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alexmariesc's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
readingshan's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
Loved the questions that are explored through the characters in this book. I felt deeply uncomfortable about the questions around 'property' and empathized with the protaganist in the ways that his sense of ease and comfort was unsettled by a seemingly harmless squatter on his land.
kellian901's review against another edition
5.0
Wallace Stegner succeeded in ripping my heart out yet again.
Lulled by descriptions of birds and plants and hills and sunsets, you think you are serenely enjoying the California countryside that is the Allston’s property. But really you are digging deep into a story of human nature in its various forms, and you are about to be entranced and amused, then shocked, outraged, and finally gutted. But you will emerge from the depths all the wiser.
This is my third Stegner novel, and the best one I’ve read yet.
Lulled by descriptions of birds and plants and hills and sunsets, you think you are serenely enjoying the California countryside that is the Allston’s property. But really you are digging deep into a story of human nature in its various forms, and you are about to be entranced and amused, then shocked, outraged, and finally gutted. But you will emerge from the depths all the wiser.
This is my third Stegner novel, and the best one I’ve read yet.
sl0w_reader's review against another edition
3.0
Not Stegner's best, but still very good indeed. His main character, Joe Allston, a retired educated man living with his wife in the California hills, meditates on the nature of intrusive youth, intrusive disease, intrusive wildlife.
He introduces himself: "I am concerned with gloomier matters: the condition of being flesh, susceptible to pain, infected with consciousness and the consciousness of consciousness, doomed to death and the awareness of death. My life stains the air around me. I am a tea bag left too long in the cup, and my steepings grow darker and bitterer."
As the story shows, sorrow and death find us all out - we can never 'retire' from these - and, in Allston's estimation, makes our life richer for it. It's a sobering and grim book in some ways, but full of 'wild' life too.
He introduces himself: "I am concerned with gloomier matters: the condition of being flesh, susceptible to pain, infected with consciousness and the consciousness of consciousness, doomed to death and the awareness of death. My life stains the air around me. I am a tea bag left too long in the cup, and my steepings grow darker and bitterer."
As the story shows, sorrow and death find us all out - we can never 'retire' from these - and, in Allston's estimation, makes our life richer for it. It's a sobering and grim book in some ways, but full of 'wild' life too.
arielamandah's review against another edition
4.0
I guess it makes me a crabby old lady that I found Joe, the main character, an absolute hoot and empathized with his crankiest feelings and reactions to the people who came to squat on his property. While not quite the book that "Big Rock" or "Crossing to Safety" is, this is another solid Stegner, full of well-cast, distinctive characters all finding their way around one another. It feels, in many ways, like a warm-up for later novels: a first try at several themes or situations. Still, the story gets under your skin, Stegner knows how to pack an emotional wallop, and his depth of insight into people is impressive.
The more I read Stegner's novels in close comparison, a few odd things stand out. 1) Were "small heads" a thing that was propped up as a beauty standard in the mid-century? He seems compelled to spend a lot of time describing all the luminous, untouchable women in his novels (Marian, here, Charity in Crossing to Safety) as having "small heads." 2) The idea of mastectomy and treatment for breast cancer seems to have disturbed him - or at least concerned him - in an oversized way. In this novel Joe really fixates on the "brokenness" and "disfigurement" that he believes a past surgery left Marian with. It also appears in Big Rock, as well, handled with the same degree of almost horror. I have to imagine that our treatments have improved enough that they are less shocking now than they used to be? 3) He doesn't have a very graceful way of handling non-white characters. I'm not one to go back and write-off authors "from another time" based on today's standards, yet, as another reviewer pointed out, in writing about the West - to the point of being called the "Dean of Western Literature" - you'd expect more representation of other races. Yet, perhaps it's good he steered clear, for when he has included people of color in his novels, the treatment hasn't been especially graceful (though it did track with the nature of the characters - I'm thinking of Bo Mason, especially, from Big Rock).
The more I read Stegner's novels in close comparison, a few odd things stand out. 1) Were "small heads" a thing that was propped up as a beauty standard in the mid-century? He seems compelled to spend a lot of time describing all the luminous, untouchable women in his novels (Marian, here, Charity in Crossing to Safety) as having "small heads." 2) The idea of mastectomy and treatment for breast cancer seems to have disturbed him - or at least concerned him - in an oversized way. In this novel Joe really fixates on the "brokenness" and "disfigurement" that he believes a past surgery left Marian with. It also appears in Big Rock, as well, handled with the same degree of almost horror. I have to imagine that our treatments have improved enough that they are less shocking now than they used to be? 3) He doesn't have a very graceful way of handling non-white characters. I'm not one to go back and write-off authors "from another time" based on today's standards, yet, as another reviewer pointed out, in writing about the West - to the point of being called the "Dean of Western Literature" - you'd expect more representation of other races. Yet, perhaps it's good he steered clear, for when he has included people of color in his novels, the treatment hasn't been especially graceful (though it did track with the nature of the characters - I'm thinking of Bo Mason, especially, from Big Rock).
bianca89279's review against another edition
5.0
How wonderful it was to come across the grumpy and humourless, Joe Allston, whom I first met in Stegner's The Spectator Bird.
Now in his sixties, he's retired in California, living a quiet, routine filled life next to his wife of forty years, Ruth.
It's the "crazy 60s" when the youths of the day went on sex, drugs and spiritual experimentation benders. I wasn't alive in the 60s, but I always wonder - would I have joined in or would I have followed the beaten path? I definitely see myself as being anti-war, I'm not so sure about the "free love " (more like free STIs and pregnancies) and the drug-taking.
The Allston routines are interrupted when they come across a young hippy man camped under a tree on their property. Joe Allston has issues with him immediately, he sees the young "revolutionaries" as preposterous. Joe Allston takes everything personally when it comes to Jim - his dishevelled appearance, his speech, his motorcycle - everything is an affront. Joe resents the young man even more, as he gives in and allows him to set camp on a part of his land that was unused. The young man starts building a treehouse, puts up a bridge and does other improvements that the Allstons observe from a distance.
Not long after Jim's camping development, Marian and John, a beautiful married couple, and their six-year old daughter move next to Joe and Ruth. Marian is not only beautiful but she's got a way of being and thinking that endears everyone to her, including Joe and Ruth. She's like the daughter they never had. Their friendship blossoms quickly, the older couple find that their life becomes more interesting, more sparkly in very subtle but noticeable ways.
This novel is about regret and grief, getting old, the clash of generations. It's about the way we affect others and others affect us.
The ending was beautiful:
"I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow.'
I shall be richer for having read Stegner.
Now in his sixties, he's retired in California, living a quiet, routine filled life next to his wife of forty years, Ruth.
It's the "crazy 60s" when the youths of the day went on sex, drugs and spiritual experimentation benders. I wasn't alive in the 60s, but I always wonder - would I have joined in or would I have followed the beaten path? I definitely see myself as being anti-war, I'm not so sure about the "free love " (more like free STIs and pregnancies) and the drug-taking.
The Allston routines are interrupted when they come across a young hippy man camped under a tree on their property. Joe Allston has issues with him immediately, he sees the young "revolutionaries" as preposterous. Joe Allston takes everything personally when it comes to Jim - his dishevelled appearance, his speech, his motorcycle - everything is an affront. Joe resents the young man even more, as he gives in and allows him to set camp on a part of his land that was unused. The young man starts building a treehouse, puts up a bridge and does other improvements that the Allstons observe from a distance.
Not long after Jim's camping development, Marian and John, a beautiful married couple, and their six-year old daughter move next to Joe and Ruth. Marian is not only beautiful but she's got a way of being and thinking that endears everyone to her, including Joe and Ruth. She's like the daughter they never had. Their friendship blossoms quickly, the older couple find that their life becomes more interesting, more sparkly in very subtle but noticeable ways.
This novel is about regret and grief, getting old, the clash of generations. It's about the way we affect others and others affect us.
The ending was beautiful:
"I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow.'
I shall be richer for having read Stegner.
nlbullock1's review against another edition
5.0
Oh, how I love Wallace Stegner as an author. I don’t love his books because they are happy or comforting, but they are so beautifully written, so human, and so full of life that I can’t believe the characters in them aren’t real people, and thus even more heartbreaking. This story was very emotional for me, and is a reminder that in our grief and sorrow in the face of great loss, there is also joy for the love that makes the sadness a reality.
raychelllibby's review against another edition
5.0
[ Hardcover First Edition borrowed from the library with stamps in the back dating back to the mid 70’s]
I shouldn’t review this book. I wanted to roll around on the ground clutching it to my chest mumbling my love for the writing, for the characters… for Ruth.
I don’t know what else to say. I’d feel like an imbecile trying to find something clever to write after reading those words.
I will say, that, this feeling right now, after reading this book, is like a nostalgic flashback into my own heart.
I don’t know how this author creates such rich worlds, characters, insight, humor and nature into one fantastic yet simply story, but I can’t wait to soak up everything else he has ever written.
I shouldn’t review this book. I wanted to roll around on the ground clutching it to my chest mumbling my love for the writing, for the characters… for Ruth.
I don’t know what else to say. I’d feel like an imbecile trying to find something clever to write after reading those words.
I will say, that, this feeling right now, after reading this book, is like a nostalgic flashback into my own heart.
I don’t know how this author creates such rich worlds, characters, insight, humor and nature into one fantastic yet simply story, but I can’t wait to soak up everything else he has ever written.
borderhopper's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0