A Thousand Acres in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 27, 2013 Kent Winward rated it really liked it

King Lear in the Midwest with an early 1990's repressed memory of abuse theme bought Jane Smiley a Pulitzer. Today, it feels a little dated and the overwhelming sense I had after finishing the book was the story was sold out to the politically charged theme of the moment. Lear lingers because of the tragedy. While a good number of characters are maimed and killed off by Smiley, the deaths seem to lack the sense of the tragic in Shakespeare's original.

As a modern remake it plays well, but in the ...more

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Jun 01, 2013 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: shakespeare, midwest, homage

Smiley does a beautiful job here in capturing Shakespeare's common touch, which has always been one of my favorite parts of his work. He was, at heart, a writer for the average person even as he explored the classic big themes, and Smiley answers that call well here. The story moves along with zip and you're sucked into the fraught family relationships immediately, all the while not wanting things to move towards their inevitably dark end. ...more

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Mar 24, 2014 Andy Plonka rated it really liked it

There is a lot to learn beyond what it is like to live on and run a farm in this book. The relationships between the various members of the extended family make me think of my own family and hope that ours are not so complex.

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