Award-winning and bestselling author Wallace Stegner takes on the hippy generation in a novel of "crackling vividness".--The New York Times Book Re...
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May 27, 2011
Jeanette
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Wallace Stegner was a very meditative writer. This, I think, is why some people have a hard time getting through his books. There's a lot of rumination on the part of the characters, while the plot sits on the back burner. With some authors this drives me crazy, but with Stegner I somehow have the patience to stay with the writing and savor it. I think it's because he articulated so many truths and feelings I've personally experienced. He handled difficult themes in such a soft way, with the
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Jan 15, 2008
Daniel
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I just finished the book 30 minutes ago and it ends up as quite a beating. I would call it overwrought and too sentimental in tone, and unconvincing in the pace of the development of Marian and Joe’s relationship. The underlying philosophies at work I won't attempt to unpack at the moment but I don’t see much hope in any of it. Probably not by coincidence, the author somewhat successfully creates in the reader what Allston experienced himself – the anticipation of pain and the experience of i
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Jun 07, 2011
Nancy
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All the praise and adoration directed towards Wallace Stegner's writing is well and good. All the Little Live Things is a story of it's time and it evokes the 60's as a time of turmoil and confusion - especially for people like Joe Allston, a perfectly normal man a little bit lost in the abnormality of the decade.
The writing is lyrical and the storytelling neatly woven without seams and without tricks. I waited quite awhile before I dared try another work of fiction for fear the c More...
The writing is lyrical and the storytelling neatly woven without seams and without tricks. I waited quite awhile before I dared try another work of fiction for fear the c More...
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Jan 29, 2012
Chris
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Stegner is a master craftsman. I have read Crossing to Safety and Angel of Repose and fell in love with his prose. This particular book came as a recommendation from a friend who lived during the turbulent era of the late 60s as a new professor on college campus in the Midwest The book captures in the dialogue of the main characters the ideological tensions of that era. However, this is also a powerful book about human connection, sacrifice, self absorption, and significant loss as it explores t
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May 31, 2010
Carol
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All the Live Little Things is a thoughtful, somewhat pessimistic book that covers a lot of ground in its 300+ pages. It is told from the perspective of Joe Allston, a curmudgeonly elderly man who has retired with his wife Ruth to rural northernish California in the 1960s. There, they encounter Jim Peck, a college-aged man who creates a flower-child enclave on some nearby land, and Marian Catlin, and idealistic woman dying of cancer.
Marian and Jim each stand for different sides and manifest More...
Marian and Jim each stand for different sides and manifest More...
Mar 08, 2010
Nancy
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One of my favorite books of all time is Stegner's CROSSING TO SAFETY--it was a very profound story of the transformational potential of friendship. This book also explored that theme, but from such a painful perspective that I suffered as I read.
Stegner's writing is beautiful, but the anger and social prejudice expressed in this novel did not appeal to me. I believe that he was an English professor at Stanford in the late 60's when this book was written. I can only imagine that as More...
Stegner's writing is beautiful, but the anger and social prejudice expressed in this novel did not appeal to me. I believe that he was an English professor at Stanford in the late 60's when this book was written. I can only imagine that as More...
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May 18, 2009
Mike
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This story covers so many topics: man's view of the natural world; chaos vs order in the universe; suffering in life; tolerance vs principle. What shapes the story, as told by main character Joe Allston, is his anguished inability to come to grips with the tragic life and death of his only son (which occured before this story begins). Stegner's writing is evocative, emotional, excellent.
In sum: Joe and wife Ruth have retired to the West Coast, to a semi-Eden under pressure from subu More...
In sum: Joe and wife Ruth have retired to the West Coast, to a semi-Eden under pressure from subu More...
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Oct 30, 2011
Agnes
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I agree with a member of my Book Club who says this novel seems a tad dated, with its
conflict between Joe Allston, an establishment figure--a retired literary agent-- and Jim Peck, a back to nature guy with a promiscuous entourage. But, Stegner's novel is for me an example of literary critic Northrop Frye's theory of the green world, the place to which Shakespeare's characters and Stegner's retreat: their experience in "the woods--the forest" changes them in a significant way. In More...
conflict between Joe Allston, an establishment figure--a retired literary agent-- and Jim Peck, a back to nature guy with a promiscuous entourage. But, Stegner's novel is for me an example of literary critic Northrop Frye's theory of the green world, the place to which Shakespeare's characters and Stegner's retreat: their experience in "the woods--the forest" changes them in a significant way. In More...
Jul 07, 2009
Katherine
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"I am concerned with gloomier matters: the condition of being flesh, susceptible to pain, infected with consciousness and the consciousness of consciousness, doomed to death and the awareness of death" (4).
"In Jackson Hole there is a Catholic church, named Our Lady of the Grand Tetons by somebody who didn't know what tetons are" (53).
"...in the pasture, thirty acres of wild mustard so bright it yellowed the air. A cowslip under the chin of the sky: you like b More...
"In Jackson Hole there is a Catholic church, named Our Lady of the Grand Tetons by somebody who didn't know what tetons are" (53).
"...in the pasture, thirty acres of wild mustard so bright it yellowed the air. A cowslip under the chin of the sky: you like b More...
Jun 17, 2009
S.E.
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One of the best insider-views of marriage I've read, from the point of view of a husband who is aware, awake, and lives with a strong connection to the values he has chosen to govern his life. What really strikes me is the authenticity of his relationship with his wife- sometimes he feels distant, sometimes close, but almost always she evokes a response or feeling in him with her commentary and observations. For me, it captures the wonderfully weird experience of being connected to another human
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Mar 18, 2010
Joell
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Oh Mr. Stegner, you've gone and stolen my heart and my mind again.
With breathtaking ease, Stegner mixes natural world metaphors to explain the complexity of life, death, friendship, love and loss. The fact that his setting this time is in a natural landscape that I trod upon and across daily just makes it even more tangible for this reader. He once again graces the reader with strong female characters that he loves fiercely for their strength and their foolishness.
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With breathtaking ease, Stegner mixes natural world metaphors to explain the complexity of life, death, friendship, love and loss. The fact that his setting this time is in a natural landscape that I trod upon and across daily just makes it even more tangible for this reader. He once again graces the reader with strong female characters that he loves fiercely for their strength and their foolishness.
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May 19, 2010
Dave
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Another journey with Wallace Stegner deep into the human heart. Stegner takes me all the places I don't really want to go and makes it beautiful and (mostly) true. Set in Los Altos Hills during the late 60s or early 70s, it's a story about life and death and how we get to experience them all in our own way and screw them up in our own way and how there is still a grace to it all at the end. This author is one of the prose stylists I admire the most, and his descriptions of the Bay coastal rang
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Jul 11, 2009
Liz
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 04, 2012
Tanya
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It's been several year's since I read Stegner's award-winning Crossing to Safety, yet I immediately recognized his voice in this novel. He is such an amazing writer, and this book gave him the platform to wade in profound issues - life, death, pain, accountability, search for meaning, choice... I have a category here on Goodreads I call "book club-esque," and this novel should be the poster child for my bookshelf. I had countless discussions in my head as I was reading; I'm not even
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Nov 21, 2009
Lisa
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This is, I think, my third book by Stegner. I always find that it takes me a while to get into his books, but I end up loving them. I didn't like this one quite as much as Crossing to Safety and Angle of Repose, but it was still a great book.
In this book, his narrator, Joe Allston, is a retired literary agent who has moved to the countryside of California (what was countryside in the 60s, and is probably completely built-up today, though I never figured out exactly where it was s More...
In this book, his narrator, Joe Allston, is a retired literary agent who has moved to the countryside of California (what was countryside in the 60s, and is probably completely built-up today, though I never figured out exactly where it was s More...
Jul 17, 2010
Lisa
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I liked it all right. I didn't enjoy the writing (i.e. how pretty the prose was) as much as I thought I would after having read and really enjoyed Stegner's collected letters. But I do enjoy the precision with which he writes. And the romance of this story was unconventional and moving. "Finally," it's a nice time capsule of competing ideologies from the decade in which is was written (the 60s, California).
"As for the bomb, I'm sick of the thing, hanging up there More...
"As for the bomb, I'm sick of the thing, hanging up there More...
Apr 13, 2011
Tara
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"All the Little Live Things" is the second Stegner novel that I have read, and it is just as beautifully written and poignantly thought provoking as the last. I love how Stegner’s style and his characters make me think about my own life and point of view. For me this book was a real enjoyment. The story centers on Joe Allston and his wife Ruth who have recently retired to a country house in Northern California. Their retirement, however, is not just meant to be an escape from their car
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Oct 02, 2008
Michele
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"Life is One New Position After Another."
Reading this novel was often like looking at an impressionist's painting. It's incredibly rich in scenic description, character nuances and, most importantly, mood setting tone. Wallace Stegner lives on through his writing and we shall all be richer for this reading experience. This novel, while focused on a socially turbulent era (late 1960s), is timeless. Generational and political conflict, as well as the matters of preservation and dev More...
Reading this novel was often like looking at an impressionist's painting. It's incredibly rich in scenic description, character nuances and, most importantly, mood setting tone. Wallace Stegner lives on through his writing and we shall all be richer for this reading experience. This novel, while focused on a socially turbulent era (late 1960s), is timeless. Generational and political conflict, as well as the matters of preservation and dev More...
Jul 24, 2011
Cheryl
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Another of my favorites, i try to reread once a year, about hope and despair, about strength, about love. I recently re-read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and this book. They seem like they belong together, Pilgrim about learning to see all that is around you, from insects to trees to skies; and Little Live Things about people who are seeing and loving the natural world around them, but have tragedy and loss overwhelming them. A baby I know was recently in a car accident with brain damage and I am
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Oct 12, 2008
Carole
rated it:
Another of Stegner's great reads. This one is a little darker and a lot more thought-provoking.
The story is set in the '60s, and the main characters are a man and his wife in their 60s. They are trying to come to grips with the baffling and, to them, frequently thoughtless and disgusting behavior of that era's young people. They are battling to maintain their standards in a world that seemingly rejects everything they hold dear.
Then a young woman and her husband and daugh More...
The story is set in the '60s, and the main characters are a man and his wife in their 60s. They are trying to come to grips with the baffling and, to them, frequently thoughtless and disgusting behavior of that era's young people. They are battling to maintain their standards in a world that seemingly rejects everything they hold dear.
Then a young woman and her husband and daugh More...
Feb 01, 2010
Roxann
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Wallace Stegner is a brilliant author; his work is a joy to read for the language, the allusion, the philosophy, and wonderful characterization. I don't know why I didn't give this book 5 stars, aside from the fact that I only finished it late last night and the ending was emotionally devastating and has left me feeling unsettled; pondering and questioning why, and wondering what conclusions Stegner meant for the reader to reach. I guess I shouldn't save 5 stars only for books that leave me feel
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Aug 20, 2010
Marcus
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Wow. What a great book. This one ranks up there with Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety as one of Wallace Stegner's masterpieces. Set in the 1960's we find Joe Allston quietly retired. Having voluntarily removed himself from the rush and bustle of modern life, he seeks a life of quiet solitude, free of entanglements. However, he soon finds out "there is no way to step off the treadmill. It's all treadmill." Through the course of the book several people come in and out of his
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Nov 05, 2007
Stephanie
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Stegner's Joe Allport is the quintessential cranky old man, with whom all is not as it seems to the casual observer. After the death of his estranged son, Joe and his wife Ruth decide to make a new start in 1960's California (I can't quite pin down where -- I think north of San Francisco), at a time before mass development hit that area. In trying for a retreat from the world, the world comes to Joe's doorstep and takes him by the throat. Joe has little tolerance for hippies and the countercu
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Oct 05, 2010
Russ
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I read this book in high school and re-read it every few years. It's set in the 1960s. The main conflict in the story is between the narrator, a retired literary agent who has retired to the mountains above San Francisco and a hippie who builds a treehouse on his property. Also there is the earth-mother figure, who is racing against time to bear a child before her cancer kills her.
It's a very sad book, a lot sadder than you would expect even from the synopsis above. But highly reco More...
It's a very sad book, a lot sadder than you would expect even from the synopsis above. But highly reco More...
Apr 09, 2011
Darceylaine
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Really lovely prose, but Stegner is a little too pleased with how literate and cultured he is for this to completely win me over. He also loves tragedy and disaster as I am finding the more of his works I read.
It became clear the further I read that it is set on the SF Bay Peninsula, maybe where the 280 runs now. It's very cool to see the history of that land that I know. I do appreciate his love of nature. I also appreciate the glimpse into the generation clash of the late 1960s.
It became clear the further I read that it is set on the SF Bay Peninsula, maybe where the 280 runs now. It's very cool to see the history of that land that I know. I do appreciate his love of nature. I also appreciate the glimpse into the generation clash of the late 1960s.
Nov 21, 2009
Cutlerfamily
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How refreshing to read some really good writing. I had forgotten how much I love how Wallace Stegner writes. I had to read The Big Rock Candy Mountain next. This book was a bit dated in terms of the context of the story, but is also universal in how people's lives intersect: how much we think we understand about one another, and how little we really understand people's motives and motivations.
Jun 25, 2008
Mike
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A phenomenal, touching book. Like Crossing to Safety, my first (and benchmark favorite) Stegner novel, the characters are complex and deeply flawed, and all the more real for it. You may become exasperated with the behavior of the characters but it makes perfect sense and all comes together. Nobody deals with beauty and ache like WS.
The novel takes its time and builds, with lush glimpses of other stories to explore. In fact, Joe Allston shows up again in The Spectator Bird, a differ More...
The novel takes its time and builds, with lush glimpses of other stories to explore. In fact, Joe Allston shows up again in The Spectator Bird, a differ More...
Jul 11, 2008
Jaclyn
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One of my most favorite books of all time!!! I love Stegner's writing. I love the character's he chooses to write about (they really speak to me because they are people that I can respect and relate to), and the way he describes them. This book makes me cry every time I read it (which has been 3 times so far). I don't want to give away plot details, but it really gave new meaning to the 'precious gift of life' for me. I love the contrast of his characters and their situations, and the way t
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Jun 09, 2009
Judy
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Full of ideas, and interesting because of that, but also it seemed forced. The story was created around the ideas, and didn't feel alive, even though the ideas were all about how to live a life. It was dated in a way I found compelling, set in the 60s , with the main characters observing the counterculture and we got to hear their different takes on it.
Mar 04, 2011
Diane
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This book is so beautifully written that it begs to be read aloud. Joe and Ruth have moved into a house in the country to find peace and quiet after the death of their son, and they discover it's really an impossible dream. A hippie and a young couple intrude on their solitude and change their lives in very different ways.
