Deserves 5 stars, no rather 6...
Too good to be true. Actually as perfect as a novel can be: think Stoner but more poetic, McEwan and Yates yet more epic, Franzen with even more depth. But so fresh, christal clear and beautiful. And what a sparkling atmosphere! It's the best book (under 400 pages) I've ever read. Do you know the feeling that you read the first sentence of a book and you just hope the writer will keep that quality? That after the opening scene you almost prey that he or she will hold on without losing focus or brilliance? After 100 pages you cannot believe you're still marking descriptions and metaphores with your pencil. And when you turn to the last page you can't believe the ending is as pefect as the first phrase. I don't encounter many of such experiences. It makes me want to buy a thousand copies and give them randomly to friends and strangers and leave some in trains and plains. I even think that the world would be a better place if this was the bible, koran or other religious book - conquering the world with it's wisdom, beauty and humanity. This book is why I read. This is my reward for scrolling down all these lists on the internet. Not convinced yet? I'll send you one of my thousand copies ;-)

n  "Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases…"n
—Wallace Stegner

As with A Gentleman in Moscow and The Heart's Invisible Furies, the inescapable popularity of this book on Goodreads was the white flash of a rabbit's tail that first caught my eye. Then as I dipped into the lavish reviews, it became the godlike voice that boomed at me through thunder clouds: "Do thyself a favour, mortal, and REEEAD THIS BOOOOK!" it resounded.
So, that’s exactly what I did.
(I would just like to add at this stage that a plethora of five-star reviews isn't always a reliable indicator of a book's calibre).

The story spans several decades and is told by genial culture vulture, Larry Morgan, a writer who marries during the Great Depression; a man prepared to suffer for his art so long as he has his wonderful wife, Sally, by his side. He remarks that it was beautiful to be young and hard up if you had the right wife.
There is a 'let's get it all out in the open' honesty to Stegner's writing. His direction though is steered by optimism. This is an urbane version of Steinbeck: An erudite, glass-half-full Steinbeck. He is highbrow yet humble, scholarly yet folksy. And as if his elegant no-nonsense prose wasn’t enough, he proceeds to tick almost all my literary boxes by gilding it with some wonderful imagery (cattle grazing in the distance are described as being "tiny as aphids on a leaf") Brilliant! Back of the net, Stegner!

In a scene reminiscent of an episode of Frasier, Larry and his wife are beguiled by like-minded aesthetes, the Langs, who invite them to their fancy schmantzy dinner party. The foursome become lifetime friends and the thrust of the story is as much about them as it is the Morgans.
Their very human dynamics will ring many readers' bells because this semi-autobiographical tale gives us the sense of being allowed to pry into the highs and lows of people’s personal lives over a period of several decades.
Despite his literary success, Larry is often embarrassed at being able to enjoy a comparatively comfortable lifestyle without ever needing to roll up his sleeves and commit to a 'proper' job (his father was a farmer). He also recognises that there is more to life than the tinsel of literary praise (so true!).

This was my first read by this astonishingly gifted author, and it shan’t be my last. Stegner was clearly at one with nature and a charming aside about Achilles the Tortoise immediately reminded me of dear old Gerald Durrell. Oh, and the women in this book are given equal billing to the men, which is always a good thing in my view.

Because this human story was capably written and wonderfully realised, it didn't need any flash bang wallop or bells and whistles. It's ostensibly a book where a seasoned author has taken his time and allowed his love of words to drive the narrative.

Crossing to safety was a beautiful book about relationships, how they wax and wane, and friendships that last for a lifetime. The setting was idyllic, I felt as if I was in the story. One of the best books I have ever read.

There are some books that seem to have tiny leaks in their spines and covers and pages and release almost unnoticeable misty, smoky particles of their story – well not so much their story but the mood that is created by the story – out into the “real” world. And when reading these books you find – or at least I find (I should shift my point of reference to me not you) that I am seeing things in my daily routine through a sort of cloud that at first I don’t recognize but then suddenly it dawns on me that it’s from the book I’m reading! My dreams are affected, my relationships are affected, my perception of self is affected, and my writing style and speaking style change – all because of the fumes from this book seepage. And Crossing to Safety has seepage.

This is a book about a lifestyle that I really can’t relate to. But yet now I’ve been to these well orchestrated family picnics at Battell Pond, the Vermont compound belonging to Charity Lang’s family. I’ve ridden in the back of the Marmon with the coolers full of steaks for the grills. And I walked the hundred-mile back roads behind the horse named Wizard wondering if there were two stashes of tea in his pack. I even went to Florence back when you could just waltz into the Uffizi without standing in hour-long lines constantly being approached by ‘brella salesmen. I spent time in an iron lung with my dearest friend by my side assuring me that life was worth living even though I wished it was over. But most of all – what this gaseous cloud of literary filter did for me - was to confirm that good and bad make the whole; that friends, husbands, children and oh yes! don’t forget myself – all can have insufferable habits, be full of faults, clearly be imperfect – but without these “bad” qualities – they would not be the people we love. Here’s the quote from the book that illustrates this best:

After spending a lovely day in the Tuscan countryside that ends with rescuing an Italian worker from a horrible accident and transporting him back to his village with a crushed, bleeding hand, Larry asks Sally,

“When you remember today, what will you remember best, the spring countryside, and the company of friends, or Piero’s Christ and that workman with the mangled hand?”
She thought a minute. “All of it,” she said. “it wouldn’t be complete or real if you left out any part of it, would it?”
“Go to the head of the class,” I said.

This is a move-to-the-top-of your-list book!

Achingly beautiful and deeply moving this is the closest any book has come to bring a tear to my eye, the friendship between the Langs and the Morgans was so strong and heart warming it has profoundly affected the way I look at life and that of my loved ones. Impeccably written by Stegner who I believe was in his late seventies at the time, this really is a timeless novel that would break even those who carry a heart of stone.

I think this paragraph from the book sums it up wonderfully
"There are further considerations I might raise. How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where are the things that novelists seize upon and readers expect? Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, the death wish? Where are the suburban infidelities, the promiscuities, the convulsive divorces, the alcohol, the drugs, the lost weekends? Where are the hatreds, the political ambitions, the lust for power? Where are the speed, noise, ugliness, everything that makes us who we are and makes us recognize ourselves in fiction?
The people we are talking about are hangovers from a quieter time. They have been able to buy quiet, and distance themselves from industrial ugliness. They live behind university walls part of the year, and in a green garden the rest of it. Their intelligence and their civilized tradition protect them from most of the temptations, indiscretions, vulgarities, and passionate errors that pester and perterb most of us. They fascinate their children because they are so decent, so gracious, so compassionate and understanding and cultivated and well-meaning.
Loved this book and wonder why it took me so long to find it! Beautifully written highly recommeded!

This is my first book by this author and I was driven to read it by its wonderful title (my next book of his will be Angle of Repose for the same reason) and its enormous popularity. Not necessarily the best of reasons but I was happy with the result.

I doubt if anyone would argue that Stegner writes beautifully. This is the kind of prose you have to read slowly and carefully in order not to miss a thing. The story tells of several decades of friendship between two married couples describing the ups and downs of their careers, the births of their children and some significant illnesses. Normal lives in fact with all the usual pleasures and pains.

The really significant content of Crossing to Safety is the development of the four main characters and their relationships with each other. Of course the closeness of the relationships and reliance of the couples on each other fluctuate over time, affected by world and family events. As the reader I was drawn towards each character whether I liked them as an individual or not and when the book was finished it took a while for me to let them go.

Not five stars for me because I did not close the final page and say "Wow!." Rather four stars for a beautifully crafted, comfortable book about the lives of four interesting characters.

This defines the term character-driven novel, multi-faceted and deeply defined Steigner hones each with a surgeon’s precision. A story of two couples, the joys and challenges of their marriages and enduring friendship and a life cocooned within Ivy League’s walls.
•tLarry Morgan (narrator): workaholic, driven, rags-to-riches college professor & author extraordinaire “I was a cork held under, my impulse was always up”
•tSally Morgan: ah Saint Sally…“I had to live, out of pure gratitude”
•tSid Lang: repressed poet; handsome, wealthy & weak.
•tCharity Lang: generous & passionate, also a ball-breaking control freak. Without her this would’ve been painfully dull.

I had a hard time seeing past their smugness “Their intelligence and their civilized tradition protect them from most of the temptations, indiscretions, vulgarities, and passionate errors that pester and perturb most of us" and sense of superiority, they kinda drove me nuts. “Consider your birthright,” we told each other when fatigue or laziness threatened to slow our hungry slurping of culture. “Think who you are. You were not made to live like brutes, but to pursue virtue and knowledge.”

Undereducated brute that I am those passages made me want to huck this book at a wall.

“They have been able to buy quiet, and distance themselves from industrial ugliness.” Fair enough and admirably honest. While I shared their reverence for literature and art they lost me with their DISINTEREST in anything outside their cozy little world.
Cons: Pretty obvious I had a problem with the tone:) Add to that the pacing; I love character-driven novels but a bit more action wouldn’t have hurt. An argument over if the teabags had been packed or not they were… a highlight.
Meanderings: I’m not having much luck picking classics this year, blame it on my Glasgow working-class roots but the trials & tribulations of the privileged just aren’t working for me, no matter how elegantly written and thought provoking. Guess I’m jealous, should just stick with ‘Dickens’. So consider the source and read other reviews, most are glowing.
Undecided on Stegner With an autobiographical flavor this is his final novel. Like Morgan, Stegner also grew up dirt poor & went on to become a great writer  and like the character Charity Lang, his adored mother also died of cancer  Similarly he still managed 3 degrees despite the timing of the Great Depression, amazing. Learned this after finishing the book, maybe I’d have gotten more out of it had I known this going in. Anyway, will definitely be reading Angle of Repose

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. I liked it less than I expected to. At first it seemed to be a simple, fond memoir of a friendship between two couples. In the middle of the book, however, Stegner reveals a 'dark secret' -- the controlling nature of the female protagonist, Charity. Her fun-loving nature masks her deep need to orchestrate every aspect of her life with her husband, and indeed her friends. She comes across as a shrill, madcap Katharine Hepburn -- even in the deathbed scene.

Stegner's depiction of women seems dated -- you're either the emasculating take-charge woman, or the 'crippled' [his word], saintly, dependent wife. And if you are one of a succession of babysitters hired for the summer at the country house, you are a nameless 'girl'.

This book left a bad taste. Sorry.

"Crossing to Safety" is an absorbing book about the close friendship of two couples over more than thirty years. They meet in the 1930s when the two husbands work as instructors in the English department in Madison, Wisconsin. Sid and Charity Long live on inherited money, but Larry and Sally Morgan come from poor backgrounds.

Larry, a talented novelist, narrates the story about the relationships among the foursome. A large part of the book is set in Vermont where the Langs have a family compound on Battell Lake. The Morgans are incorporated into the family activities, and are the recipients of the Langs' generosity and compassion during the hard times of the Depression and Sally's severe medical problem. They also had the pleasure of spending time together in Florence during a relaxed sabbatical.

Nobody really knows what goes on in someone else's marriage, but each was faced with challenges. Warm-hearted Sally Morgan becomes handicapped, and Larry is a super-organized, loyal man who needs to be needed. Sparks fly between the Langs as Charity constantly takes charge of everything in their lives, including Sid's career.

The bonds of friendship remain strong through the years. The novel begins and ends in Vermont with Charity facing health issues. Charity is the matriarch of the family, a captivating woman of vision, but she's controlling when there is no need for it. She's still trying to plan everyone's lives years into the future, long after she's gone.

Wallace Stegner's writing is beautiful, taking us back to an earlier time when he was a young professor. The wonderful literary references in Wisconsin, and the nature references in Vermont made me feel that parts of Stegner's own life were incorporated into this novel. Although the author ended the book at the perfect time, I did not want to leave these characters and am still thinking about them.

Books like this are why I read. Despite some dark passages, it’s a delight to read and I’m adding it as one of my all-time favorites.

The story follows two couples through life. It’s an academic novel in a sense – both men start out as English professors at the University of Wisconsin in the difficult years of the late 1930s – the end of the Depression, heading into WW II. The hunt for the Holy Grail of tenure and discussions of suitable academic work that will get them tenure is one theme - poetry? novels? literary criticism? Each year the two couples get together at a summer family compound in Vermont owned by the wealthier couple.



The introduction tells us that “Crossing to Safety is a love story…in the sense that it explores private lives. No outsider ever knows the interior landscape of a marriage. It is one of the great secrets kept between couples…The hunt for love is always on, and in some tragic, truthful, stunning way it forever eludes us.”

One family is much wealthier than the other and helps the other couple out with a loan that they pay off over time. In chapters that alternate between their present older age (60s) and their younger years, we learn about their romances and their struggles. Both families have children and their ups and downs and health issues – one woman spends time in a mental institution; the other gets polio – she’s in an iron lung for a while and for the rest of her life has crutches and eventually metal braces on her legs.



The afterword tells us something startling about the author’s “uncanny sensitivity to the needs and feelings of women in general; this is certainly reflected in his fiction, in which women play a larger and more central role than in any other male writer I know about.” That’s quite a statement. To an extent this whole book is the story of one woman’s plan (the wife of the main character’s best friend) for the four of them: a matriarchy in a sense. She took this couple in ‘under her wing’ for their whole life. She had a plan – right down to the how and the where she would die once she had cancer.



The author is best known for his novels of the West such as Angle of Repose, winner of the 1971 Pulitzer, which is also one my favorites. However Crossing is not a Western novel; in fact I’d call it an ‘Eastern’ one.

A great book.

Three photos of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom:
Top from newengland.com
Middle from greenmountainclub.org
Bottom from tripadvisor.com

[Edited 9/9/23]

This was lovely. During the years of the great depression the Morgans and the Langs, both ambitious families meet at university in Wisconsin where Larry and Sid are working as teachers. The four individuals become fast friends. Larry and Sally have it tougher economically, expecting their first child and living in a basement while Larry tries to make ends meet from teaching and from publishing stories and reviews, both orphaned with no connections. Sid and Charity are also expecting (their third child) but they're wealthier, Sid being an heir to a great wealth and Charity having an upper-middle class upbringing with an academic family background. Despite and because of this disparity, they're able to make a friendship that lasts decades, nourished by generosity and care.

Narrated by Larry, this story focuses mostly on friendship and its complexities. The generosity, love, joys we derive from it, and how enriching and transforming genuine great friendships can be for those who are fortunate enough to find it. That, as well as that other side which is envy as well as the strange yet very human comfort we take as individuals in seeing others go through a tough time when we too are experiencing difficulty and the comparisons we make between ourselves and others.

Over the years the four main characters experience changes naturally, the Morgans gain more economic stability and prosperity; the Langs maintain theirs. For all of them, some of their ambitions and dreams are realized while others are not. Pain, illness, failure and disappointment change them, but mostly they still are able to provide for each other the material and emotional support needed. I struggled to finish the final pages after the attachment I had formed with the people in this book, a wonderful meditation of life, friendship, love, marriage and death.