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A review by cocoonofbooks
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, T.H. Watkins
4.0
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?