A Thousand Acres

By: Jane Smiley

Narrated by: C. J. Critt

Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Jane Smiley's spellbinding novel also headed best-seller lists for many months. A Thousand Acres is the powerful, mythic story of an American farm family and the land that nourishes and consumes its members.

Three daughters and their husbands are pulled into a tangle of love, jealousy, and fear when their father, Larry Cook, grows too old to manage the family's fertile thousand-acre farm. As each couple struggles with their own tragedies and challenges, they know their father is judging them in light of the weighty inheritance that hovers within their reach.

The Cook family, and the farm community around them, are part of a mosaic that is as enduring as the fences and fields of the broad midwestern landscape. But this endurance exacts an immense price from them in return.

You will find that this nationally-acclaimed, breathtaking story, in a stirring narration by C. J. Critt, is an unforgettable listening experience.

©1991 Jane Smiley (P)1996 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

• Pulitzer Prize winner, Fiction, 1992
• National Book Critics Circle Award, Fiction, 1991

"[A] magnificent, haunting family drama, an American retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear set on a contemporary Iowa farm....a favorite choice of reading groups everywhere (it would be a natural for Oprah)." (Entertainment Weekly)

Beautiful Reinterpretation of King Lear

I was glad I listened to this one. C.J. Critt's voice was direct, interpreting Ginny's character superbly. Although I know and enjoy Shakespeare's "Lear", this story nevertheless engaged and surprised me, sometimes making me gasp audibly. Smiley's story diverges from the original in several intriguing and thoughtful ways, but stays true to the heart of it. I would encourage anyone listening to it to refresh their memory of "King Lear." I think you will find your experience of this book enriched!

Beautiful prose. Terrible narration.

If you could sum up A Thousand Acres in three words, what would they be?

It was a beautifully written story, but the narrator almost ruins it. She seems to have no connection to the words she's reading, and reads the entire book in the same sing-song voice as though she's reading to a classroom full of children. It drove me crazy. I want to read the book myself so I can actually appreciate the story and writing.

Enjoyable

Would you try another book from Jane Smiley and/or C. J. Critt?

Yes, it was entertaining

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The characters reactions to situations

Do you think A Thousand Acres needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, the characters were too old by the end.

So much detail

Is there anything you would change about this book?

There is a tremendous amount of detail in this novel.....and, I'm a Dickens fan! I just didn't get the point of all that detail unless it was to point out the mundaness of life in rural Iowa in the 1970's.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Have the grown women stop calling their father "daddy" every two paragraphs.

Could you see A Thousand Acres being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

It has been

Depressing but compelling

The most depressing book I have ever listened to. But I couldn’t stop listening. If I had been reading the print version I would have put it down but the reader made me feel like I had to know what happened.

Beautiful

Everything about this is beautiful.
I can’t believe I’m so late to finding this author.

Beautiful and harrowing

This is one of those books in which dread and anticipation are entertwined. There are jolts of awareness that are startling. The worst happenings are hinted at so strongly that even the events that never actually occurred will never be forgotten.
If you are hungry for a book that offers you deep knowledge of the characters and all aspects of their personalities as they grapple with the world into which they were born, look past the initial immersion in the minutiae of farming.

Engaging and smart

The lives of the Cook family on their farm form a dark yet hopeful story that brings the reader in and keeps you yearning for vigilance and restitution. It is a wonderful remembrance of the early 1980s farm political and economic impact.

It's a hard, complicated life on a Thousand Acres

The details of farming and struggles over the decades of rural life are sharp and at times disturbing yet real.

Great!

The writing style and word pictures Smiley paints are wonderful. I enjoyed so many aspects of the book.