The Red Book Club

Upcoming Events

This month we'll be reading A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley and discussing it at Kim S's.

Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres tells a dark tale of a corrupt patriarchal society which operates through concealment. It is a story in which the characters attempt to manipulate one another through the secrets they possess and the subsequent revelation of those secrets. In her novel, Smiley gives us a very simple moral regarding this patriarchal society: women who remain financially and emotionally dependent on men decay; those able to break the economic and emotional chains develop as women and as humans.

Roots of A Thousand Acres can be seen in numerous novels and plays, the most obvious of which is King Lear. The parallels are too great to ignore. Smiley is successful because she fills in so many of the gaps left open in the play. She gives us new and different perspectives...