Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1989.
Description
These exquisite twin novellas chronicle the difficult choices that reshape the lives of two very different families. In Ordinary Love, Smiley focuses on a woman's infidelity and the lasting, indelible effects it leaves on her children long after her departure. Good Will portrays a father who realizes how his son has been affected by his decision to lead a counterculture life and move his family to a farm. As both stories unfold, Smiley gracefully raises the questions that confront all families with the characteristic style and insight that has marked all of her work.
User reviews
LibraryThing member AnnieMod
Novellas are almost a lost art these days - authors either go for the longer form and end up writing novels or stay on the shorter format and stay in the short stories realm. So when I saw a book with two novellas and the description did not sound half bad, I had to get it.
Jane Smiley is a new
Ordinary Love opens the slim volume with the story of a woman that had an affair 20 years earlier and that ruined her family - the husband took the 5 kinds to England, the lover did not stay either. Now one of the her children lives with her, another lives close by, a third is coming back from 2 years in India (and he just happens to be a twin of the first one) and the other 2 seem to be calling all the time. Using the returning son, we get a glimpse of the family; using the mother as a narrator we get the back-story. And when you don't expect to learn more, some conversations shift to the past present and the real story of the days past comes crashing - everyone keeps secrets and some of them are hard enough. It's a story about choices and consequences - and as such it works. It was readable and I wanted to see where it goes and it actually did not just end as so many of those stories.
The second novella, Good Will, is about a family again - but it could not have been more different. Years ago the narrator and his wife had decided to forget about the present and to move to the country and live a simple life - no electricity, no cars, no civilization. Having a child and bringing it up in that environment seems to be a great choice - until the differences start showing up and their nice world is almost shattered by the kid's actions. The story has a framing sequences - the book writer that interviews the family at the beginning and the book that the family reads at the end - and between the interview and the book publishing is the whole agony of the changes.
The summary of that story is given by one of the counselors toward the end of the novella - the son is so used to being the different one that when someone more different comes to school, he acts as any boy. And because he lacks the civilization norms that we all grow up with, the reaction is violent. But in the process he also learns that you can be different in a lot of ways... and he start longing for things he could never have; things that any other kid has. The end of the novella is heartbreaking and can be seen in two ways - either as the society winning over the small man or as yet another proof of the fact that the man is a social animal and needs society. Any of the ways would be right.... and any of them on its own will be wrong.
And after finishing the book, i realized that I liked it a lot more than I expected. It is not my usual type of reading and I found some of the prose to be heavy going... but I liked it. I should probably check some of the other works by the author.
Jane Smiley is a new
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author for me and her plain prose takes a little while to get used to. But once you get into the story, it starts working a lot better (even if some passages were almost making me stop reading). But don't expect any action in any of the stories - there is plot in both but they are more portrayals of the families than real plot driven stories - the family descriptions and dynamics are much more important than anything that really happensOrdinary Love opens the slim volume with the story of a woman that had an affair 20 years earlier and that ruined her family - the husband took the 5 kinds to England, the lover did not stay either. Now one of the her children lives with her, another lives close by, a third is coming back from 2 years in India (and he just happens to be a twin of the first one) and the other 2 seem to be calling all the time. Using the returning son, we get a glimpse of the family; using the mother as a narrator we get the back-story. And when you don't expect to learn more, some conversations shift to the past present and the real story of the days past comes crashing - everyone keeps secrets and some of them are hard enough. It's a story about choices and consequences - and as such it works. It was readable and I wanted to see where it goes and it actually did not just end as so many of those stories.
The second novella, Good Will, is about a family again - but it could not have been more different. Years ago the narrator and his wife had decided to forget about the present and to move to the country and live a simple life - no electricity, no cars, no civilization. Having a child and bringing it up in that environment seems to be a great choice - until the differences start showing up and their nice world is almost shattered by the kid's actions. The story has a framing sequences - the book writer that interviews the family at the beginning and the book that the family reads at the end - and between the interview and the book publishing is the whole agony of the changes.
The summary of that story is given by one of the counselors toward the end of the novella - the son is so used to being the different one that when someone more different comes to school, he acts as any boy. And because he lacks the civilization norms that we all grow up with, the reaction is violent. But in the process he also learns that you can be different in a lot of ways... and he start longing for things he could never have; things that any other kid has. The end of the novella is heartbreaking and can be seen in two ways - either as the society winning over the small man or as yet another proof of the fact that the man is a social animal and needs society. Any of the ways would be right.... and any of them on its own will be wrong.
And after finishing the book, i realized that I liked it a lot more than I expected. It is not my usual type of reading and I found some of the prose to be heavy going... but I liked it. I should probably check some of the other works by the author.
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LibraryThing member d.homsher
Two long short stories, or short novels, by Jane Smiley
This is the place to see how Jane Smiley crafts her fiction. Plain sentences. Grounded details. And waiting in the wings, horrible surprises, which the characters have earned through a long series of confident, well-meaning, subtly bad choices.
This is the place to see how Jane Smiley crafts her fiction. Plain sentences. Grounded details. And waiting in the wings, horrible surprises, which the characters have earned through a long series of confident, well-meaning, subtly bad choices.
LibraryThing member LCB48
I have been blown away by both of the Smiley books I've read. I may have to make a point of reading everything she has written. This one is two novellas, one, a mother and grown children in Wisconsin coming to terms with the divorce that happened many years earlier. The second a couple with one son
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homesteading in rural Pennsylvania. Both are exceptional, but "Good Will" struck very close to home since we spent about 5 years trying to live the lifestyle described. Smiley has a great way of making me feel like I am living with her characters which helps to get me very involved with the story. Show Less
LibraryThing member moonshineandrosefire
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
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 think that of both stories I preferred Good Will and I give the entire book a B+!
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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 think that of both stories I preferred Good Will and I give the entire book a B+!
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LibraryThing member sushitori
The two novellas demonstrate the price children pay for their parents' mistakes.
Ordinary Love: The mother’s obsession over her children makes sense because she hasn’t seen them in years. But it reminded me a bit of my mom, always watching and analyzing what I’m doing, which is very annoying.
Good Will: Did not like this one. Although a desire to revert to a preindustrial era might have benefits, a total rejection of technology is ridiculous. The father's obsession to maintain an exaggeratedly simple, self-sufficient lifestyle proves to be especially ill advised, given the psychological problems that his son develops. The ending, returning to “modern” life, is anticlimactic in light of the chaos that his earlier choices created. All too reminiscent of the Luddites, but no longer feasible in this day and age.
Ordinary Love: The mother’s obsession over her children makes sense because she hasn’t seen them in years. But it reminded me a bit of my mom, always watching and analyzing what I’m doing, which is very annoying.
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Eventually though, her children come to respect her for leaving an overbearing husband and making it on her own. Smiley captures the nuances of a dysfunctional family - sometimes you like the characters, sometimes you don’t – and that’s how I felt about this story. Good Will: Did not like this one. Although a desire to revert to a preindustrial era might have benefits, a total rejection of technology is ridiculous. The father's obsession to maintain an exaggeratedly simple, self-sufficient lifestyle proves to be especially ill advised, given the psychological problems that his son develops. The ending, returning to “modern” life, is anticlimactic in light of the chaos that his earlier choices created. All too reminiscent of the Luddites, but no longer feasible in this day and age.
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LibraryThing member Periodista
"Ordinary Love" is perhaps my favorite Jane Smiley. Well, maybe "favorite" isn't the word but an absolutely devastating story. Jane Smiley is so wise. I can feel the mother's pain, the ceaseless reverberations. I'm writing this many years after reading the book and "Good Will" didn't stick with me
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at all. Show Less
Language
Physical description
197 p.; 22 cm
ISBN
9780394577722