all either loved the book or could not even finish it. I could hardly finish it. The problem is nothing happens which makes the book too drawn out. I found the first 1/3 of the book was enjoyable enough, but after that I felt nothing was going to happen, and realizing this, I did not want to continue reading to discover I was correct. All the while, Stegner congratulates himself that a book can be written about nothing and people will enjoy it (one main character is also an author, maybe even Stegner). If you want to read about two couples, one with a very controlling wife, and their not too exciting lives then this book is for you. But do not read it for other reasons because the writing, the character development, even the description of the couples' relationship is average at best.
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Summary: Not the worst
Review: While this is not the worst book that I have read, it falls to the bottom of my list. I found the book to be tedious, the characters to be poorly developed, and the style inadequate. The characters never came alive for me and I was glad that the book was over. It was like eating an old, soft, tasteless apple.
Rating:
Summary: Crossing to Safety
Review: I found this book strangely compelling. I kept waiting for the sordid details to be devulged about these warm characters and yet Stegner finds a way of pulling us in without putting them down.A true life tale of friendship, love and the real meaning of life. Although the ending left me puzzled, I overall thoroughly enjoyed my time with these characters and hated to see the end of the book come.
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