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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
Not your typical follow the "formula" or "can't wait to see what happens" kind of book. There is not a lot of drama, no big climax, no mysterious twists or turns, not even a real ending. It's just a story about some people's lives that is written so well you forget you are reading a book and feel like it's real.
Oh, my heart, what a novel.
I'm incredulous that this novel is not up there among the best novels of the 20th century .
I'm also incredulous that I only heard of Stegner last year.
I can't remember ever reading a novel about a friendship between two adult couples. Such friendships are rare. Lots of things have to align for that to happen, besides proximity, compatibility between four people, and the kids, a similar socio-economic standing, political and intellectual similarities.
Written in the 1980s, this is a novel about a friendship forged in the late 1930s, when Larry Morgan and Sid Lang were colleagues in the English Department of a university in Madison, Wisconsin. They're both hoping for tenure. Their financial situation is very different - the Morgans live paycheck to paycheck, whereas the Langs have a privileged financial situation.
Charity Lang, Sid's wife, is a force of nature. She's vivacious, enthusiastic, organised, determined, generous, and bullheaded. Nothing fazes her. Her huge house is a hub for entertainment and get-togethers.
She's the ultimate hostess. She never stops and loses patience with those who don't toe the line or keep up, an impossible task. I liked her a lot.
Larry's wife, Sally, is kind and unassuming, in many ways, Charity's opposite. But opposites attract.
The Morgans live their best years in the Langs' company.
Besides the wonderful characterisations, Stegner created a very atmospheric novel, with beautifully descriptive prose. I could smell the woods, feel I was inside the Langs' house and had picnics with them and their extended family.
Truly, a most marvellous novel.
I think this is my favourite novel of the year, so far.
NB: A little movie on Stegner. It's narrated by Robert Redford - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGCC6hhrSKQ
I'm incredulous that this novel is not up there among the best novels of the 20th century .
I'm also incredulous that I only heard of Stegner last year.
I can't remember ever reading a novel about a friendship between two adult couples. Such friendships are rare. Lots of things have to align for that to happen, besides proximity, compatibility between four people, and the kids, a similar socio-economic standing, political and intellectual similarities.
Written in the 1980s, this is a novel about a friendship forged in the late 1930s, when Larry Morgan and Sid Lang were colleagues in the English Department of a university in Madison, Wisconsin. They're both hoping for tenure. Their financial situation is very different - the Morgans live paycheck to paycheck, whereas the Langs have a privileged financial situation.
Charity Lang, Sid's wife, is a force of nature. She's vivacious, enthusiastic, organised, determined, generous, and bullheaded. Nothing fazes her. Her huge house is a hub for entertainment and get-togethers.
She's the ultimate hostess. She never stops and loses patience with those who don't toe the line or keep up, an impossible task. I liked her a lot.
Larry's wife, Sally, is kind and unassuming, in many ways, Charity's opposite. But opposites attract.
The Morgans live their best years in the Langs' company.
Besides the wonderful characterisations, Stegner created a very atmospheric novel, with beautifully descriptive prose. I could smell the woods, feel I was inside the Langs' house and had picnics with them and their extended family.
Truly, a most marvellous novel.
I think this is my favourite novel of the year, so far.
NB: A little movie on Stegner. It's narrated by Robert Redford - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGCC6hhrSKQ
A beautifully written story about lifelong friendship between two couples.
Stegner commanded my attention completely as I entered into this complicated and deeply authentic world of friendship and marriage. His prose was medium rare, I will be ordering it again.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
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:
Yes
This book was well written and I have to admit I was partial to the plot of two married couples who befriended each other while teaching at the University of Wisconsin Madison. However, the book is very slow. There is beauty in watching friendship develop over the course of a lifetime, but that's really the gist of the whole book. I also found the ending a bit odd, so after feeling like I was trudging through it at times, it didn't leave a great impression.
Is it possible to write that I've read my favorite book of 2021 just 16 days into the year? I think I have. This novel was excellent. Its a simple, yet emotionally rich tale of the lives of two academic couples from right around the end of the depression as entered academia to their later retirement years. I know that doesn't sound like much, but its a story filled with life, love, tragedy, heartache, and a ton of introspection and reflection. Our protagonist is Larry Morgan, who is clearly being used autobiographically in place of our author Wallace Stegner. Morgan and his wife have moved to Madison on a wing and a prayer, hoping to survive the school year on pennies, but their entire world changes with the chance meeting and befriending of the Lang's. This is the story of years and years of friendship, through ups and downs, and real life problems. There are no crazy things here like infidelities or violence, just the real successes and setbacks of well lived lives, and that alone is the beauty of this story. We start to see problems in the Eden that both our couples and their friendship creates, in their academic lives and their within their marriages, but itss the discussion and introspection of these that are the true beauty of the novel. I knew just 50 pages in that it was going to be one of the best books I've read in a long time and it truly is. At one point our protagonists says to his wife, “But if I’m going to set the literary world on fire, the only way to do it is to rub one word against the other.” and that is exactly what the author did with this story.
So well written & affecting. Many reviews describe it as a book about friendship & marriage, but it is so much more than that.
It's not surprising that the author was a conservationist because his descriptions of land, trees, plants and landscape are so vivid. The chapters where the extended family gatherings take place are so real that you feel you are a member of the family! The action scenes where significant events happen are breath taking.
Highly recommended! One of the best books I've ever read.
It's not surprising that the author was a conservationist because his descriptions of land, trees, plants and landscape are so vivid. The chapters where the extended family gatherings take place are so real that you feel you are a member of the family! The action scenes where significant events happen are breath taking.
Highly recommended! One of the best books I've ever read.
This is not a novel wherein much happens, but a novel about the security found in relationships. Following two couples, Sid and Charity Lang and Larry and Sally Morgan, in the late 1930’s — the end of the Great Depression and the years leading up to WWII — Larry Morgan recounts his years from a newlywed, university English professor hoping for tenure and hoping to make it as a writer to the end of Charity’s life. However, Larry’s recollection is mostly centered on the intense affection and hold that the two couples had on one another through marital, professional, and personal successes and failures. This is a quiet, steady story. Think, reading someone’s plumped-up ledger — the story, though rich with a sense of setting through apt imagery, could feel a bit slow-moving at times. The prose is patient, detailed, realistic — the writing really cannot be faulted! — precise yet effortless. Part Three is an emotional arrival, focusing on the risk of abandoning oneself to another, the risk of love, the cost of expectations — in marriage and in friendship.