A Thousand Acres

Jane Smiley

A well-to-do father decides to retire and deeds his property to his daughters and their husbands. But the youngest daughter doesn't respond properly when the gift is offered. The father gets on his high horse and cuts the youngest out. Then his fortunes turn, and he finds himself severed from his older daughters as well. This sounds like King Lear.

But when you take the wealth of the story line in Lear, set it on an Iowan farm, and have the oldest daughter tell the tale, you have A Thousand Acres instead. The father even gets shut out in a wicked storm before the end. By the end of King Lear, the audience has sympathy for the crazy king and his daughter Cordelia. It's difficult to have any sympathy for Larry Cook or his daughters in this novel. At the beginning, Ginny, the narrator, says she doesn't see how events could have turned out differently. Pah! There were many things she or her sisters could have changed.

The book starts slowly, building up the characters. It doesn't give indications of the hidden family problems until well into the novel. Yet even by the end, I don't have a good grasp of these people. They are complex. How well can we really know another person? That's how I felt when I finished this book. I knew a lot. I still couldn't fathom all the reasons for the events of the book. Jealousy makes Ginny take steps against the middle sister, Rose. But the anger and jealousy are misplaced. Ginny's husband is an unreadable character. That could be because Ginny never really understands him, so cannot convey his essence.

This novel both fascinates and repels. The reader is left uneasy, as if peering into a scene that shouldn't have any audience. The ending leaves many unanswerable questions - just like real life does.

Notice: Suggestive dialogue or situations