"Smiley's stories lucidly explore the complexities of contemporary sexual and dometic life...the emotional and moral complexity that she uncov...
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May 27, 2009
Heather
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Rating A-
Review
Characters: In ORDINARY LOVE, Smiley got a little child-happy (five children) and I had a hard time sorting them out and keeping them straight in my head--two are never even in the story, they're merely referenced by other family members. I say, since this is a short story/novella and you won't have time to fully flesh out five children, their parents, a step mother, grand children, and two other men in the mom's life, cut out all unnecessary characters and More...
Review
Characters: In ORDINARY LOVE, Smiley got a little child-happy (five children) and I had a hard time sorting them out and keeping them straight in my head--two are never even in the story, they're merely referenced by other family members. I say, since this is a short story/novella and you won't have time to fully flesh out five children, their parents, a step mother, grand children, and two other men in the mom's life, cut out all unnecessary characters and More...
Jan 15, 2011
Maria
rated it: 
The first story "Ordinary Love" was okay. It drew me in somehow as I waited for something to happen. But the main character was quite self-absorbed, and I found her ability to love to be less than ordinary. She spent the whole story over-analyzing the break-up of her marriage and why each of her children turned out the way they did. I thought it had potential to be a good story, but I would have liked more from it.
I loved the second story "Good Will", although it More...
I loved the second story "Good Will", although it More...
Aug 03, 2009
Jhoanna
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Go now and get this little book of novellas from Jane Smiley. It's only two stories and they just both knocked my teeth out (in a good way). Smiley's writing style is deceptively simple and straightforward and you start thinking, oh, okay, I know where this is going, it's all about family and loss and painful self-awareness, and then, BAM, she knocks your teeth out.
Here's a little bit from "Good Will": "It's still there when I come up to them, and maybe that's the More...
Here's a little bit from "Good Will": "It's still there when I come up to them, and maybe that's the More...
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Jan 09, 2012
Donna
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This is my first reading of an ebook! I very much enjoyed these two stories. One was the story of a returning son, a twin, from a time spent in India. There were lots of insights into family as each person shares bits and pieces of life together, both as siblings and as a parent. Families are fascinating systems. This one had some interesting turns as the family members, especially the twins and the mother, adjust their relationships.
The second story was a very moving story abou More...
The second story was a very moving story abou More...
Jan 05, 2012
Robyn
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Taken together, these novellas provide a critical examination of the ideals surrounding both motherhood and parenthood, as well as the unintended consequences of parents' actions on the experiences of their children. The first novella explores the lasting effects of a mother's marital infidelity on the relationships she has had with her now-adult children. The second concerns the 'back-to-nature' utopia a man has created for his family and how this becomes problematic when his son comes to reali
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Aug 17, 2011
Phyllis
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Two novellas. The first, Ordinary Love, was an extended short story and felt more like a poem than a story. The second, Good Will, had a plot, a mystery, if you will. This second one was fascinating.
Jane Smiley's writing style is expansively descriptive. She takes in all of the senses and is particularly sensitive to those "gut feelings", the sensations taking place inside. If it were porn, and it's not, she'd be trying to describe how it feels to have an orgasm. Her descrip More...
Jane Smiley's writing style is expansively descriptive. She takes in all of the senses and is particularly sensitive to those "gut feelings", the sensations taking place inside. If it were porn, and it's not, she'd be trying to describe how it feels to have an orgasm. Her descrip More...
Jul 30, 2011
Alice
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I liked this book very much. I read it because I've liked other later books by Jane Smiley. This is one of her earlier ones, written before she became more well-known. The two novellas are both about families and relationships but are very different. The first is told from a woman's point of view; the second, from a man's. Smiley does this well. Both stories are told in the first person, and each is believable in tone. If you've read later books by her and enjoyed them, you will like this one, t
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Jul 27, 2010
Kit
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I enjoyed the first story, "Ordinary Love", but was much more intrigued by the second, "Goodwill", about a man and his family living a fairly self-contained life in Pennsylvania off the grid. My urban self was intrigued with the whole idea of living off the land with no electricity nor plumbing, and bartering for things needed that couldn't be grown, foraged or constructed by hand. But, how was this life choice by the parents affecting their 7 year old son? They thought he wa
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Dec 07, 2011
Mary
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This book is actually two novellas based around the difficult choices that people make that change the dynamics of their families forever. In Ordinary Love Ms. Smiley focuses on a woman's infidelity and the lasting, indelible mark that that affair has on her children years after their mother leaves the family.
In Good Will, a father slowly realizes the affect that his choices in lifestyle has on his son. The results of the man's choices end up having heartbreaking consequences. I thin More...
In Good Will, a father slowly realizes the affect that his choices in lifestyle has on his son. The results of the man's choices end up having heartbreaking consequences. I thin More...
Apr 20, 2010
Peacegal
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 26, 2011
Heather
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Favorite quote: "I have another image of the mind, any mind, no special mind. It is a wheel, like a paddlewheel, turning slowly, with a kind of ordered vastness, bigger than it seems to be, going deeper, and bringing up more unrecognizable wealth than anyone thought possible. Brilliance is like little round red reflectors nailed to the crosspieces, eye-catching, lovely, in certain lights dazzling, but little even so, pure decoration."
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Mar 20, 2010
Rachel
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I am reading these novellas for the second time. The first time I compared them to one another, and nothing is as compelling as Good Will, so Ordinary Love came up short. It has grown more fascinating with a second read.
In both novellas, Jane Smiley makes these contained, detailed worlds with intelligent, intense-yet-self-controlled characters. She illustrates simple contemplations realistically, and she does not shy away from, or soften, the ramifications of human error.
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In both novellas, Jane Smiley makes these contained, detailed worlds with intelligent, intense-yet-self-controlled characters. She illustrates simple contemplations realistically, and she does not shy away from, or soften, the ramifications of human error.
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Feb 10, 2010
Penny
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I read this years and years ago and it still stands out as one of the best treatment of love and relationships I've ever read. Every character is fully believable and alive. And the husband who faces the possible loss of his wife . . .he's compelling and one of the best portraits I've ever read of a man who is calm on the surface and tearing apart inside.
Mar 03, 2009
Elaine
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Smiley is an excellent writer and a compassionate observer of all of us humans, especially those with quirks, flaws, a tendencies to stumble. I read these novellas on a long plane flight and found them completely absorbing and unpredictable -- yet sometimes I felt as if there were no there there.
Aug 01, 2011
Valley Cottage
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SUMMER READING REVIEW: "Beautiful stories of relationships and families. Told in the first-person, the book touches themes of family, life purpose, loyalty, commitment to one's ideals. Smiley's writing is beautiful, and her descriptions are lush and a joy to read. Recommended highly." -Alice Kintisch
Sep 11, 2010
Leslie
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"Ordinary Love," the first of the two novellas in this book, is a moving examination of a family, showing the slow playing-out of consequences of long-ago infidelity and breakdown. Subtle and thoughtful. But it's the second novella, "Good Will," that I really loved. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
May 05, 2009
Anneke
rated it:
Wonderfully written as usual; really, really sad. So much experience of loss and damage, without a lot of hope, especially in Good Will, which was heartbreaking. Ordinary Love reminded me very much of Ten Days in the Hills in the rather structureless meandering of the non-plot.
Jane Smiley's writing always amazes me, and I know she likes to try out various genres; this particular one's not my favourite.
Jane Smiley's writing always amazes me, and I know she likes to try out various genres; this particular one's not my favourite.
Aug 15, 2010
Amanda
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The protagonists in both stories were very full of themselves, but I think that was sort of the point in Good Will, and I appreciated that. I found the woman in Ordinary Love to be wholly unlikeable and I'm pretty sure I was supposed to like her.
Jul 14, 2009
Carol
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Never read Jane Smiley before...this is a book of two novellas. I favor the first one, but loved them both. Great summer read. Jane Smiley's style eminds me of the way Ann Tyler writes, especially about families.
Aug 11, 2010
Colleen
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The first novella struck me as unrealistic in its depiction of the way families speak to each other, but the rawness of emotion behind both of the stories more than made up for it.
Jun 24, 2010
Janet
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Good Will may be the best novella I have read in my entire life. Its main competition, The Age of Grief, was also written by Jane Smiley. So go out now, find and read this book.
Nov 09, 2011
Rebecca
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Ordinary Love = 4 stars
Good Will = 5 stars
So I could have rounded up the overall rating to five stars, but I didn't. "Good Will" is one of the best novellas I've read this year (and I've read at least a dozen!).
Good Will = 5 stars
So I could have rounded up the overall rating to five stars, but I didn't. "Good Will" is one of the best novellas I've read this year (and I've read at least a dozen!).
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Oct 30, 2011
Peter
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I read this about ten years ago after reading Smiley's "Thousand Acres". I remember that the first Novella, "Ordinary Love" was achingly beautiful writing.
Dec 09, 2008
i like it a whole lotttt, i think i'm gonan give it to my mom for xmas. i never did read all of it whenever we were assigned to
Jan 10, 2009
Julie
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Ordinary Love is a three star-er; Good Will is a five star plus. Smiley, when she's at her best, blows me away.
Sep 20, 2010
Jody
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It was OK. I read Good Will and found it both fascinating and disturbing. I think it will prompt a good discussion at book group so I am looking forward to hat!
Jan 22, 2009
Chelseaconrad
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I read the first novella from this book but not the second. The first, at least, was very good.
Jan 20, 2012
Bookslut
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I thought the first novella in the book was very so-so, but the second novella was astounding.
Sep 14, 2009
Sara
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Jane Smiley does a great job of taking "ordinary" people and making you care about them. Big, crazy flaws and all :)
