The most wonderful story, in my opinion, was a heartbreaker called "Long Distance," in which a man released from a visit from a girl he no longer loves by circumstances realizes how her grief will be something he never gets over. This story is short and clean and unforgettable.

The title novella is powerful on so many levels-- told from the pov of a man who realizes his wife has fallen for someone else and is desperate not to let her tell him about it, it is such a convincing portrait of a marriage, of family, of the layers of fear and forgiveness that intimacy brings. One of the children gets a dangerously high fever and the terror and the bonds of love remind us that infidelity is sometimes part of a relationship, not its definition.

The only reason I didn't give this five stars is because while all of the stories are quick reads, well-written-- as is all of Smiley's work-- and occasionally even very funny, not all of them seem as grounded in the poignancy of emotional turning points. I was rather bored with "Dynamite," in which an aging underground movement protester from the sixties decides to reconnect with her family. That is to say, I didn't really think we needed that bit of plot-- I was far more interested in the family dynamics than the dynamite.

"Jeffrey, Believe Me" is a bit lightweight, doesn't seem to be a part of this volume really, though perhaps it provides some comic relief. "The Pleasure of Her Company" though is right up there with "Long Distance"-- friendship has its own jealousies and betrayals, and no happy couple can ever really be known except by themselves, as the lonely nurse who falls in love with her neighbors discovers.
"Lily" also lays out the issues of friendship and marriage-- friendship within marriage-- and how marriage is both more and less than romance.

Ultimately, read the book just for "Long Distance" alone. It's a masterpiece-- and it will haunt me.

These stories move slowly, building up layers of character and atmosphere through observations and spare dialogue. The last story, "The Age of Grief", made me think of Henry James novels like "Portrait of a Lady." Here we are looking very closely at daily behavior, signals and symbols that pass between people, the subdued drama of everyday life.

Each of the daughters view their parents from a personal perspective, especially their mother, Anna, projecting their own disillusionment onto her. Meanwhile Anna, mostly silent, muses about the grown daughters who surround her, wondering how they all came to live so close, gather so readily like a flock of restless birds, when she had meant to teach them to fly. Two daughters already widowed, one divorced, the women have all outlived the men, save Ike, and have lost their balance.

When granddaughter Christine comes home to visit, as well, she brings her own distractions. Twenty-three and newly married, Christine is full of the natural exhuberance of youth. The three daughters shift their attention back and forth, from Ike's worsening health to Christine's surprising announcement.

Occasionally a small voice from upstairs calls to Anna, "Mother! Mother!". Ike wishes only his wife to tend to his few needs. Moving between the two realities, Anna finds time for reflection upon her fifty-some years of marriage. In Anna's ruminations, there is a quiet revelation of her life through the years, as a young girl, as a married woman, years spent washing, cooking, cleaning. Years of service given without a thought to feelings or needs, or to the vagaries of married love. Looking back, her memories are as sharp as thorns and as sweet as new-shelled peas.

The power of the family dynamic seems at first to rest with the daughters, each pushing for her own resolution. They form temporary alliances, based on sibling rivalry, change perspective, shift yet again. Anna finds them engaged in their own busy pursuits; even the granddaughter falls into a deep afternoon slumber. Ultimately, it is Anna who holds our focus in this well crafted novel, her thoughts, her dreams. Never mundane or banal, the dialog is as sharp as the plot.

The older you get, the more assertive you become, the more you know what to say or how to behave yourself in a tough situation. Right? Not really, if one is to look at Anna. She is just as insecure at 72 as she was in her youth. If one is to hope for invaluable wisdom as a payoff for lack of energy, strength, health, looks, etc., we are all screwed. This was my secret hope, and i am now very disappointed. Anna has been feeling weak as long as she can remember, first with her mother, then with her husband and his family, now with her daughters and even her granddaughter. What i find most pathetic is her inability to resolve her resentments towards her husband when she should have. She did not deal with whatever he did to her at its right time, and now that he is sick and almost an invalid is not the time to bring things up, yet Anna can't help herself. As a character, she infuriates me. If you don't do the right thing at the right time (in this case, deal with your husband), then let it go. Don't store it up and let it fester for decades. The rest of the family is sad and well portrayed. Ike is a sick man angry at the world for whatever obscure reason. Helen is pretentious. Claire is envious. Susanna is on the same path Anna is right now. Christine is the perfect example of why marriage and reproduction should not be allowed for anyone under 30. What's with her sense of entitlement and arrogance? At one point, her own mother calls her a 'dope'. Well put!

My two objections are Dolores, who is referred to time and time again and is never developed as a character (by comparison, Abel is very well described and understood), and Christine's final decision. It doesn't make sense, after spending half the book defending her arguments to now change her mind so quickly.

In this novel, which takes place in 36 hours, we get to know a family with generational problems and character problems. The imperfections of these characters make them real, and although none of them is lovable, they form a beautiful book. The detail and thoroughness that Jane Smiley goes through is remarkable.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a very good book because of its examination of America's dark secret of pain and suffering. When it was first published, this book was a wake up call for the country. By reading it at the millennium, we are helping keep the memory alive, so that slavery does not happen again in the U.S. I highly recomend this book to anyone who hasn't read it, and if you have the chance, study it.

Eileen is a dog that loves her mistress and deliberately makes life hellish for her master (urinating in his best shoes is only one of Eileen's little tricks). But the best characters in the book, I think, are the horses. From the viewpoint of Justa Bob, Froney's Sis, Limitless, Epic Steam, and the other Thoroughbreds, humans exist to keep them supplied with hay & oats. Many of the horses have genuine affection for their trainers and handlers, and some, like Mr. T., reward those humans they like best by passing on racing tips much more valuable than those found in the Daily Racing Form. By the end of the book, I was praying that Justa Bob would be rescued from the glue factory and Residual would recover and be put out to pasture. You'll fall in love with these animals, believe me.

Smiley's central human characters will hold your interest, too. For example, she made me genuinely care whether Al and Rozzy's marriage would recover from the strain of the separate lives they were leading. However, some of the peripheral ones could have been edited out with no loss to the book's coherence. Overall, this book gave me enormous pleasure.

Books with a list of characters at the beginning usually worry me -- I hate stories with so many poorly-defined characters that such a list becomes necessary. Even with Horse Heaven's impressive length, however, I think I only referred to the list of characters once or twice. It was great to be able to follow the story from the points of view of the many characters, not the least of which were the horses, whom the author imbued with a wonderful mixture of self-determination, insight and even humor. Smiley's equine characters also exercised a surprising amount of control over their own destiny in an industry in which what's best for the horse often can be overlooked.

That said, I agree with another reviewer's comment that a bolder editor might have tightened Horse Heaven up. Occasionally while reading, I found myself wondering whether I would be turning the pages so quickly if the backdrop for the stories had been, say, stock car racing instead of horse racing. (I say this because I am a shameless "plot-hound," so long passages of description -- however well-written -- without a reasonable amount of plot development tend to bore me.) Without the inclusion of horses, I believe I would have been enjoyed reading the book somewhat less. For this reason, I am having a hard time recommending this book to my friends and family members who aren't as nutty about horses as I am.

All in all, though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and was sorry to reach the last page.

The main plot involving Larry Cook giving the land to his daughters and later fighting them in court to get it back was intriguing, however I felt the sexual abuse turned this into a bad TV movie of the week. It would have been more interesting if Ms. Smiley would have the more with the issue of the well water causing Rose's cancer and Ginny's miscarriages, which would have tied right in with the main plot of the land tearing this family apart and explained why Jess was always there.

The problem with the characters is that you can never figure any of them out. Ginny didn't seem like the type to commit adultry or attempt murder, yet she did both. I never understood how Rose could help with her father's care and still carry such hatred for him. And why Ty became so cold to Ginny after the problems with her father started is still baffling me.

I recommend this book to anyone who can forgive some flaws because it is enjoyable especially if you love to read descrptions written well.

Don't be fooled by the title of the book; a pig named Earl Butz (ring any bells?)--is the literal and physical focus of this book. Earl is stowed away in the geographic center of the campus, Moo University, and those moving around him (students, faculty, etc), oblivious to his existence, nevertheless move in rhythm to him. When Earl escapes during the demolition of his home and dies, the campus is so affected that his picture on the front page of the newspaper affects everyone's life.

Everyone will recognize some familiar characters in this book. There are the four freshman girls living together--Mary, Keri, Sherri and Dianne--each of whom is drastically different, but borrows the others' clothes anyway. Then there's Bob Carlson, who doesn't know how to socialize with anyone but Earl Butz. Gary has a crush on his roommate's girlfriend and eavesdrops whenever they fight. English professor Tim can't keep his attention focused on any one woman long enough to establish a real relationship. The secretary to the Provost doesn't hide the fact that she controls EVERYTHING on campus and off, including her girlfriend Martha. Economics professor Lionel Gift believes he's God's gift to Costa Rica, as well as the rest of the world, often dropping the fact that he's in "some Rolodex" at the New York Times to impress people. One farmer, a frequent visitor to the provost, believes the FBI, the CIA and the big ag companies are out to get him, so he wears a bulletproof vest to protect himself.

These characters, weaved in and out of each other's lives, bring a rural campus to life with scandal, betrayal, but most of all, humor. Though Moo's huge cast can be confusing at times, it's a must-read for anyone in or graduated from college that never fails to bring a smile to your face.

Good Faith is really about two things: real estate and sex. The real estate portion of the book has been mentioned. The sex has not. Stratford gets involved with an old friend, a married woman named Felicity. Even as his real estate career is heating up, so is his relationship with Felicity. She is a free spirit, though they are being very secretive about the relationship. Breaking up the routine of the real estate portions of the book, we are given some of the most well-written sex scenes that I've come across. They aren't lewd or overly graphic and while somewhat idealized they come across as very real. I'm not sure that any author of Smiley's caliber writes sex scenes this good.

After reading Good Faith I am reminded why I enjoy reading Smiley's work. She is a very good writer (Moo is probably my favorite of her books). Good Faith may not be up to the standard of some of her other books, but it is well above the standard of most other authors. Good Faith is worth checking out. I found it very interesting all the way through (despite the fact that it is about real estate) and very well written.

This time, our protagonist is a realtor named Joe Stratford. He's well-liked in the community but already has gone through one failed marriage and is sleeping with another man's wife who happens to be the daughter of one of his clients and business partners. Along the way, (perhaps a commentary on the vapid 1980's) our main character manages to snort coke with yet another love interest and be incredibly self-absorbed and gullible.

He happens to be the most likeable character. The most memorable character is Marcus Burns, who claims to be an ex-IRS agent and has a host of hare-brained, get-rich-quick schemes.

While I will refrain from giving away the story and ending, you end up getting a book that moves well, a plot that's interesting, but a story that contains a whole bunch of people that you wouldn't want as your friends.

Given all of the recent attention on accounting, and other business scandals, it's a timely look back on a decade when some of the country lost common sense principles, but it didn't leave me all the warm after reading the book.

In short, Smiley is a great writer who can get your attention and keep it. She is adept at writing about a host of different subjects, but I do hope she creates more positive characters in at least one of her books.