A Thousand Acres: A Novel (1991)

on Saturday, July 03, 2004 I wrote (a letter) on bookcrossing ;)

Hi Pam. Well This book was next in line to be read.I try now to read the books in the order I have received them. You can imagine that I have received a lot of books in March cause I started to relay in the end of January, and most books came from the US and as you know it takes approximately 2 months to get here.I have read 2 chapters and so far it is OK, not super but not bad either.I will update this journal while reading.

Update July 5 2004: I have decided to release it in my soon to be send out English bookbox ray.I have tried it but I do not really like it.The storyline does not really grab my attention so I will put this book in my bookbox.see if someone else will enjoy this. ( )

Yes, this book is a version of [book:King Lear], but it is so much more than just a modernizing of that great work.

It chronicles the evolution of farming in the mid-west (to an extent) so that, while it breaks your heart that the 'family farm era' has passed, you realize that it was inevitable, natural, and -- if it encompasses the family secrets that the Cook farm did -- necessary. The tradition of farming, then, acts as a metaphor for the changes this family goes through, just as weather and eyes/seeing are themes in the original play.

The story is almost a coming-of-age novel, but it's not teens who come of age; rather, it is Ginny, the easy-going sister who narrates the book, who loses her innocence.
[I think it's a great twist from the original [book:King Lear] to have the oldest sister narrate, when I expected it to be the youngest sister, or even third person narration. (aside: I kept thinking of Ginny as the middle sister, and one of the characters in the book even says Rose acts more like the eldest than Ginny does. This aspect of the novel would be interesting to explore in comparison with the [author:Shakespeare] version.)]

It helped me to know that this novel did not have the murders in it that [book:Lear] does, yet the novel could still be classified as tragedy. The key events of [book:King Lear] -- like the storm and blindness -- are maintained in [book:A Thousand Acres], which is great. And the key players are present, too, though Harold and especially Loren do take a backseat in the latter half.

One of my gauges to measure the quality of a book is the number of quotations or truth-lines the book has that resonate with me, even if the circumstances of the characters don't match my own. This book had many truth-lines and [author:Jane Smiley] does an excellent job at portraying real emotions and commentaries on how people deal with their lot in life.

This book deserved its Pulitzer Prize. ( )

A sort of King Lear story set in the Iowa farm country, with the family being even more dysfunctional than Lear's. It also has environmental concerns dealing with drainage. The book is a lot better than it may sound from this description. ( )

My favorite thing about this book is that it takes place mostly on a farm, and makes you feel like you are really getting something about farm life. Somehow it managed to feel simultaneously austere and melodramatic. I wish it had felt more austere, less melodramatic.

The sum of my knowledge regarding Iowa comes from a quote by Bill Bryson: 'I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to'. Neither was I familiar with the plot and characters of Shakespeare's King Lear, upon which this novel is based. Still, the premise is very clever - more so, if you can pick out and understand all the references to the play - and Jane Smiley's narrative is hypnotic. I could picture the landscape in vivid detail, and felt like I truly came to know the characters, such is the author's way with words, but be warned: this is far from a nostalgic fairy tale, and certainly shouldn't be shelved with the 'family sagas', where I found my copy at the local library.

Narrator Ginny Cook Smith is an Iowan farmwife, looking after her husband Ty, her cantankerous father and her sister Rose, who is recovering from breast cancer, on the thousand acre property of the title. Her father lives in the old family house, and Ginny and Rose live with their husbands in separate properties on the same land, shuttling back and forth to nursemaid the old man while being good wives to Ty, the favoured son-in-law, and Pete, the frustrated musician. The story plods on, with Ginny recalling childhood memories and explaining life on the farm, until her father (King Lear) decides he wants to parcel off his land to his children. Ginny and Rose's husbands are enthusiastic, the women themselves concerned, and younger sister Caroline, the only daughter to have moved away, is seemingly against the scheme. Her father, in a rage, more or less disowns Caroline, and Ginny and Rose, keen to maintain the status quo, also fall out of touch with the sister they raised after their mother's death.

After Wiki-ing King Lear - I know, I know, but I never claimed to be a fan of the Bard - I am even more impressed with Jane Smiley's adaptation, but feel that the darker, more modern theme of child abuse fits awkwardly within the retelling. Plus, the problem of 'King Lear's insanity is suddenly dropped, and the character of the father written out in favour of Ginny's midlife crisis. Ginny is a very real, very rounded character, however, and by the final chapters of the book, perfectly entitled to put herself first for once.

A Thousand Acres is a dark and depressing tale of frustration, jealousy, loyalty and betrayal, transplanting King Lear into the American Midwest of the 1970s. I loved the evocative writing, but don't know if I could read through all that angst again, even now I know what's going on! ( )