As a Pulitzer winner and member of the 1001 list this book has been on my tbr list for quite some time. I found the family dynamic fascinating and disturbing but also beautifully written. I still have Moo by Smiley on my shelf at home and hope that I find it as enjoyable as this one. ( )

It's been a long time since a book has made me hate a character (Larry Cook) and his actions so much, yet made me still want to keep reading. Told in a King Lear-esque fashion, this is a story of farm life in Iowa, and so much more.

This is the first of Smiley's that I've read, and I will definitely be reading more. ( )

Readable, and I quite liked Smiley's prose—particularly when it was describing the land on which the family lived, the ocean that lies beneath the farm land of Iowa—but overall this didn't work for me. There was a disconnect for me which only made sense when I found out that Smiley based A Thousand Acres on King Lear: it feels like there are plot details which have been shoe-horned in to the development of the novel purely so that it can echo the events of the play, and it's too artificial. With the exception of the main character, Ginny, Smiley also fails to make explicit or believable the motivations of the other main characters, I think relying on the reader to map the play onto the novel. Ultimately disappointing. ( )

A modernized King Lear, where a farmer, Larry Cook, decides to divide his farm into three pieces for his three daughters. While two go along with the plan, the youngest daughter, Caroline, voices reservations and is left out in the cold.

The book is told from the perspective of the older daughter, Ginny, as she watches her family change over the course of four-five years.

Made into a motion picture staring Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Colin Firth the story is all about family struggle, pain, deceit, forgiveness, jealousy, and death.

I’ve seen the movie a few times, but the book is much more than movie could ever be. It helped being able to picture faces to the characters but Smiley’s in depth struggle of this family and their traditions shows greatly through the written word. ( )

This is a fantastic book. If you are familiar with King Lear it adds an extra layer of resonance, but the book doesn't depend on those shared plot elements. I really felt for the characters and was surprised and moved by their actions. ( )