Scan barcode
A review by kendranicole28
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
5.0
Published in 1987 and told mostly in flashback, this semi-autobiographical novel traces the lives and ambitions of two couples whose friendship spans decades. The story begins in 1938 when our narrator, Larry Morgan, and his new bride, Sally, settle into their new home in Madison, Wisconsin, where Larry has accepted a job teaching creative writing in the university’s English department. The Morgans are swiftly swept into an impassioned friendship with another couple from the department, Sid and Charity Lang, and quickly learn of Sid’s ambitions to succeed as a writer and Charity’s bolder ambitions to see her husband excel in the world of academia. As life and global events unfold and Sid and Larry’s careers mature, the couples take different paths but remain close, and their story offers an acute exploration of lifelong friendship.
At one point in the novel, it is suggested that Larry write a story about his friends and he remarks on the absurdity of writing “a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where are the things that novelists seize upon and readers expect?” It is true that this is a quiet novel without the dramatics or suspense of a plot-driven story. But I would argue that this book—with its quiet but realistic characters, jaw-dropping prose, and thoughtful examination of marriage, hardship, perseverance, purpose, and ambition—is just the novel many of us are yearning to read.
This is one of the most compelling stories of adult friendship (especially “couple” friendship) and of marriage that I have ever read, plumbing the complexities and vulnerabilities of our closest relationships and tapping into the struggles and insecurities we all feel but rarely pause to examine or understand. Through the lives of these contrasting couples, we are given the rare gift of navigating our own stories through those we see on the page. Stegner’s writing is marked with dry humor and layers of historical and literary understanding that give resonance and readability to his achingly profound insight into human nature and interpersonal dynamics. His work is also complicated and challenging and not at all straightforward; as much as I loved this, I’m still trying to work out the ending!
This is not a long book, but it was a slower read—mostly because there were so many passages that I read once and then again, pausing between to simply reflect on the meaning and depth of what I had read. It is a deeply introspective book and one I could spend thousands of words analyzing; instead, I will simply urge you to read this for yourself. And you may want to have journal handy or discussion group lined up for a post-reading debrief, for if ever there was a book ripe for discussion and literary analysis, this is it.
My Rating: 5 Stars // Book Format: Kindle
At one point in the novel, it is suggested that Larry write a story about his friends and he remarks on the absurdity of writing “a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where are the things that novelists seize upon and readers expect?” It is true that this is a quiet novel without the dramatics or suspense of a plot-driven story. But I would argue that this book—with its quiet but realistic characters, jaw-dropping prose, and thoughtful examination of marriage, hardship, perseverance, purpose, and ambition—is just the novel many of us are yearning to read.
This is one of the most compelling stories of adult friendship (especially “couple” friendship) and of marriage that I have ever read, plumbing the complexities and vulnerabilities of our closest relationships and tapping into the struggles and insecurities we all feel but rarely pause to examine or understand. Through the lives of these contrasting couples, we are given the rare gift of navigating our own stories through those we see on the page. Stegner’s writing is marked with dry humor and layers of historical and literary understanding that give resonance and readability to his achingly profound insight into human nature and interpersonal dynamics. His work is also complicated and challenging and not at all straightforward; as much as I loved this, I’m still trying to work out the ending!
This is not a long book, but it was a slower read—mostly because there were so many passages that I read once and then again, pausing between to simply reflect on the meaning and depth of what I had read. It is a deeply introspective book and one I could spend thousands of words analyzing; instead, I will simply urge you to read this for yourself. And you may want to have journal handy or discussion group lined up for a post-reading debrief, for if ever there was a book ripe for discussion and literary analysis, this is it.
My Rating: 5 Stars // Book Format: Kindle