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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Beautifully written story of two couples who become close friends, more than family, for life. The characters are clear, complex, and fully developed so that they are my friends and family too. The story is quiet and void of gimmicks that make things more complicated or strange. It's simply a wonderful story of people who find each other, and their lives proceed to intertwine and revolve around generating happiness for each other. An interesting quote from the book says "How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these?" Stegner found a way, and he held me as tightly as any suspense novel might.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read this book quite some time ago, though I remember it fondly. Stegner has a gift for words and a way of setting scenes that is incomparable to other writers. I enjoyed Angle of Repose and several of his essays. I don't know if it's my own disillusionment with friendships and relationships, or what, but this book dragged for me. It was positively filled with the details of every day life and it went on. And on. And on. And as someone here already said, I did not find any of the characters particularly likable. [return][return]I do like Stegner--and I like his settings, and I like his writing style, so that alone made this worth reading for me.
Merged review:
I read this book quite some time ago, though I remember it fondly. Stegner has a gift for words and a way of setting scenes that is incomparable to other writers. I enjoyed Angle of Repose and several of his essays. I don't know if it's my own disillusionment with friendships and relationships, or what, but this book dragged for me. It was positively filled with the details of every day life and it went on. And on. And on. And as someone here already said, I did not find any of the characters particularly likable. returnreturnI do like Stegner--and I like his settings, and I like his writing style, so that alone made this worth reading for me.
Merged review:
I read this book quite some time ago, though I remember it fondly. Stegner has a gift for words and a way of setting scenes that is incomparable to other writers. I enjoyed Angle of Repose and several of his essays. I don't know if it's my own disillusionment with friendships and relationships, or what, but this book dragged for me. It was positively filled with the details of every day life and it went on. And on. And on. And as someone here already said, I did not find any of the characters particularly likable. returnreturnI do like Stegner--and I like his settings, and I like his writing style, so that alone made this worth reading for me.
"You hear what the dean said about Jesus Christ? 'Sure He's a good teacher, but what's He published?"
A beautiful, beautiful book. It's like Stegner wrote a hug. He notices details about life and personality and houses and expresses them in both a beautiful and ordinary way. The friendship between these couples and between Larry and Sally is so real and gorgeous and lowkey I am jealous of it. I love that these characters are so complex, I love that the life shown here is so rich and full and joyful and painful and uncomfortable. Charity and Sid gave me heartburn but I think another read of this book someday will throw more nuance onto their characters. An excellent excellent book. If I could write with half the humor and humanity that Stegner does, I would die very happy.
Recently, I read a review on a different Stegner book that said, in essence, his writing ruins the next book on your list for you. And when I tried to pick up something else after the last one I read, I found it had done just that. Rather than torment myself or spoil something I'd been looking forward to, what did I do? Pivoted to more Stegner. He's quickly carving out a place for himself on my "most dear" authors list.
Crossing to Safety is a much quieter book that Big Rock Candy Mountain. You could argue that very little actually happens: the dramatic points could be summarized in a few short sentences. Despite that, it's never dull. Each of the four primary characters is rich and finely crafted. Their internal lives, worries and woes, provide more than enough to keep a reader going.
This is a book about friendship, love, disappointment, and life's curveballs. It feels like a long summer afternoon when the clock is ticking in a quiet house and someone is mowing the lawn down the street. I am confident that I'll pick it up again someday for a second reading - there's more wisdom and thoughtfulness here than I can absorb in a single go. Glad to have it in my library.
Crossing to Safety is a much quieter book that Big Rock Candy Mountain. You could argue that very little actually happens: the dramatic points could be summarized in a few short sentences. Despite that, it's never dull. Each of the four primary characters is rich and finely crafted. Their internal lives, worries and woes, provide more than enough to keep a reader going.
This is a book about friendship, love, disappointment, and life's curveballs. It feels like a long summer afternoon when the clock is ticking in a quiet house and someone is mowing the lawn down the street. I am confident that I'll pick it up again someday for a second reading - there's more wisdom and thoughtfulness here than I can absorb in a single go. Glad to have it in my library.
I can't remember where I saw this book recommended, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Not much happens, really, but I was never bored. I didn't need a thrilling plot to enjoy the world of these characters. I'm glad to have discovered Stegner.
Traces the life of two couples who were close friends. The husbands and wives met in Madison WI during the Depression when the two husbands were professors at U of Wisconsin. One couple was very wealthy and the other was just scraping by. The wealthy couple was extremely generous to the other couple and they remained steadfast friends for decades. The novel begins and ends when they've gathered late in life because one of them is near death. The rest of the novel is a flashback to the early years of their friendship. Although this is not really a plot-driven story, it kept me very interested throughout, in part because of the great writing and character development. It's also possible that I found the story more poignant at my stage of life than I would have before I was 30.
I like the Goodreads summary=> "Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage."
I like the Goodreads summary=> "Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage."
Wallace Stegner is the smooth jazz of contemporary fiction. With prose as dense and as kind as a tree trunk. This book about friendship couldn’t have come at a better time. A positive, heartwarming, poetic yet unsentimental, genuine look at the wholesome friendship between two couples.
“It didn't begin promisingly. It began, actually, with a clash of temperament and will, a flare-up over trivialities, like a wink through the shutters showing fire inside the house.”
Much of what I habitually read is “infected with fashionable literary despair,” as Stegner puts it, so that I tend to forget the way art can be uplifting too. With Crossing To Safety he has done just that. It’s nice to take a vacation from the dreary “truth” of living to remember the simplistic joy and beauty in the every day.
“Why don't you just ignore all that stuff so many modern writers concentrate on, and write something about a really decent, kind, good human being living a normal life in a normal community, interested in the things most ordinary people are interested in—family, children, education—good uplifting entertainment?”
Having read Stegner now I see his influence in many writers, most notably Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe novels. Poetic and concise sentences written not with rhythm like that of a song, but with the efficient eye of an architect.
“It didn't begin promisingly. It began, actually, with a clash of temperament and will, a flare-up over trivialities, like a wink through the shutters showing fire inside the house.”
Much of what I habitually read is “infected with fashionable literary despair,” as Stegner puts it, so that I tend to forget the way art can be uplifting too. With Crossing To Safety he has done just that. It’s nice to take a vacation from the dreary “truth” of living to remember the simplistic joy and beauty in the every day.
“Why don't you just ignore all that stuff so many modern writers concentrate on, and write something about a really decent, kind, good human being living a normal life in a normal community, interested in the things most ordinary people are interested in—family, children, education—good uplifting entertainment?”
Having read Stegner now I see his influence in many writers, most notably Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe novels. Poetic and concise sentences written not with rhythm like that of a song, but with the efficient eye of an architect.