A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

I’ve read this book three times. Jane Smiley has such a way with words and creates such a clear and vivid world, that everyone who reads her work wants to become a writer. Such passages as:

In spite of the price of gasoline, we took a lot of rides that year, something farmers rarely do, and my father never again did after Caroline was born. For me, it was a pleasure like a secret hoard of coins–Rose, whom I adored, sitting against me in the hot musty velvet luxury of the car’s interior, the click of the gravel on its undercarriage, the sensation of the car swimming in the rutted road, the farms passing every minute…

The concept of the book was facinating to me.  Smiley has taken Shakespeare’s King Lear and set it on an farm in Iowa. I love authors who take something old and make it new again.

The PLOT:   Larry Cook is an aging farmer who decides to incorporate his farm, handing over complete and joint ownership to his three daughters, Ginny, Rose, and Caroline. When Caroline expresses reservations about the idea, she is removed from the agreement and cut out of her father’s life. This sets off a chain of events that brings about long-suppressed emotions and the story eventually reveals the long-term sexual abuse of the two eldest daughters that was committed by their father.

Jane Smiley worked hard to remain true to her source.  Her character names remind you of their Shakespearean counterpoints. Larry is Lear, Ginny is Goneril, Rose is Regan, and Caroline is Cordelia. The Cook’s neighbors, Harold Clark and his sons Loren and Jess, also rework the importance of Gloucester, Edgar and Edmund in Lear.

Smiley makes the story about the land as well about the people. In the background, and influencing everything the character’s do , is the thousand acres (hence, the title). Today, it is difficult for many of us to imagine a kingdom as something one can own and pass to your children, the way a King would do hundreds of years ago.  But for anyone who has owned a home or land, or even aspires to own their own property, the concept of these thousand acres and how much the farm means to the family will leave an impression on you.  But in this story, tragedy steps in and brings about changes no one expects.