A Thousand Acres | A Thousand Acres

At a glance:

Author: Jane Smiley
First Published: 1991
Type of Work: Novel
Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism, Family literature
Subjects: 1970’s, Family or family life, Parents and children, Suicide, Blindness or blind persons, Midwest, 1980’s, Child abuse, Incest, Cancer, Farms, farmers, or farming, Fathers, Adultery, Sisters, Accidents, Tragedy, Heroes or heroism, Environment or environmental health, Draft, military, Poisons or poisoning, Shakespeare, William, or Shakespearean plays
Locales: Iowa

Smiley has followed her two novellas, ORDINARY LOVE AND GOOD WILL (1989), with another story of a man who extends his possessiveness from things to people. Larry Cook, a successful farmer in his sixties, suddenly decides to form a corporation turning control of his thousand acres over to his daughters. When his youngest daughter, Caroline, opposes this, he disowns her for this sign of willfulness. When the older daughters, Ginny and Rose, with their husbands, begin developing the farm their way, Larry objects and attempts to coerce them emotionally and then to sue them to...

A Thousand Acres | A Thousand Acres

At a glance:

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