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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
I had never read any Wallace Stegner and I thought this was a great introduction into his work. This novel is rich and so well-written.
This is a book with lofty goals, chronicling the lives of two couples from the time they meet at the University of Wisconsin in the 1920's when the husbands, Sid and Larry, are colleagues in the English Department. The book follows pregnancies, children, job loss, promotions, illness, and, always at the forefront, the complexities of deep friendships and married life. I kept waiting for something to happen, while expecting nothing to happen, other than the things that make up a life. Not to say that nothing happened, but there wasn't one event to focus on because it covered 40 plus years of people's lives.
I had a major problem with the way the author dealt with a character's cancer diagnosis, which soured the whole book for me. I didn't love the book to begin with, but that really affected my rating of the book.
I had a major problem with the way the author dealt with a character's cancer diagnosis, which soured the whole book for me. I didn't love the book to begin with, but that really affected my rating of the book.
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
While reading Crossing to Safety, I researched Wallace Stegner out of curiosity and learned about the plagiarism of Mary Hallock Foote’s writing (the basis for Angle of Repose). Basically, Stegner wasn’t transparent with Hallock Foote’s family about how her personal correspondence and diaries would be used, initially stating he would not include any direct quotations and would create a work of fiction. In actuality, he lifted long sections of her writing largely unchanged and passed them off as his own work. Even the unique title (Angle of Repose) is taken from one of Hallock Foote’s observations. Infuriatingly, the changes that he did make to the real people his characters were “inspired by” are for the worse, which potentially damages the reputation of the already overlooked Hallock Foote. In real life, she was intelligent, a talented artist, and much more. The character in Angle of Repose (which I haven’t read) is described by writer, actor, director, and playwright Sands Hall to be a “griping, entitled, discontented 1950s housewife.” At the time there was some legal ambiguity because the family did share her writings with Stegner, and he published Angle of Repose before the family had copyright protection for Hallock Foote’s work. Regardless of the legality, Stegner’s choices and communications with the Hallock Foote family were dishonest and ultimately benefited him greatly (acclaim, Pulitzer Prize, etc.).
With this background information in mind, I found myself equating the smug narrator in Crossing to Safety (Larry Morgan) with Wallace Stegner. My dislike of all the characters, but especially Larry Morgan, is heightened by what I know about the Angle of Repose injustice but I suspect I would have disliked them regardless. It’s unclear (to me) if Stegner knew they were unlikeable, or modeled any of them after himself, but to me the four characters are portraits of how self-absorbed, controlling, and insulated wealthy and/or competitively successful people can be. I didn’t find their marriages aspirational. I wanted to know more about Sally Morgan’s inner life, who was bland despite her survival of polio. Larry (and Stegner himself?), seems studious and sometimes admiring of the women around him, yet still dismissive and incurious.
I will be thinking about this book for a while and admired many aspects of the engrossing writing but it wasn’t a story I enjoyed being immersed in.
With this background information in mind, I found myself equating the smug narrator in Crossing to Safety (Larry Morgan) with Wallace Stegner. My dislike of all the characters, but especially Larry Morgan, is heightened by what I know about the Angle of Repose injustice but I suspect I would have disliked them regardless. It’s unclear (to me) if Stegner knew they were unlikeable, or modeled any of them after himself, but to me the four characters are portraits of how self-absorbed, controlling, and insulated wealthy and/or competitively successful people can be. I didn’t find their marriages aspirational. I wanted to know more about Sally Morgan’s inner life, who was bland despite her survival of polio. Larry (and Stegner himself?), seems studious and sometimes admiring of the women around him, yet still dismissive and incurious.
I will be thinking about this book for a while and admired many aspects of the engrossing writing but it wasn’t a story I enjoyed being immersed in.
4 ⭐️ Beautiful writing, educated and inspired characters, lovely descriptions. Crossing to Safety was the first book I've read in a while that forced me to slow down, read every word and really think about the content. It was a good reminder that despite our busy lives it's important to remember the relationships and friendships in our lives that helped to form and shape who we are. Beautiful, yet melancholy, yet hopeful.
Few authors write with the grace of Wallace Stegner. Crossing to Safety isn’t just a novel—it’s a masterclass in storytelling, a beautifully crafted portrait of friendship, marriage, and time’s passage. Stegner’s prose is luminous, his sentences so exquisitely structured I often reread them just to savor their rhythm. If hard writing makes for easy reading, Stegner must have worked tirelessly to create a novel that feels effortless.
The story follows two couples—Larry and Sally Morgan, Sid and Charity Lang—whose lives intertwine over four decades, from Depression-era Wisconsin to Vermont’s rolling hills. While Larry, an aspiring writer, finds success, his life is marked by hardship as Sally battles polio. Sid, charming but passive, struggles under Charity’s unrelenting ambition. Their relationships shift and evolve, tested by illness, expectations, and the realities of growing older.
While I admired the novel’s depth and insight, I found Charity exasperating, her domineering nature often overshadowing the tenderness at the heart of the story. And though the ending felt abrupt, it didn’t diminish Stegner’s brilliance.
Unlike The Angle of Repose, his Pulitzer-winning novel, this book is quieter, more introspective, yet just as profound. It’s a novel to be read slowly, to be absorbed. Stegner was one of the most gifted writers of the 20th century, and Crossing to Safety is a testament to his genius. I’d have loved to share a cocktail with him and ask how he did it. 4.5 stars.
The story follows two couples—Larry and Sally Morgan, Sid and Charity Lang—whose lives intertwine over four decades, from Depression-era Wisconsin to Vermont’s rolling hills. While Larry, an aspiring writer, finds success, his life is marked by hardship as Sally battles polio. Sid, charming but passive, struggles under Charity’s unrelenting ambition. Their relationships shift and evolve, tested by illness, expectations, and the realities of growing older.
While I admired the novel’s depth and insight, I found Charity exasperating, her domineering nature often overshadowing the tenderness at the heart of the story. And though the ending felt abrupt, it didn’t diminish Stegner’s brilliance.
Unlike The Angle of Repose, his Pulitzer-winning novel, this book is quieter, more introspective, yet just as profound. It’s a novel to be read slowly, to be absorbed. Stegner was one of the most gifted writers of the 20th century, and Crossing to Safety is a testament to his genius. I’d have loved to share a cocktail with him and ask how he did it. 4.5 stars.
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Crossing to Safety is the kind of book I fear would never be published nowadays. As the narrator himself says, it does not contain much drama or conflict or startling plot twists. It is, instead, a novel of the moments that make up a life -- and more specifically, a marriage and a friendship -- and as such it provides a multitude of opportunities to see our own lives reflected in it and ponder our own life choices.
The story is about two couples, the Morgans and the Langs, and is narrated by Larry Morgan. The present tense of the story is at the end of Charity Lang's life, but the majority of the novel is Larry's memories, from when the couples first met through the defining moments of their friendship over the years, the waxing and waning of closeness as jobs and other obligations separate them for periods of time.
There are the challenges in the Morgans' own life -- Sally Morgan's polio and subsequent physical dependence on Larry. There is the awkwardness of being such a close party to the struggles of the Langs' relationship, of Charity's desire to control every detail of their lives and the battle of wills between her and her husband. There are the imbalances of power -- the Langs with their inherited wealth try to be generous in helping out the Morgans without putting a strain on their friendship, while Larry Morgan's success as a writer painfully highlights Sid Lang's inability to be the writer and scholar his wife wants him to be.
It is all so ordinary, and yet that is what makes it powerful. Stegner captures the unfolding of small, private dramas extremely well. You are likely to see yourself, the good and the bad, reflected back to you in one or more characters. And this novel, spanning as it does the adult lives of the main characters, raises questions about the purpose of life and the best way to spend one's time. What roles should risk and security play in a fulfilled life? When does order become control? How do love and dependence coexist?
The story is about two couples, the Morgans and the Langs, and is narrated by Larry Morgan. The present tense of the story is at the end of Charity Lang's life, but the majority of the novel is Larry's memories, from when the couples first met through the defining moments of their friendship over the years, the waxing and waning of closeness as jobs and other obligations separate them for periods of time.
There are the challenges in the Morgans' own life -- Sally Morgan's polio and subsequent physical dependence on Larry. There is the awkwardness of being such a close party to the struggles of the Langs' relationship, of Charity's desire to control every detail of their lives and the battle of wills between her and her husband. There are the imbalances of power -- the Langs with their inherited wealth try to be generous in helping out the Morgans without putting a strain on their friendship, while Larry Morgan's success as a writer painfully highlights Sid Lang's inability to be the writer and scholar his wife wants him to be.
It is all so ordinary, and yet that is what makes it powerful. Stegner captures the unfolding of small, private dramas extremely well. You are likely to see yourself, the good and the bad, reflected back to you in one or more characters. And this novel, spanning as it does the adult lives of the main characters, raises questions about the purpose of life and the best way to spend one's time. What roles should risk and security play in a fulfilled life? When does order become control? How do love and dependence coexist?