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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
I was bored and reading about the university was just a bit too much like going to work.
decently funny satire about a sprawling midwestern university. there were small moments that made me chuckle, but i lost some of the plot lines/threads due to a. the amount of time it took me to read and b. the sheer number of plot lines.
emotional
funny
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Lots of reviews. The readers who said that none of the characters are people that you care about are right. That's because Jane Smiley detested all these jerks and got herself out of Iowa as soon as her check for the movie rights to 1000 Acres hit the mail box. I could line up every character in the book with someone I've met in my career teaching at land-grant universities, and I didn't like most of them either. It may be inside baseball for people who have serious interaction with agricultural science faculty, but it's difficult to imagine a parody of that peculiar institution that is more accurate.
I technically didn't finish this book. I have a love hat relationship with it. In parts it was very funny to me, and other parts dragged. The writing for me was clean but a bit intricate. The stories about academia were interesting and ironic and to my newbie ear rung true. My biggest beef is that there are so many main characters (about 20) who all have interconnections between them. The story doesn't have a straight narrative and I would constantly loose the thread. Finally about half way through I downloaded from wikipedia the list of all the characters with a sentence or two of their connection: Bill is the dean of agriculture, married to Alice, and recently having an affair with Jane. And so on. Now it's probably my bad memory for names but I think a book like this should have a cast of characters page if you have any prayer of enjoying it.
4.5 stars. I only take off the last.5 because the book felt slightly long in the middle. Multiple story lines and characters, all balanced wonderfully. Every character feels real and acts like real humans would act. There’s no simple explanation for people and the glimpses inside their minds that Smiley shows make the novel a textured and rich world.
It’s fascinating to me as well that this story takes place in 90-91, and everything within it could still happen in a present day college town. All they would have to do is add cell phones and the internet!
It’s fascinating to me as well that this story takes place in 90-91, and everything within it could still happen in a present day college town. All they would have to do is add cell phones and the internet!
The start of this book was a little slow and there are a lot of characters. But holy cow (pun intended) as the story picked up, it got good. The last quarter of the book was my favorite; everything seemed to come full circle.
I got bogged down in the middle and picked it back up several months later, but still an amusing, and accurate account of life inside academia. I like that she's pretty wide-ranging in her coverage of university life without over-reaching. Even the discussions of the students and their lives struck true. I love Chairman X and the agriculture/horticulture war.
funny
medium-paced