So yes, It has been awhile since I’ve posted anything — mostly because I’ve been engaged in a 3+ year clinical master’s degree program and my intellectually oriented neurons have been a little on the fried side.
With only one more semester to go, it’s tempting to just lay low until I graduate, but I read a book this summer that I am still feeling compelled to vent about, so here goes:
Good Book/Bad Book:
A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley
This is not a recently published book, but was “suggested” to me by the Libby app (which I have been using to listen to library books lately), and I had never read it, so I borrowed it.
Now I know that Jane Smiley has written a LOT of books and has a significant following, so who am I to say? This is the only book of hers that I have read, but even famous authors write a clinker once in a while. I am not saying to not read it, but I do feel that my 14 hours could have been better spent.
The story is told by an initially warm-hearted Iowa farm girl who lost her mom at age 12, and is proud of her heritage. She’s in love with her handsome husband, has two sisters and the related challenges of such, and an irascible father. She and her husband want to have children, but she has endured several miscarriages — some of which she has not even shared with her husband, to spare him further grief. She seems to be a nurturing and thoughtful protagonist, exampled by having nursed her sister through breast cancer, regularly assisting in the care of her widowed father, being supportive of her husband, and engaging in a loving relationship with her nieces.
Then the weirdness begins.
An unreliable narrator can be an intriguing plot twist, and this had the makings of an interesting book. If the author had not suddenly, and without psychological logic, made every character behave and respond in ways that no one would ever behave or respond, I might hold a different opinion.
‘Nough said! No spoilers. 😉
I never like to bash a book, especially an older one, but I really felt like I wasted my time with this one.
Am I wrong? If you do read it, or have already, feel free to differ in the comments.
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