“Ordinary Love” and “Good Will” (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Jane Smiley
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Work: Novellas
- Time of Work: The late 1980’s
- Setting: A small Midwestern town; a farm near Moreton, Pennsylvania
- Principal Characters: Rachel Kinsella, Pat Kinsella, Joe Kinsella, Michael Kinsella, Ellen, Bob Miller, Liz Miller, Tommy Miller, Lydia Harris, Annabel Harris
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Family or family life
- Locales: Pennsylvania
The two novellas in this volume have much in common. Both are told in the first person and largely in the present tense, narrative modes widely used during the 1980’s in short fiction. Both are concerned with families in crisis; in both, women and children are victimized by powerful, brilliant, yet spiritually deficient men. Nevertheless, they are distinct works of art. The significant action of Ordinary Love has all occurred in the past; this is a story of revelation, of the weight of the past bearing down on the present, rather in the manner of the fiction of Henry James. The...
[The entire page is 2707 words long]
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