Here is my nomination for our next book. It will be out in paperback on November 1. It has been critically acclaimed and nominated for a prize. "Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty and included in the National Book Foundation’s list of 5 Under 35. "
Fozzie wrote:Here is my nomination for our next book. It will be out in paperback on November 1. It has been critically acclaimed and nominated for a prize. "Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty and included in the National Book Foundation’s list of 5 Under 35. "
I keep hearing about this one, so I'd be game to check it out with you all. But, I do want to hear more from Danielle about the one she suggested. After all, she has read it. (In my f2f book group, that used to be a requirement, since we trusted each other more than we did external reviews. Such is still our preference, although sometimes that is too limiting, so we do both now.)
Pepper
Melissa_W
Melissa_W
Smiley's pretty popular here (and by "here" I mean at the UI - she did her PhD work here and then taught at ISU for a while before moving West; her daughter is in the MFA program here at the UI - we chatted at the yarn shop for a while). A Thousand Acresreally draws on problems many family farm operations had in the 80s - farm crisis, whether to sell out to factory farms, when passing down the land it gets divided and harder to break-even on product, etc. combined with some serious family trouble. I haven't read it as yet but my copy is signed by Smiley
Peppermill wrote:
But thanks for extracting it for us, Fozzie, and despite those feelings on my part, there probably isn't a one but what I would be willing to discuss it here, whether new to me or a reread. (Except possibly A Thousand Acres -- that one gets under my skin, not so much because it isn't a good book and good writing, but because I feel as if an "outsider" attending the Iowa Writers School misunderstood or misrepresented or pulled an unrepresentative story from the land in which she was residing. Not good hospitality returned by a "guest"? I know I am not totally rational on the subject -- but it is how I feel [rather strongly] about that book. It doesn't "ring true" to me for a region that I know pretty well, although I have no doubts that specific examples could be brought forward to justify Smiley's story. Melissa, you have any comments?)
Melissa_W wrote:Smiley's pretty popular here (and by "here" I mean at the UI - she did her PhD work here and then taught at ISU for a while before moving West; her daughter is in the MFA program here at the UI - we chatted at the yarn shop for a while). A Thousand Acresreally draws on problems many family farm operations had in the 80s - farm crisis, whether to sell out to factory farms, when passing down the land it gets divided and harder to break-even on product, etc. combined with some serious family trouble. I haven't read it as yet but my copy is signed by Smiley
Peppermill wrote:
But thanks for extracting it for us, Fozzie, and despite those feelings on my part, there probably isn't a one but what I would be willing to discuss it here, whether new to me or a reread. (Except possibly A Thousand Acres -- that one gets under my skin, not so much because it isn't a good book and good writing, but because I feel as if an "outsider" attending the Iowa Writers School misunderstood or misrepresented or pulled an unrepresentative story from the land in which she was residing. Not good hospitality returned by a "guest"? I know I am not totally rational on the subject -- but it is how I feel [rather strongly] about that book. It doesn't "ring true" to me for a region that I know pretty well, although I have no doubts that specific examples could be brought forward to justify Smiley's story. Melissa, you have any comments?)
As a literary "game" 1000 Acres is clever -- Smiley was doing a modern take on King Lear, which, of course, has some of the vilest of family dynamics. I just never saw it that bad among the farm families of whom I was aware, even though things could get pretty brutal. But this was about murder in canning jars -- with a type of canning (of meat) that had pretty much gone out of favor even before I left the Midwest (before the land consolidations became so widespread). I would have preferred something with a more sympathic hold on what were some tough dynamics. It revulsed me enough that I missed any bigger messages Smiley might have had. (Maybe someday I can reread it while suspending my gut distaste for the story. But I was living in the East by the time I read it, and I felt it misrepresented an area that was already misunderstood by much of the rest of the country, rather than aiding understanding. It is probably the only book I have ever felt this strongly about. And I know it received broad critical praise, even to some extent established Smiley as a major regional author.)
