Rating: Summary: A prize-winning novel Review: There is a reason Wallace Stegner won the Pulitzer prize and in a nutshell this is it. His ability to make us care about the people in this story is amazing. This ranks as my "can't be on a desert island without it" book. A word of advice--read Angle of Repose first. Because you will want to save this one. Stegner died a few years ago. What an incredible loss.
Rating: Summary: Yet Another 10... Review: This beatifully crafted novel will bring a tear to your eye and a smile to your lips. Stenger has crafted a beautiful book. While this book qualifies as literary, Stenger never sacrifices his story or his characters (as some literary authors do) for the sake of his prose. I highly recommend this sweet, lovely novel.
Rating: Summary: Referred by a friend, whom I found in its pages. Review: I came to care so very much about a friend across the country, and it made me wonder. Then one day she pulled Crossing to Safety's tattered cover off the shelf and handed it to me, opening it to the first page of Chapter 7. I found us both there, in Stegner's description of a friendship not based on conventions of marriage or rules, but simply upon mutual affection. "It is, therefore, rare." Thank you, Jackie. Thank you, Wallace Stegner.
Rating: Summary: Beautifully written! Review: Stegner's beautifully written tale of friendship between two couples is a pleasure to read. This study of the duration of a friendship that is at the same time ordinary and extraordinary is absorbing. However, the lack of depth in most of the characters, except for Charity, is disappointing. Why does Larry stay with Sally? Why does Sid stay with Charity? Indeed, what makes a friendship endure? Nevertheless, Stegner's beautiful prose makes up for the lack of character development. He weaves a memorable tale of four quiet lives intertwined.
Rating: Summary: Characters will stay with me for a lifetime Review: On the recommendation of many friends, I finally purchased and read this book. I was absolutely captivated by it. Stenger's characters are so vivildy
portrayed that I think I will sooner forget old college
friends than I will Charity and the others.
Charity in particular, was absolutely fascinating.
And the dynamics of all the relationships -
absolutely riveting. I've now run out to buy
"Angle of Repose" and am waiting until I have a
massive chunk of time before I begin it - I suspect
I will not want to be interrupted while reading it!
Rating: Summary: This may be my favorite novel of all time. Review: In the hands of Wallace Stegner, the simple premise of the lives of two couples makes for a deeply moving book. I loved the characters as if they were my own family and friends, with whom I laughed and cried often. This novel should be required reading for everyone who loves good writing.
Rating: Summary: One read simply won't do! Review: Though I rated this book a 10, it does not belong on a standard scale. This book differs from others . . . all others. It deserves multiple readings -- not for it to be appreciated, but for readers to be reminded of the beauty that exists in literature, in themselves, and ultimately in the daily intricacies that we so casually refer to as "life." Whether the characters are likeable or admirable or irreverent or controlling, they are people we all know . . . and we are they, just as they are us! Wallace Stegner is genuinely one who was blessed with a gift to see the world in a beautiful light and to impart that light to us through his magnificent lens.
Rating: Summary: Be sure to understand the title Review: After reading this wonderful book return to the Robert Frost quotation that introduces the novel and think on it for however long need be. It all falls together. How many of us cross to safety while the Customs are sleeping -exhilarating
Rating: Summary: To Love and Beloved is "Crossing to Safety" Review: Wallace Stegner is a fine writer. Yet in many of his works, there is an inescapable darkness, a feral sadness-unresolved. Not here. In "Crossing to Safety," Wallace Stegner reveals a writer's soul unleashed. He eclipses the complicated, beautiful constructs of "Angle of Repose" (a fine book) by telling a simple, moving tale of two couples who love each other in the deepest and finest sense of the word. He weaves decades of disappointment, grief, and broken dreams into the astonishing, inescapable conclusion that this love, this caring, this friendship has given meaning to every dark moment and transformed them into a bridge to joy. This book resonates in the deepest recesses of soul because it gives meaning to pain without enshrining it. It speaks to hope and healing, both hallmarks of enduring love, with an honest eye and a gifted voice. It imparts courage and comfort at the same time. Buy it. Buy several copies. Once you read it, you will want to read it again and the friends you lend it to won't want to give it back... and you will understand and want them to keep it
Rating: Summary: best book I ever read Review: This book is the most absolutely real books I've ever opened. I thought throughout the whole book that there is no way it could have been written without being lived. This is my heart, this book brought me to tears at least 200 times while reading it. Now I always look for the "real" in any book I read, its difficult to find
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