Helpful Score: 1
Reads like an autobiography but is fiction. The main story deals with an older man (and his wife) coping with the brutal realities of old age. The story within the story is a flashback - decades earlier - to a Denmark trip when they lived with a countess and slowly learned the bizarre secrets of her family.
Ah, another excellent book from Stegner. In this one and another I read, it feels as though he's writing nonfiction, it's so real. A note from an acquaintance from 20 years ago sends Joe to his notebooks to read about another time in his life. He and his wife visited Denmark -- he grasping for something of his mother and his roots. What he finds is quite different and yet related. The story has plenty of wry humor and also sadness but with an upbeat luminous lining for at least some of the characters.
Stegner's books are such a pleasure to read that I don't want them to end. So, I've ordered most of what he's written, aside from what I've already read. This book is a National Book Award winner and Stegner is a Pulitzer Prize winner. I highly recommend any of his books to those who enjoy literary, soulful writing. I can't think of an author that has his gift for illuminating things we never talk about but all of us know or feel, the grit of this human experience. And he does it elegantly.
Stegner's books are such a pleasure to read that I don't want them to end. So, I've ordered most of what he's written, aside from what I've already read. This book is a National Book Award winner and Stegner is a Pulitzer Prize winner. I highly recommend any of his books to those who enjoy literary, soulful writing. I can't think of an author that has his gift for illuminating things we never talk about but all of us know or feel, the grit of this human experience. And he does it elegantly.
Not my favorite
Stegner novel, which is still "Big Rock Candy Mountain".
Stegner novel, which is still "Big Rock Candy Mountain".
Beautifully written about an aging couple remembering a long ago trip. My book club enjoyed it.
