A Thousand Acres : A Novel

 

A Thousand Acres : A Novel
A Thousand Acres : A Novel
by Authors: JANE SMILEY
Released: 02 December, 2003
ISBN: 1400033837
Paperback

Sales Rank: 33,326
List price: $14.00
Our price: $10.50 (You save: $3.5)
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A Thousand Acres : A Novel > Customer Review #1:
Poor parallels

While reading and scanning some of these summaries, I felt urged to write in response to some of the supporters. Most especially, there was one man who claimed that people who did not this book were younger people forced to read it for school. Well, I will admit that I am a seventeen year old girl forced to read it for her AP Literature class. However, that does not change the fact that my high expectations for this novel were poorly realized. "King Lear", which I adored, was the assigned reading book before "A Thousand Acres", and I was thorougly disappointed to the point of extreme anger at Smileys perversion of Shakespeares classic tale. Her parallels were ill-made and strove too hard to make the link. As a classmate of mine observed "it stands well-enough on its own". I agree with that, but will take it further by claiming that she should have left "King Lear" completely out of this book, which I feel is better suited to be a Harlequin Romance as opposed to a heralded piece of literature. Her action is completely coincidential, and the events which she forces these characters shes formed go completely against their nature. Her writing style is stilted and boring and, frankly, I dont appreciate having to go through the sexual fantasies of the main character, especially when she thinks of herself as a sow. I regret to say that I feel that Smiley pushed her creative talents too far and forced this story of hers to consent to being this inferior piece of work. I cannot believe that she dares to compare the incestuous relationships between Larry Cook and his daughters Ginny and Rose to Lears pure father/daughter relationships to Goneril and Regan (another thing which annoyed me, incredibly unoriginal names; Larry - Lear, Ginny - Goneril, Rose - Regan, Caroline - Cordelia... she even named Carolines husband Frank: in King Lear, Cordelia married the king of France. That is not wit, Ms. Smiley, thats just plain idiotic, and rather silly too). In addition, her sentences were full of redundancies and somewhat stupid-sounding phrases, such as "they crossed the road the way one does in the country a hundred times a day without looking either way". What is that point of that? Does it contribute to this literary art-form? To all you adults out there who feel that we students are too young to understand this "deep" piece, think about why that might or might not be. I resent her storyline about incest and extramarrital affairs, why dont you? I pray to God that I never become mature enough to accept such a thing as normal and genius.

A Thousand Acres : A Novel > Customer Review #2:
A Thousand Acres-prize worthy?

I, too, found the book to be something akin to a Harlequin romance. I also resent the fact that one reviewer mocked another as a "silly young girl" because he/she didnt agree with her review. I thought her review was incredibly articulate and insightful. She sounded a lot more level-headed and intelligent that many adults whose comments Ive read. So the book won a prize--that doesnt necessarily mean its a good book that people will enjoy reading. The people that give out those awards are usually looking at more esoteric criteria than the average person when choosing what they consider "good" literature. The same is true of any medium (think of how many "critically-acclaimed" movies, for example, are bombs at the box office). Many books that have won awards with such accolades as "masterful imagery" or "searing portait of..." turn out to have little to offer in terms of just pure enjoyment.
Thank you, Poor Parallels, for your great review.

A Thousand Acres : A Novel > Customer Review #3:
Details

One reviewer mentioned the large amount of detail that is in the novel. I thought the detail an interesting way to have the readers experience mirror the characters. Ginnys life was made up of what was in the garden, her memories of her mother, what she cooked for dinner... This is what filled her day to day and this is what she lived. In allowing yourself (as a reader) to be contentedly absorbed in the details without looking for deeper meaning was exactly what Ginny had been doing her whole life. By the time the novel began to shift from this complacent routine (which the reader begins to assume as well), you find yourself wondering how the characters can solve this in order to bring everyone (including the reader) "back" to that previous place of predictable actions and relative emotional comfort that we all want, all the while knowing that it will not happen due to the gravity of the situations that become exposed and are evolving. As for characters acting "out of character", the novel is about secrets, rage, and discovery of what is really motivating people who are supposed to be family and friends. The whole theme of the book was that people in our lives are not always who they seem or we choose not to see them for who they are. The fact that Smiley mirrors that as well in the readers experiences with the characters in that some of their actions and revelations are surprising or unanticipated, I thought, was very clever. Just as Ginny had trouble understanding who she could trust (including herself), we as readers had to decide which characters, if any, to trust, pity, or hate - and did we trust our own opinions and judgments of them? If we flipped through our memories of the characters, were their actions and reactions explainable or were our previous impressions wrong? These were the same questions Ginny was asking- we follow Ginnys emotional journey in the style of the writing in the novel.

 
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