by Wallace Stegner
For years my sister has been bugging me to read this book because she "knew" I would love it. Well, she obviously knows me pretty well because this is exactly the kind of book I love.... one about regular people; their lives, relationships, struggles, pains, joys, experiences, triumphs, failures, and their personal growth. It is also a story about luck vs. hard work, having wealth vs. being poor (but happy none-the-less), having a large close-knit family vs. having none.... among other things.
The characters (two married couples) are well developed and interesting, and their lives are full and fascinating, and yet really simple and "normal." Stegner's use of language is poetic and lovely. This is a well-written novel, and yet you would think it a beautifully-written memoir. It was the author's last novel, and it is certainly worthy to be called his final "masterpiece."
This novel contains a few profanities and a couple of scenes vaguely implying intimacy between married couples.
Stegner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Angle of Repose is also on my much-too-lengthy "to-read" list. Perhaps now I will get to it sooner than later.....
