Product Description

From Jane Smiley, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Thousand Acres: a pair of novellas chronicling difficult choices that reshape the dynamics 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 describes 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153543 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-09
• Released on: 2007-10-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307279095
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
After her long novel The Greenlanders , Smiley returns to the novella form of the masterly The Age of Grief , and this double bill exhibits her finely honed talent in impeccable form. In both stories Smiley movingly illustrates the price children pay for their parents' mistakes. The ironic title of the first novella refers to the desire of its protagonist, a 50-year-old mother of five, to pretend that her relationship to her grown children is an "ordinary" one. But she forfeited that right 20 years ago when she announced her extramarital affair: her husband whisked their young children off to Europe, keeping the youngsters away from her for many years. Now, on a weekend of family reunion, she realizes how much they have all been damaged; that they, as well as she, will always "have the settled darkness of expectation." The leisurely unfolding of the narrative, its quotidian details mixed with flashes of revelation, provides a grave, heart-wrenching credibility. In the second tale, a man who is self-righteously proud that he, his wife and seven-year-old son pursue a self-sufficient, exaggeratedly simple lifestyle, on an organic farm isolated from the general culture, learns too late that his son is a victim of his obsession. Wise, powerful and resonantly memorable, these stories are sure to be classics.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Here are two memorable novellas--complete, evocative worlds in miniature--by the author of The Greenlanders ( LJ 4/15/88). In "Ordinary Love," a mother explores her tentative relationship with her five grown children on the return of one of her twin boys from two years in India. After she reveals to them information about the brief affair that caused the collapse of her marriage to their father 20 years earlier, and her loss of custody, they tell heartbreaking details of their years without her. "Good Will" is a powerhouse: the careful, totally "organic" lifestyle of a rural couple disintegrates before their eyes when their seven-year-old son confronts the "real world" at school, with anguishing results. Remarkable work; Smiley is a genuine, first-rate talent.
- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“With this volume, Jane Smiley ratifies her claim as one of her generation’s most eloquent chroniclers of ordinary familial love.”
—The New York Times

“An extraordinary achievement. . . . Smiley's stories lucidly explore the complexities of contemporary sexual and domestic life. The emotional and moral complexity that she uncovers in the characters of these resonant novellas confirms Jane Smiley's singular talent.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Ordinary Love & Good Will are unforgettable novellas, built on lucid characterizations and elegant prose. Jane Smiley accomplishes a dazzling feat--without so much as a flashy phrase.”
—The Boston Globe

Customer Reviews

Good Will is great
Ordinary Love is a decent enough novella, but Good Will is just superb. I've never read anything quite like it. The characters are lovingly crafted, and their unusual setting and lifestyle gives Smiley to fully showcase her descriptive powers.

The most surprising thing is how well she writes from the main character's perspective. His personality as a father and husband is so clearly defined, so original, and so _masculine_ that I often found it difficult to believe that the author is a woman.

Like Smiley's other writings, this story is very much about relationships--familial, neighborly and those between oneself and the world--and how even the most carefully made decisions and choices can dramatically alter an equally well-planned life.

This novella originally appealed to me as a story of escape from society and retreat to nature, but I took away a great many lessons about life as well. Within her beautifully woven tale Smiley manages substantive discussions on racism, money, religion, and sexism--but these scenes are unforced. They are simply _there_, as natural as the lifestyle treasured by the main protagonists.

I loved this book.

Absolutely wonderful; the best
I loved these novellas and think they are some of the best works I have read in years. The first time through I was riveted and struck by Good Will but did not like Ordinary Love as much. I reread them and saw the brillinace of Ordinary Love, too. These are so beautifully written and captivating with profound insights into human nature and what it's like to be a parent and how we can hurt each other and our children without meaning to and so much more. This is the best kind of reading there is with lovely use of language and compelling stories that move, surprise, and shake you, making you see life a little differently. I can't say I've read anything better.

Thought-provoking and enjoyable
An interesting conjoining of two very different stories. I read them in order, starting with "Ordinary Love" and then moving on to "Good Will." At the end, I found myself wondering what links the two stories?

In both, there is a father who directs his family to such an extent that he could be called controlling or even an egomaniac. In "Ordinary Love" the father is not present; he is the "fifth man", invisible, but the scars left by his words and actions have sunk deep. In "Good Will", the father is the protagonist, and through his own eyes we see the results of his actions.

Unlike the other reviewers here, I preferred "Ordinary Love." I enjoyed the character of the mother, who narrates the story. She strives to be objective and offer a balanced viewpoint. She has a depth of self-knowledge. Also, she watches her children with great love, and that lends the story real warmth, which I thought was missing from "Good Will."

I plan to read both stories again. There's a depth of character and thought here that can't be fully taken in with one reading.