A review by sam_bizar_wilcox
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

2.0

What, to me, started off as an incredibly subdued drama (from King Lear, these characters, surely not?) escalated subtlely to resemble the bare bones of Shakespeare's famous tragedy. But then it kept escalating. While reading the novel, I became increasingly aware that the intentional melodrama of the Renaissance theatre doesn't quite translate to a realist narrative, and when the more shocking elements of the novel are revealed (in the play, importantly, these are only suggested, and suggested by smart stage directors - although after reading this book I wonder if this dramatic convention to

Spoiler

include Lear's assault of his daughters

is a chicken-or-the-egg situation with the novel), the brilliant work of the beginning became undone. Disturbing does not a rich narrative make, and here the horror is layered on thick. I applaud Smiley for keeping her prose measured, but this novel's success (or, in my opinion, lack thereof - an admittedly contrarian view given the book's Pulitzer) hinges on important question: can Lear work outside of Lear?