A Thousand Acres

Summary (from the publisher): When Larry Cook, the aging patriarch of a rich, thriving farm in Iowa, decides to retire, he offers his land to his three daughters. For Ginny and Rose, who live on the farm with their husbands, the gift makes sense—a reward for years of hard work, a challenge to make the farm even more successful. But the youngest, Caroline, a Des Moines lawyer, flatly rejects the idea, and in anger her father cuts her out—setting off an explosive series of events that will leave none of them unchanged. A classic story of contemporary American life, A Thousand Acres strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a father, a daughter, a family.

Review: I was not a huge fan of this book. A tragedy based on King Lear, A Thousand Acres is told from the first person perspective of Ginny, one of three sisters living through the turmoil of their father deciding to divide their farm between two of his three daughters. While Smiley captured the tone of a rural setting and the particular heartaches of a farming community, I was less than enthused with the King Lear re-write. I felt as if Smiley was trying too hard to force her story into a frame that didn't quite fit. The division of the farm itself, that mirrors the bequeathing of the kingdom in King Lear, felt arbitrary, and the characters felt boxed in by their Shakespeare defined role.

Additionally, I was not impressed by Smiley's attempt at a psychological novel. The whole repressed memory thing felt absurd and was never really dealt with by the characters. This novel suffered from too much telling rather than showing, which broke the spell of what should have been a deeply psychological novel. Ginny is constantly describing her thoughts and actions in a very monotone and emotionless manner, making it hard for me to believe that she felt enough passion to commit adultery, let alone enough rage to attempt murder. In addition to the stilted internal monologue, the dialogue felt forced to me.

Rewriting classics in a different setting is an interesting exercise but I'm sometimes not sure of the value of it and I think in this case, Smiley would have benefitted from changing the plot enough to make it work for her characters. 

Stars: 3