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A review by summerbeecher
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
5.0
This has been on my TBR list for years and years as Crossing to Safety and Angle of Repose are two of my favorite books. WHY has it taken me so long to get to this book. I LOVED it and it broke my heart over and over again. I know that many parts of the book are autobiographical and Stegner does a masterful job of making each individual a sympathetic character - despite their obvious flaws.
I know he wrote this early in his career and some reviews I read said he was too wordy in the descriptions - I just couldn't get enough!! The way he describes people, relationships, places, feelings - all of it came alive to me in such a vivid and nearly tangible way. It also helped that I have lived in Minnesota and UT and know the lands in between - the Dakotas and Idaho, so I'm familiar with many of the places where the vignettes took place.
I feel like Bo, Elsa, Chet and Bruce are members of my family and cheered with their victories and felt tears fall down my face at their losses. I will not wait long before reading another Stegner novel. "Recapitulations" is now on my list as Bruce Mason returns to Salt Lake City in his sixties.
I know he wrote this early in his career and some reviews I read said he was too wordy in the descriptions - I just couldn't get enough!! The way he describes people, relationships, places, feelings - all of it came alive to me in such a vivid and nearly tangible way. It also helped that I have lived in Minnesota and UT and know the lands in between - the Dakotas and Idaho, so I'm familiar with many of the places where the vignettes took place.
I feel like Bo, Elsa, Chet and Bruce are members of my family and cheered with their victories and felt tears fall down my face at their losses. I will not wait long before reading another Stegner novel. "Recapitulations" is now on my list as Bruce Mason returns to Salt Lake City in his sixties.