Rating: Summary: Outstandingly perceptive, real life struggles. Review: A longterm perspective of the highs and lows of friendship. Unique to a simpler time, but relavent.
Rating: Summary: A great novel Review: Stegner is the second best American writer of the century. Why he was overlooked for his entire career is not only a mystery, but a travesty. No one is a better wordsmith, no one can craft a tale as well. Buy this book.....and then rush out and buy all his books.
Rating: Summary: Couldn't put it down Review: I must admit that I started this book at least three times, not being able to get past the first chapter or two. My friend had recommended it so highly, I figured there must be something to it. I did get past those first ten or fifteen pages and that was all she wrote. I couldn't stop reading this book until I had to - when it came to an end. What a tremendous story of friendship, acceptance and love. I am going out to purchase Angle of Repose tomorrow.
Rating: Summary: Memorable Review: Even though this novel had such fine print in the "Great Reads" hardcover edition, and was consequently hard to read, I give it a good rating. I must admit that the only reason I finished it was because it was chosen for my book club. We did however have one of our most in-depth discussions ever that night. The characters and situations are so real and touching, even if you don't like the book, you have to admit, there are these redeemable qualities. Poor Sid married to the extemely ambitious and overbearing Charity. (Even though every one of us could relate to her controlling nature!) Sid does say that he loves her and couldn't imagine his life without her. But would he have been more if he was not married to her? Would he have been able to persue his dream of being a poet? Or did his father already shame him from persuing this path? And the way Charity shut him out at the end, I positively found apalling!! Would I recommend it? Yes. It does remind my of my high school and college literature classes, however--kind of a James Joycey stream-of-consciousness thing going on. It is a bit heavy. However, it is very beautifully and artistically written. Yes, I would recommend it.
Rating: Summary: it's the absolute best book. Review: So sad, but somehow happy and hopeful. Acedemia, friendship, life and death. Makes the heart yearn, makes one feel stronger. I have read it twice a year for the past 7 years.
Rating: Summary: Boring Review: I couldn't get past the first 6 pages. It was pretentious and dull
Rating: Summary: something i've never done before Review: About 2/3 of the way through Crossing to Safety I realized how little I wanted to finish the book. That is, I didn't want it to end. Thrust between tears and laughter, i found myself continually amazed at Stegner's grasp of relationships, conversational tone and motivation. This is one of the most readable, inspiring, thought-provoking reads I've encountered.So, what is it that this book made me do that I've never done before? I started it reading it again from the beginning to stave off the ending. I'd read a chapter, and then turn back and read chapter one. Read another chapter and then chapters two and three. You get the picture. Every once in a while I read a book that disappoints me...one that makes me not want to pick up another for a while (infinite jest, for example). From now on, when that happens, I'll pick up Crossing to Safety to reaffirm for me the power of a novel at its best.
Rating: Summary: One of the best books I've ever read . . . Review: I read this book 10 years ago, and have never forgotten it. I'm glad that Amazon now permits me to share . . . with whoever wanders along . . . what a fabulous book this is. I recommend it unqualifiedly.
Rating: Summary: Delicate, complex and surpisingly moving Review: Right away, in the first few pages, Stegner writes of a walk in the woods listening to all the "shy little rustling things" - I was charmed. I just love that image. The delicate, forgiving, deeply human, almost uncomfortably honest musings on human frailty and the heartbreaking beauty of the world we live in make this book much more than a story of four people. Stegner's view of the limitations and surprising resiliency of love are truly inspiring. The kind of book that makes you want to know the author, have coffee with him. His wisdom and wit, his quiet observations that, on reflection, are almost startling in their honesty and clarity... I can't recommend this book more highly. That we have lost Wallace Stegner as a writer is truly sad. Crossing to Saftey, Angle of Repose, and Big Rock Candy Mountain... all should be on your shelf.
Rating: Summary: A wonderfully thoughtful book about friendship Review: I loved the prose in this book. Stegner appreciates the difficulty of finding true simplicity in today's complicated hectic world. He expertly explores the not so simple relationships between two couples in a way that was realistic and thoughtful.
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