On May 24, 1869, Major John W. Powell, a one-armed veteran of the Civil War, along with nine others (geologists, geographers, scouts and adventurers), set out from Green River, Wyoming to explore the last great unmapped and unknown portion of the continental U.S. No man had ever descended the Colorado river as it cut its way through 1,000 miles of incredibly rugged badlands. However, Powell and his band of men completed a remarkable journey of exploration through this country.

A passage from Powell's narrative of the expedition, after they had been on the river nearly two months, conveys very well a perspective of the challenge Powell and his men faced, the courage they demonstrated and Powell's matter of fact, but powerful writing style.

"We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, chafe each other as they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's rations remaining. The flour has been resifted through the mosquito-net sieve; the spoiled bacon has been dried and the worst of it boiled; the few pounds of dried apples have been spread in the sun and reshrunken to their normal bulk. The sugar has all melted and gone on its way down the river. But we have a large sack of coffee. The lightening of the boats has this advantage--they will ride the waves better; and we shall have but little to carry when we make a portage. We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth and the great river shrinks into insignificance as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs that rise to the world above. The waves are but puny ripples. We are but pigmies, running up and down among the sands or lost among the boulders. We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not. What rocks beset the channel, we know not. What walls rise over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever. To me, the cheer is somber and the jests ghastly."

This book is a classic tale of exploration and discovery!

John Wesley Powell, for better or worse, made the American West what it is today. He was the primary founder of the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that has vandalized the West, and of the United States Geological Service. He also completed the last great feat of exploration on American soil when he and his cohorts undertook the voyage that is the main subject of this book. That the book combines two voyages into one epic adventure is not widely known, but it does not detract from the narrative to any meaningful extent.

Powell's narrative of the so-called Grand Canyon voyage is simply, yet powerfully, written, even carrying touches of the poetic. It is easy to sense his feelings of awe and wonder, particularly in exploring the canyons themselves. Powell never put his main function, scientific discovery, out of mind until the race through the Grand Canyon became one against the calendar as well as the power of the river. Even then, his writing evidences a sense of charity and concern toward his men.

Powell's narrative evokes many vivid memories of the beauty and timelessness of the country he explored, particularly his writings on the now-vanished Glen Canyon. It seems a pity, somehow, that much of what he saw is buried under stagnant, polluted reservoirs, the worst of which ironically carries his name. Would this brilliant, feeling man approve? I do not think so.

The growing recognition of the role native Americans have played in our country's history and development would find a more sympathetic vein with Powell, and his studies of ethnography and acclimatation to the arid habitat by native Americans may prove a more lasting memoir. These parts of the book should be read with equal care.

As to the canyons themselves, Powell would be the first to tell you that the artificial plug of stone at Page, Arizona, is only temporary, and that, as with the volcanic debris at Lava Falls, the river will soon have its way again.

makes you feel like you are there, check out the song mr. powell by the ozark mountain daredevils.

Illustrating Tolstoy's observation that "all happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," Wallace Stegner's first novel, REMEMBERING LAUGHTER (1936), travels from the heighths of laughter (p. 13) to the depths of family grief in just 150 pages. Along the way, Stegner introduces us to Margaret Stuart and her younger sister, Elspeth, and then reveals the dark secret of infidelity binding them together in a constantly eroding relationship. While only in their forties, Stegner observes the twin-like sisters "were two old women sentenced to the prison they had made for themselves, doomed to wear away slowly, toughly; to fade and wither and dry up inch by inch in the silence of their house" (p. 150). Although it lacks much of the depth of Stegner's BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN (1943), ALL THE LITTLE LIVE THINGS (1967), and his Pulitzer-Prize-winning ANGLE OF REPOSE (1971), three novels which reveal a writer at the heighths of his talent, REMEMBERING LAUGHTER nevertheless offers a compelling tale you won't soon forget.

G. Merritt

About five years ago I stumbled onto Wallace Stegner, and I haven't been able to leave him behind. I just got around to reading _Remembering Laughter_ this past winter, mainly because it was usually not even listed among his better books; that is too bad.

Stegner is one of the best American writers that hardly anybody knows, and this is probably one of his most underrated works. "Haunting" and "poignant" are two words that I almost always find myself using when describing Stegner's novels, and this novella is clearly in that category. This book is a great intro to Stegner. _Crossing to Safety_ and _The Spectator Bird_ are better, but in economy of words, this one holds its own.

For those of you who have never read Stegner, this is a great place to start. For those of you who have read Stegner, this is a delight to read. It's possible to see in this book the genesis of all of the stylistic techniques that Stegner would later employ to such great effect.

I regularly give this book to friends as a gift, usually in the hopes that they will also discover the joy of reading Wallace Stegner.

On the front porch of their Iowa farm house, Margaret Stuart and her sister Elspeth watch the arrival of the funeral guests of Margaret's husband Alec. Having aged rapidly and before their time, they seem to be twins; although in fact there is a seven year age difference between them. Living with them, grieving alone in his room is Malcolm, their son.

This is the introduction to Wallace Stegner's first short novella, written in 1936 as his submission to a prize contest held by Little, Brown & Co. (Not surprisingly, Stegner won.) We next see the sisters 18 years earlier, at Elspeth's arrival in Iowa. Margaret and Alec are a handsome and, it seems, happy couple; although there are early warning signs - Margaret complains about her husband's taste for alcohol, he about her moralizing. Soon after the arrival of Margaret's younger sister, pretty and ostensibly much more naïve and innocent than Margaret, the relationship between the three begins to change; subtly but inevitably, until Margaret eventually stumbles into the discovery of her husband's affair with Elspeth. That discovery, almost more than the affair itself it appears, destroys the bonds between the sisters, between husband and wife, and between Elspeth and Alec. Yet, they go on living together, and together they raise Malcolm, the child born out of Elspeth's and Alec's relationship; held out as their nephew to minimize public shame. And while they keep themselves occupied with the farm business and with entertaining their neighbors, and even garner considerable outward success, inside they slowly dry up: Unlike in our end-of-the-20th/beginning of the 21st century culture, where "talk it over" and "bring it out" are the buzzwords of a society believing (perhaps rightly so) that for better or worse, problems not openly addressed will forever remain unsolved, an all-out display of the emotional turmoil besetting Stegner's heroes simply is not an option - in "Remembering Laughter" as little as in his later, Pulitzer prize winning "Angle of Repose."

Stegner's wife Mary revealed in a short afterword to Penguin's 1996 republication of "Remembering Laughter" that the story was based on two old aunts of hers, one a widow and one a spinster, who together had raised a son who could have been the child of either of them; Mrs. Stegner wasn't sure whose. Only 150 pages long, this first novella already has all the hallmarks of Stegner's later works - compelling characters and a keenly accurate portrayal of their social context, set in the vast, magnificent and often merciless environment of the Western prairies which Stegner loved so much. This novella is an excellent introduction to Wallace Stegner's work (Stegner also has to be credited with contributing to the redefinition of this particular art form in 20th century American literature) and a great morality tale condensed to its essentials; not easy to swallow but highly recommended.

I have the utmost respect for Wallace Stegner as a writer, but this collection of essays takes provincialism to far greater lengths than even his great works of local fiction. Stegner's definition of the West is based on an almost arbitrary measurement of rainfall--less than 20 inches per year. Any area that gets more than that (like Seattle) isn't the West. And that's not all. Cities don't count either, for the cities are just the East brought west in the form of middle-class America. So, the West for this author is the unspoiled, unsettled arid West, which dramatically excludes huge portions of the region that properly belong to it. If Spokane isn't the West, what is it?

I love the region, so I appreciate this author's attempts to capture its essence. But I can't get passed the overly romantic and exceptionally patronizing attitiude of the writer. It's as if he's saying: I understand the West. You don't, so I'm going to tell you. I'm a Westerner. You're not, so quit pretending. I live in the West. You don't, so stay the hell out. The whole thing comes off as reverent, but also xenophobic.

"Easterners are constantly being surprised and somehow offended that California's summer hills are gold, not green. We are creatures shaped by our experiences; we like what we know, more than we know what we like. ... Sagebrush is an acquired taste."
Stegner taught writing at the University of Wisconsin and at Harvard, but he had a strong sense of place and his place was the West. He accepted a position at Stanford University where he spent many years, and became, what many consider to be, 'the dean of Western writing' (by which we do not mean that he wrote "Westerns"). In this volume, Stegner sacks the Hollywood myths, and addresses the far more fascinating realities of the West. Featured here is a studied and caring investigation of what lies between the 98th meridian and the Pacific Ocean; of the land's great beauty and vulnerability to human foolishness. The compilation of essays also includes the author's reflections on his own life and work in the West, and examines critically the work of several significant literary "witnesses" of the American West. He reminds the reader of what criticism is: "A critic ... is not a synthesizer but an analyzer. He picks apart, he lifts a few cells onto a slide and puts a coverglass over them... His is a useful function and done well, ... may even give the reader the illusion of understanding both the product and the process. But ... whatever they can analyze has to be dead before it can be dissected ... critical analysis explains everything but the mystery of literary creation."
If you enjoy the works of John Steinbeck or Norman Maclean, or the powerful but fragile beauty of western lands, the essays collected in the Lemonade Springs are highly recommended.

Stegner has a way with words, and this collection of excerpts and essays shows them off. In fact, reading Stegner in these discrete chunks may be the best way to appreciate him - especially if you read it out loud, letting the cadences of his writing drive the tempo. This is true for the fiction, non-fiction, and even the literary analyses he includes here. This was the book that got me excited about reading Stegner.

These three essays are crisp, clear statements of Wallace Stegner's beliefs about the influence of the American West on American consciousness.

Please note, however, that these three essays appear with 13 others in Stegner's book _Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs_. With a total of 16 essays, that book is a much better value than _American West as Living Space_.

In this short, succinct book, a collection of three lectures given in the 1980s, Stegner sums up the history, problems, and ever-so-bleak future of the American West. He paints the clearest and most inarguable case that has yet seen print against the overdevelopement of the West's water, land, and resources and, jarringly, recants his youthful appelation of the West as "the geography of hope."This should be required reading in every high school, every college, and every home in the West--make that the entire country--no, make it the world.

Pouring over letters to and from Ansel Adams brings you closer to the photographer. From a telegram to his father in 1920 asking for $20.00 to buy a burro (and letting him know that he'd sell it at the end of the season for $10.00) to touching letters to his wife over the years. His descriptions of nature are as wonderful as his photographs. He writes to US presidents, newspaper editors,friends, family and more. You see the scope, imagination,and honesty of a man and a fantastic photographer.

You laugh,cry and share the man; Ansel Adams. Interesting personal photographs in the book also.

My Antonia by Willa Cather is set in the farmlands of Nebraska during the late 1800's. The main characters are a young inexperienced boy named Jim and a strong willed girl named Antonia. I thought the book was unique and worth reading.

It was like a fresh breath of air from reading other stuffy books. The first reason I liked it was because the setting was clear. I never knew what Nebraska looked like until I read the book! I felt like I was standing on the long, red, grassy farmlands. The author described the setting so that the reader could get a better feeling for the story. Another reason was the characters were described very well. The main characters, Jim and Antonia were described to make you feel that they were like real people. Jim snuck out of his house to go to the Fireman's dances every Friday night, when his Grandparents forbid him to go. Antonia had a child with her fiancé who ran away from her before they were married. The last reason was the theme was fantastic. The theme was Jim's admiration for Antonia. Even when Antonia had a bunch of kids and was older, he still admired her inner strength, intelligence, and beauty.

My Antonia is a different kind of a romantic novel. It wasn't gushy, otherwise I wouldn't have read it at all! The novel was exciting and a really good page-turner. My Antonia is a novel you would want to read sometime during your lifetime.

The words "historical fiction" may inflict the same agony as "pop quiz" or "speeding ticket" to many teenagers, but reading My Antonia is quite painless.

Title character Antonia Shimerda is introduced to the reader and the narrator when she can say only one phrase of English: "We go Black Hawk, Nebraska." On a seemingly endless train ride across a young United States, Bohemian immigrant Antonia and her family meet recently orphaned Virginia-born Jim Burden for the first time. He tells the story of the Shimerdas and his friend Antonia now as a middle aged man, illustrating his respect for the prairie and the woman who embodies it.

My Antonia is a story for the most part told about the youthful years of a select group of opinionated, hardworking, and brave souls. It is unique, and an especially intriguing read for teens, because the novel is told as a bittersweet memory from an old man. The story might make a reader realize that you may actually look back fondly on some of those pop tests or speeding tickets. "The best days, " quotes Cather on the beginning page, "are the first to flee."

Set in the harsh Nebraska plains during the late 19th century, MY ÁNTONIA follows a Bohemian immigrant family as they attempt to tame their wild land and become self-supporting farmers. Narrated by Jim Burden, a young orphan who recently moved from Virginia to his grandparent's farm in Nebraska, he first encounters the Shimerdas as they embark from the same train to settle in the rugged and wild plains. MY ÁNTONIA is about the platonic love and admiration shared between Jim and Ántonia from their initial meeting on the long train ride from the East and long into their adulthood. Although Jim and Ántonia are separated geographically for up to twenty years in late adulthood, both find that the other remains in their hearts and center of their childhood memories.

Aside from the human characterizations in this novel, the Nebraska prairie plays a significant part in MY ÁNTONIA. The reader is given a glimpse of the beginning land cultivation and an understanding of the hard work involved in transforming the wild prairie land with the red grass to farm plots of corn and wheat. In a time before county roads and highways are constructed, horses must pave their own path through the terrain to travel to the next farmhouse or the nearest town. MY ÁNTONIA captures brilliantly how farmers are essentially controlled by weather and sun patterns than by a time clock. Written mere decades after the Native Americans left the prairie, MY ÁNTONIA displays the initial founding of this land by Anglo farmers and merchants.

Another aspect of MY ÁNTONIA that I enjoyed was the portrayal of the traditional of oral storytelling. With the lack of modern forms of entertainment and high illiteracy rates, individuals living on the plains were left to tell stories at the end of a hard day's work. There certainly wasn't a lack of highly imaginative stories told around the kitchen fire. Some of these stories included tales of why neighbors were forced to leave their homeland due to scandals while others involved questionable behavior that occurred in their own back yards. These stories were told with much detail and humor that I couldn't help but laugh while reading them! I found them to be clever and original.

MY ÁNTONIA is a delightful story that is difficult to put down. I believe it deserves to be classified as an American classic as this story contains so many timeless elements and enduring characters that continue to stay with you long after you finish the book.

This classic novel by Clark is a superb study of mob rule; of how normal men can allow their inner anger and authoritarianism to control their judgment and honesty. The story is told in the first person by Art Croft, a trailhand who rides into the small Nevada town of Bridger's Wells in 1885 with his friend Gil Carter. The first chapter (there are only five chapters) has all of the structure of a typical western novel (bar, poker game, fight), yet when a young rider arrives to say that some cattle have been stolen and a man killed, the story about how men let anger goad their actions sets the novel apart from other westerns. It is a true classic. In 1977 the Western Writers of America named it one of the top twenty-five western novels of all time (it was ranked second after Wister's "The Virginian"). The book was also made into a classic film starring Henry Fonda. I recommend this book highly. I really don't understand the comments of the reviewer from Massachusetts (of Jan. 10, 1999). The tale is very realistic.

In modern-day America it seems that people are constantly questioning authority. Law after law is challenged, or even disregarded, by Mr. and Mrs. John Doe. However, American citizens of today are no different from those of the Old West. "The Ox-Bow Incident" is a powerful story that explains what happens when the common man (or men) takes the law into his own hands. Centering around a supposed murder, and cattle thievery, a group of men form a posse to exact their own idea of retribution. Van Tilburg Clark lets the reader know how anger leads to irrational and hasty action by the way the characters' emotions shift from moment to moment. The posse fears that the law will not punish the criminals in a "just" way (death). Therefore, the posse sets out for a lynching. The story is told in a manner that never allows the reader a moment of rest, always wondering what will happen next. I highly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates a work of art.

I am an English teacher. I came across reviews of The Ox-Bow Incident while doing a search for a student. I have always regarded this as a book which should be required reading, both for its literary and social value; and when teaching 11th grade, I have used it as a class assignment. The first part of the book which some readers found slow is really quite necessary; it provides the background that shows the reader that these are quite ordinary people - people that one would meet everyday. It contrasts with the violence in which they later become involved. The lynching of three innocent men is really not the crux of the story but rather the pivotal incident which allows the author to lead the reader to see what happens when one abandons law and order and then, when there are tragic results, must come to terms with his own conscience. I would also recommend the film with Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn which is well acted and true to the novel. I have generally found that once students get into the novel, the book generates a good deal of thoughtful writing and discussion.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, while admirable in her passion and energy, should be ignored and left unread for her unbending, close-minded, self-pitying, small, and miserable book Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays. She clearly has no understanding of Stegner's work. She also apparently refuses to try to appreciate the work of anyone with the slightest disagreement with her worldview, which is narrow and mean-spirited at best. She assaults Michael Dorris for speaking lowly of an alcoholic woman who caused the mental retardation of her child by her carelessness. She thinks this is a bad choice on Dorris' part because the woman was a Native American. Does she believe that Native Americans are somehow above criticism? What race can claim such moral perfection and not seem like small-minded racists? Every member of every race is responsible for his/her actions, and if Ms. Cook-Lynn had read more of Stegner's work before she blindly bashed it, she would understand that deeper human truth, which is obvious to any real thinker.

I am annoyed to even have to mention such basic beliefs. There is no reason to believe that a group of people is better than another group, or that only members of that group have a right to write histories about the group. Ms. Cook-Lynn has some ideas about white history that she freely spouts, and I believe in my heart of hearts that it is her right to write alternate interpretations of the past (though she seems to just be rewording long-tired versions of history).

Only by hearing what other groups have to say about us can we grow by seeing ourselves with new perspective. Ms. Cook-Lynn hasn't even read Stegner--she refuses to hear anything but her own shrill, childish voice. I for one look forward to reading critical analyses of society, history, and literature by African Americans, Native Americans, German Americans, Frenchmen, Poles, Australians, etc. This is what led me to read Ms. Cook-Lynn's book. However, I was met with a fierce small-mindedness that enraged rather than enlightened.

Ignore this book. It is not worth the paper it was printed on. So long as these sorts of ideas are propagated, humankind will never end its struggles with racism and hatred.

this is such a wonderful book to read, it's truly beyond words!

Yes, Stegner has a beautiful gift of words. His love for the area is very well described in fun folk lore and historical legends that form Utah's rich heritage and history. Stegner claims to be a historian, giving credit to several other great Utahan and Western historians like Bernard De Voto.

But in his presentation of an attempt to explain the area and its unique people, he conveniently leaves out facts about historical events, like polygamy or tragedies like the Mountain Meadow Massacre.

Stegner is not a member of the church but pretends to be an expert or an authority. This view is misleading and the reader needs to be cautioned to view the book as opinion and satire. Stegner's growing up in the Salt Lake City area, but not being a member of the majority has led to many tensions. His commentary or tensions include his being against the LDS Church organization, which he uses only its nickname, "Mormon," against his love and admiration for what the people in the church have overcome, adjusted to, and have achieved.

Stegner loves the land and unique stories describing the culture, but he is not an authority, knowing everything. He is just one man trying to represent hundreds of thousands, not to mention it was written about 60 years ago, he writes well, but not objectively at all.

This is a collection of stories, which if one know the definition of story knows it isn't always fact, it's stretched. It seems he has taken the most far-fetched or extreme stories to represent a whole of religion and society. The area is unique in many ways, with many tensions in its history. My main point in writing is to point out Stegner's personal bias and tension with the people in the area.

Mormon country idealizes early Mormon society. Much of this book focuses on the settling, sustaining and future of Mormon country. Once the Mormons were settled in the west, the "Gentiles" caused the Mormons hardships and were unwelcome in their towns. According to this book the Gentile was an intruder to the Mormon way of life. The author, Stegner, documents many unsuccessful attempts the gentiles made to settle in the west and over power the Mormons. Not until the ends of the book were any positive things said about Gentiles, some of who were detrimental influences in the west. In the beginning of the book the bias is strongly towards Mormons. As the reading continues it becomes more difficult to pinpoint Stegners bias. He speaks highly of non Mormons and their contribution to the west. I believe he admired the Mormon way of life, but understood that other ways of life exist that are as equally successful.

I believe that Stegners is bias towards Mormon society. It is clear that he esteems their ability to survive, endure and believe. His writing also shows that he understood that it was not only Mormons who settled the region. He speaks with respect about the endeavors of the gentile and the Mormon in different parts of the book. He has the ability to look at an event objectively and the ability to look at it judgmentally. It all depends upon the issue. The overall goal of the book is to show people to the history of Mormon society by exposing the past. Many Mormon authors would not include the Mountain Meadow massacre in their historical writing. The fact that Stegner did shows that he is objective. The book paints a clear picture of early Mormon life through the eyes of the Mormon.

Mormon Country is an opinioned and colorful depiction of the western history. The author was not trained in history, but he enjoyed and studied it. There are many parts of this book that were offensive, judgmental and ignorant. Other parts had beautiful, nonbiased descriptions of places, events and lives. It was difficult to swallow some of the topics discussed, but overall the book was well done. It is important to Utah history because it presents both small and large events to the reader. Because the book was written in 1942 it represents an old world view of the west. It is beneficial to obtain this point of view because it increases our understanding and awareness of the past events. The difficulties suffered by both Mormons and Gentiles were brought to light. Joining the two perspectives allows the reader to walks away with a new, nonbiased perspective of the western frontier.

This book consists of a collection of 28 beautifully-written essays that focus on Mormon life and the wide range of Gentiles who lived in Mormon country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Stegner has made a broad range of topics fascinating: the basics of life in a Mormon community; the avid converts who moved to Utah from Europe and Hawaii; the notorious Mountain Meadows massacre; the bizarre Deseret Alphabet; the story of Short Creek, AZ, where a polygamist community, protected from the law by geography, flourished briefly in the early 20th century; the wild mining towns; Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch; John Wesley Powell's river explorations; a paleontologist who devoted his life to dinosaur hunting in the desert; and the story of Everett Ruess, who mysteriously disappeared in the desert.

Stegner, a Gentile, seems to have considerable affection for the Mormons and their accomplishments as well as the ruggedly beautiful landscape of Utah. Although the book was originally published in 1942, it is still fascinating reading for anybody traveling around or living in Mormon country who would like not only a better understanding of the history and culture of the people who managed to tame a desert that most settlers only grudgingly trudged through on their way to greener points much further west, but of the many others attracted to that same desert for fortune-making, exploration, crime, science, and glorious solitude.

I read this because of the positive reviews, but Washington DC has it right. Predictable, tedious, a woman protagonist whose major act of rebellion is wearing funny slippers and hanging out by the pool on her mother's Hillsborough estate...Puhleeze! Hard to believe this same writer created the characters in Angle and Crossing.

I am a fervent Wallace Stegner reader, and couldn't believe I hadn't heard of this title. I wish to heaven that were still so. This novel was originally published in 1961. Perhaps he had some heavy financial obligations then - that's the only reason I can fish up for this laughably tawdry tale, told completely without his usual deftness and sensitivity (except when he's describing the natural world.) Those parts of the book I could bear to skim through were filled with incongruities - beginning with the putative heroine's name; what "old money" family of impeccable New England rectitude would have named a daughter "Sabrina"? And it's embarrassingly easy to guess the role each character will play. This stuff is something Helen Gurley Brown would have bought for her Cosmo girls to read around the pool. If you want the real Stegner, the titan of the Stanford writing program, read "Women on the Wall" or "Crossing to Safety" or "Angle of Repose" or almost any other of his fictional works; and by all means seek out his environmental writings.

Not my favorite Stegner book but would probably be an interesting book for discussion. Such a contrast between the author's analytical, dry voice and the main character's flighty desperation. It makes an interesting contrast, but hard to get into the character at times. Also, Stegner doesn't seem to understand women as well as men, especially this one. Another point of interest: its publication date. Some of this must have been a lot more sensational then than now, but it's also fun to see that "people back then" weren't as different from us as we'd like to think.

The other characters in the book were frustrating, I thought. The mother was the most intriguing. The others were stereotypical and annoying. I wanted to learn more about Bobbie, the "perfect," "content" friend - how could she be so serene when married to a know-it-all like Leonard? And Sabrina's brother read like something out of a romance novel. If only he had a long black mustache to twirl!

All in all, not my favorite but it did get me to thinkin', and that's never a bad thing.