horacelamb 's review for:

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

5.0

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Traces the life of two couples who were close friends. The husbands and wives met in Madison WI during the Depression when the two husbands were professors at U of Wisconsin. One couple was very wealthy and the other was just scraping by. The wealthy couple was extremely generous to the other couple and they remained steadfast friends for decades. The novel begins and ends when they've gathered late in life because one of them is near death. The rest of the novel is a flashback to the early years of their friendship. Although this is not really a plot-driven story, it kept me very interested throughout, in part because of the great writing and character development. It's also possible that I found the story more poignant at my stage of life than I would have before I was 30.

I like the Goodreads summary=> "Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage."