A reflective novel, set in the 30's, when the American Dream was still possible.
This is an ordinary story, four people, two couples, an everlasting friendship. The story is told by Larry, one of the main characters, and, as he unfolds the life of his two friends, Sid and Charity, he tells indirectly about his own life with his crippled wife, Sally.
The story is set in the present time, when Larry and Sally are visiting Sid and Charity, who is practically on her deathbed, dying of cancer.
Through Larry's memories we can see some flashes of apparently unimportant events which finally marked them for the rest of their lives. We learn of their youthful dreams and longings and come to terms with bitter reality along with them. Unavoidable disgraces and fateful circumstances finally taking their expectations away.
It's also amazing the way you get to know each character. Larry, a kind of a loner, smart, sensitive. Sally, sweet, tolerant and respectful. Sid, vigorous but without confidence. Charity, implacable, strong willed, the iron woman who rules them all, but always with the best intentions.

This is a sad, melancholic story, usually unfolded with longing and despair. You come to witness the magic of life, the invincible power of youth. The inevitable fatality of time, loss and disappointment.
An extraordinary story of ordinary people. You might not find too much going on, only life itself.
Recommendable.

This author was recommended to me recently by a friend on Goodreads. I had not heard of him before. This book was his last book and am not sure why I started with this one, only to say I was intrigued by the blurb. I really enjoyed reading this book. It is classic American literature at its very best. The story is about the friendship between two married couples over 4 decades. This is a quiet book, no thrills or spills, no murders or mysteries to solve. It is a powerful book, with in depth analysis of the characters and their lives written with compassion and a truth that is inspirational. The writing is superb totally captivating. It might have been my first by Wallace Stegner but it certainly won't be my last.

How STRANGE. I assumed, based on the endless 5-star ratings out there for this book, that it was going to be a slam dunk for me.

But this book, which is the story of two couples (Larry and his wife Sally, and their friends Sid and Charity), bugged the heck out of me.

I'm SORRY! This is may be the sequel to my controversial Prince of Tides experience, in which I just couldn't find the love for a beloved classic.

I'll start off by saying there's no denying that Wallace Stegner is a lovely and elegant writer. I wouldn't and couldn't critique him on that level. He is a Pulitzer prize and National Book Award winning writer, with an impressive literacy legacy.

But (and you knew there had to be one)... I wasn't in the least bit enamoured with the story. It was, in my view, 1) highly sentimental, 2) populated with annoying characters who were in unhealthy yet romanticized relationships, 3) just not that interesting.

Larry is a writer, Sally is his saintly, soft-spoken wife (who doesn't seem to have much else going on). They meet and instantly fall under the spell of Charity and her husband Sid. Charity is strong willed (see: pathologically controlling) and Sid is deferential (see: spineless). Sid wants to be a poet but Charity forbids his writing poetry in favour of growing a successful career at the university.

The book follows the two couples as Larry rises to success and Sid stays under Charity's thumb. Both relationships are described as "addictions" and it's hard to see either couple as happy. But Stegner celebrates them, oddly.

I found myself tiring of wealthy Sid and Charity, their boisterous generosity. And of Larry and Sally, constantly extolling them for being so boisterous and generous. I tired of the delightful idealized escapades they enjoyed together. I tired of the decades long fight between Charity and Sid over Sid's wanting to write poetry. Come ON, really? This was so weak, so hard to believe or care about. He can't write a few poems and be a professor? Sid's like a whipped dog, right to the bitter end.

I have to wonder what Stegner has to celebrate about these relationships other than the sheer tenacity of the couples. Is this the wisdom he came to in his old age? What exactly is he advocating? Stay with your spouse until you die, even if you are unhappy, co-dependent and resentful? Or is this what he decided marriage was?

I know I'm completely on the outside here, and I'm treading on hallowed ground - once again I'm wearing my slippers as to not leave a trace. Please ignore me, lovers of Stegner's last and adored novel. I'm just one lowly reader who probably should stick to McCarthy and his ilk.

4.5 Stars.

“… you’ve got the wrong idea of what writers do. They don’t understand any more than other people. They invent only plots they can resolve. They ask the questions they can answer. Those aren’t people that you see in books, those are constructs. Novels or biographies, it makes no difference. I couldn’t reproduce the real Sid and Charity Lang, much less explain them; and if I invented them I’d be falsifying something I don’t want to falsify.”

Wallace Stegner’s narrator, Larry Morgan, may have uttered those words, yet he entirely convinced me that Sid and Charity Lang were indeed real people. It seemed a clever trick to say such a thing and then to go ahead and prove just the opposite. Larry and Sally, Sid and Charity. I’m quite certain they are not simply constructs of the imagination. Stegner depicted them with such clarity, I just had to believe in them. I had no choice really. And despite the fact that this is told from Larry’s point of view, it is the Langs that sit in the spotlight.

“I have heard of people’s lives being changed by a dramatic or traumatic event – a death, a divorce, a winning lottery ticket, a failed exam. I never heard of anybody’s life but ours being changed by a dinner party.”

Larry and Sally Morgan land in Madison, Wisconsin during the Great Depression, as a result of Larry’s appointment to the English department at the university. There they form an unlikely friendship with the Langs whose backgrounds are worlds apart from their own. Stegner goes on to describe a bond that goes beyond blood and family ties. It is one based entirely on the conscious decision of both couples to get to know one another and nurture that relationship. Long-lasting friendship is not a given once that initial connection is made. The thread keeping it together is much different from that of family, which always seems to be there no matter what, even if it’s a rather snarled thread. There is work to be done, and the effort needs to come from both sides. I found myself reflecting on my own friendships. I’ve never had the experience of a “couples” friendship like this, setting out on vacations with one another, bonding over shared pregnancies, or struggling with end of life together. But naturally I’ve had my own friendships. Many of these are fleeting memories. Others have lasted at some basic level. Only the rare ones reach the level described by Stegner, especially that between Sally and Charity. It’s all so beautifully written here, much as I expected after my first encounter with his prose.

“Charity and Sally are stitched together with a thousand threads of feeling and shared experience. Each is for the other that one unfailingly understanding and sympathetic fellow-creature that everybody wishes for and many never find.”

As far as personalities go, these run the gamut. As unlikely as the friendship between the two couples may seem, it may also appear improbable that Sid and Charity are locked together in marriage. Unless you believe that opposites attract. I sure do. Whether opposites can stick it out for the long haul is another thing entirely. It sure makes for compelling reading though! There’s a lot packed in about the academic world, writing and creativity, and doing what makes your heart happy. Holding back a loved one from his or her dreams in favor of safety and security. Poetry, books and the publishing industry.

“He believes that all serious writers have a vocation, a sort of mystical call. What they exploit is not intelligence or training, but a glorious gift that is also an obligation.”

There’s a great sense of place in this novel, too. There’s no doubt that Stegner was awed by nature, as the passages of the surroundings were so wondrously descriptive. Idyllic days spent in the woods of northern Vermont. An excursion to Italy. I can see that place in Vermont right now if I close my eyes and shut out the murmur of the television in the other room, the sound of a snowblower across the street. Yet, despite the beauty of such places, we can’t deny the fact that what is given can also be taken away. How do we reconcile ourselves to this reality?

“Seen in either geological or biological terms, we don’t warrant attention as individuals. One of us doesn’t differ that much from another, each generation repeats its parents, the works we build to outlast us are not much more enduring than anthills, and much less so than coral reefs. Here everything returns upon itself, repeats and renews itself, and present can hardly be told from past.”

I was wholly taken in by this novel from the start. But the last section of this book?! Oh my! So much to mull over. I was thinking about it for days after finishing. Rereading certain passages. Asking myself, what would I do in these circumstances. Wallace Stegner really is everything my friends said he would be. This was only our second waltz, but I’m going to leave plenty of room on the dance card for his name. No reason to partner with a bunch of duds when someone else has perfect grace and skill.

“I find myself wondering what ever happened to the people, friends and otherwise, with whom we started out… How much would they understand, from their own experience, of what has happened to us?”

I put this book off for quite some time, knowing that it was about the friendship between two couples where one woman was dying and the other was crippled by polio. I figured that it had to be just too, too, too depressing! What I didn’t realize was how well also friendship would be drawn. This counteracts the depressing elements.

Friendship, its immediacy, its intensity and how it develops over the years, are all very well drawn. We observe two married couples—we look at the relationship between the two women, the two men, each of the two men’s relationship with his wife and his wife’s friend and finally each of the two women’s relationship with her husband and her husband’s best friend. Each relationship is different from the other. Each is unique. Comparing both how they differ and in what ways they are similar is intriguing. In the process a reader considers their own relationships. What makes the book valuable is the depth with which each relationship is drawn. Each relationship is credible. These relationships are the central focus of the book.

How can I properly describe the relationships, so you will understand how one is pulled in? I am sure you have met individuals who are full of life, energy and vigor and recognize the attraction such people have. Yet just such domineering people can at times be too much to take! There is a balance that is easily tipped. To what extent are personality traits passed down from mother to daughter? Consider the dependencies that develops in a marriage. Does dependency become a weighty burden? Consider the inevitable comparisons made between friends’ success. And how should success be rated? By income? By social standing? Or by self-fulfillment? How does one cope with the process of dying? How does once cope with the death of a loved one? All of these questions and more are the focus of this book.

Not a whole lot happens. The book is one of character study, rather than driven by plot. It is set in 1972 and we start off in Vermont. All four are elderly and as I have pointed out one is dying. It is through flashbacks that we learn of their lives and their friendship.

The prose is the second reason the book is so good. Places are beautifully drawn. They are drawn so you feel how it would be to be there. Do you have an affinity for New England landscape? Have you walked through country pastures and wooded areas of the Midwest? You will fondly recall such pastimes as you read this book.

The audiobook is very well narrated by Richard Poe. His reading perfectly fits the book. He captures the mood extremely well. You scarcely notice he is reading it. I mean that as a compliment. Four stars for the narration, maybe it is even worthy of five.

An extremely moving book with beautiful writing. It will make you cry. It will make you think.

*****************

Crossing to Safety 4 stars
The Spectator Bird 4 stars
The Big Rock Candy Mountain 2 stars

This is one of my favorite novels. I read this ten years ago, so I chose to listen to Stegner's brilliant prose this time around. I still recall much of the story, it impacted me that much.

Protagonist Larry Morgan reminisces his life in a series of flashbacks. It's a story of Larry's marriage to the love of his life, Sally. As a young married couple, they met a dynamic couple who became life-long friends. Larry reflects upon his life, his career, his struggles, his good fortune.

Stegner's prose is the reason to read this. Listening to the audio is a true joy.

I cannot recommend this novel enough.

If you like wonderful writing, this book is for you.
This book fell off the shelf as I walked past it in the library, so I brought it home to read. Wallace Stegner is a Pulitzer Prize winner, how come I never heard of him?
Anyway, if beautiful prose holds you, there is plenty to enjoy in this novel.

This is a wonderful novel. It is the story of two couples set from the years of the depression until the 1970s; it drifts along at a sedate pace with little violence, little action, but a great deal of human warmth.
It is an analysis of friendship and marraige from the beginnings at a college where Sid and Larry are employed. Their wives Charity and Sally meet and all four become friends. The friendship lasts a lifetime and the novel takes us right to old age and death. Stegner writes very evocatively and sets a scene rather well. The descriptions of the countryside make you feel that you are there as well. The characters are entirely believeable; human, with faults and strengths, believeable and loveable. Charity Lang is a remarkable creation. This is a novel about appreciating life, appreciating friendship, love, generosity, ups and downs and the simple things. Most of all it is about love and acceptance. It is intelligently written, beautifully simple and beautifully profound.
In case you hadn't guessed (I think I've hidden it quite well), I loved this book. Given the subject matter and because it encompasses the end of life as well as active youth, it could have been sentimental or maudlin, but it wasn't. This is the novel as therapy.

This is the third book this year in my year of reading Wallace Stegner. And I'm not done. But a pattern is developing. In each of these three novels the protagonist is an older male, married with a literary bent, which couple befriends other couples, the female of which is interesting/provocative. And something bad happens to her.

In real life, Stegner had a distant, abusive father and a mother who doted on him. And then she died early. Cancer. And Stegner inflicts this on those interesting/provocative females. And does so here.

I'm annoyed at the sameness. Though there were the crisp comments I've pinpointed in the update progress.

It wasn't that I didn't like this. But, I finished it after a nice ham potpie. Refreshed my glass. Went out on my deck on a glorious evening. And started to read Barry Lopez. Horizon.

There's a memory, as crisp as the chardonnay, of a book a long time ago:  Arctic Dreams. It was a book, so many years ago, that made me the obsessive reader that I am today. This cool evening, I read the first three endnotes to 'Horizon'. And I had no idea!

Una novela bellísima; especialmente las ultimas 50 páginas que me parecieron realmente sublimes, y hacen que no pueda darle menos de 5 estrellas..

La novela cuenta la historia de una larga amistad entre dos matrimonios. Por un lado esta Larry y Sally, una pareja joven y de muy escasos recursos que se muda a Wisconsin en 1937 porque Larry consigue trabajo como profesor de literatura en la universidad, y por otro lado Sid y Charity, una pareja también joven, pero dueña de una importante fortuna.

La trama de la novela es muy sencilla; tanto que por momentos puede parecer que no pasa nada, pero Stegner lleva muy bien toda la narración porque tiene un gran poder descriptivo, logra muy buenos climas, y los diálogos son certeros, filosos y de una gran profundidad.
Pero sin duda, la mayor riqueza de la novela y lo que para mí la hace maravillosa es la excelente construcción de los personajes; un trabajo de hormiga que Stegner hace a lo largo de toda la novela sobre el perfil psicológico y la evolución de los protagonistas que explota muy bien en las últimas páginas, donde algunas decisiones de Charity y Sid pueden resultar desconcertantes y hasta irritantes, pero también totalmente comprensibles gracias a lo bien que llegamos conocer como funciona internamente ese matrimonio.

Una novela por momentos muy conmovedora que, podría decirse que habla principalmente de las dificultades para mantener el equilibrio en un matrimonio, pero en realidad es mucho más abarcativa, tiene que ver con la actitud para pararse frente a la vida.

Muy recomendable.

This was my first Wallace Stegner book (other than my high school English Composition book). I kind of picked it up by accident. But I just loved it. I read it in one afternoon. I just couldn't put it down.

Much of it took place in a college town - that's mainly where Stegner had lived throughout his life. And I could identify with that, having lived in college towns both as a student and a resident.

And I suppose it reminded me of some of the people I have known. People who are such good friends that they go on vacations together.

I just really enjoyed it - both the highs and the lows.

I liked it so much I gave a copy as a gift.