Private Life

I've just read the other reviews of Jane Smiley's newest book. I feel like Dave from NYC and I are totally in synch. I read everything JS writes and I always read right thru to the end and yet I often find myself saying "why am I doing this?" No exception here. While I "wait for" books by several of my favorite authors - I don't do that with Smiley. . .but, even if the book is a slow start, I am drawn in. Private Life was such a book. I felt like I was waiting for more to happen. . .and wondering where the "arc" of this book was going. At my age, 66, reading about repressed,"private" wifes (lives!) is not news. . .I saw this woman in my mother and mothers of friends. And I was reminded of "Mrs. Bridge" in several ways. I'd have to say that it's just that Smiley's writing is a pleasure to read. She wrote about a period of time I know less about - and now want to know more. I have to say thisbook is nowhere near as compelling as "Thousand Acres" - to me, her best book. I will be eager to hear whatothers think as I still have questions about why this book held my interest.

I just finished Private Life and then read a number of reviews (not just on Amazon). I am always struck by how contemporary readers judge women characters and their lives by current standards. The amazing thing about Private Life is how beautifully Jane Smiley (as always) has depicted a woman whose sensibilities are far from our own. Her main character is not entitled, she is not confident, she is obedient and has none of the brilliant expectations women have for their lives in our world. But even as an entitled, educated woman who has and had my own brilliant expectations for my life, I found Margaret Mayfield Early's life poignant and full of meaning. Maybe it is because I'm in my fifties and was married to a certain kind of workaholic, maybe because -- with all my self-assertion and my wonderful children and outgoing personality so different than Margaret's -- I have regrets like she does. One theme of the negative reviews I just read is that she is too much of a milquetoast and her life is dull, but anyone who has run a household can tell you that the little things that make for contentment are not necessarily the stuff of action or excitement. There's a passage in the book where Margaret follows the upbringing of some birds. She is told constantly what ordinary birds they are and yet she is so moved by them. No, not the stuff of summer blockbusters... But just what it should have been. My appreciation to Jane Smiley for taking me again to a world I could learn from.

Attempted this because it was a selection of my book club. Someone thought it would be a good idea to read something by Jane Smiley because she was a "famous" writer...oh, spare me. I had reservations based on reviews I had read, but I made a valiant effort.The long prologue at the beginning served no purpose other than to confuse me. It took place during WWII and involved a woman named Margaret who seemed from the writing to be a middle aged woman, at best. Chapter one took me time-traveling to the 1890's and another woman named Margaret. Yes, she was younger, but I had no inkling it could possibly be the same woman. For a bit I wondered if she was an ancestor of the first. I also had no sense of time or place, which I always find unsettling in a novel. I don't need to know on the first page, but it's appreciated to have this information somewhat early on.I was not able to connect with any of the characters, with the exception of the wild-child, woman, Dora. The rest were unfulfilled, unhappy people who moved through a dreary world. I've since been told that all of Jane Smiley's books are like this. I stopped reading just past the half-way point and don't care enough to ever pick it up again.

If I had written this review exactly half way through this book I'd have given it as many stars as humanly possible. I found the first part of the book to be intriguing, enlightening, and moving. As such I was very puzzled when at almost exactly the half-way point of the book, the tone became much darker, the plot much slower, and the characters fell apart.This book is the story of the lives of Margaret and Andrew, two Missourians who are drawn together in the post-civil war era. Margaret is portrayed as a sort of 'everywoman' from the time period, while Andrew is supposedly a genius and a bright light from their town. Of course, secrets abound and are unraveled mostly in the second part of the book.If there is one thing this book does well, it is provide a sort of Forrest-Gumpesque view of the many changes that occurred in America during the time periods portrayed in the book (roughly the 1880's-1942). However, I remain completely confused by how the book went from so very good to so bad at the mid-way point.

I just read it for the 3rd time and it's one of those books that has stayed with me. I love the way she draws the characters and I can imagine how they look. The slow pace is one of the charms of this novel - the main characters are living ordinary lives yet experience some extraordinary things as each year goes by. Andrew is an exasperating man yet one can feel some compassion for him and for Margaret as she lives with him. A strange marriage in many ways but life is like that for many people. It's a compromise and they both seem to accept that. One of Jane Smiley 's best and one of my favorite books.

Smiley's theme is essentially the same as Kate Chopin's in The Yellow Wallpaper, only 300 pages unnecessarily longer. Too many characters who do not forward the theme and a few analogies ( think they were supposed to be metaphors of Margaret Mayfield Early's life)…the "coots," for example… did not really work for me. I learned a few historical facts as they were woven into the plot, and found the last fifty pages or so, finally worth getting through the ordeal of reading the on-going saga of Margaret's sad life marrying, living with and eventually understanding the maniacal, obsessive and untrustworthy nature of Captain Early

The outcome of Jane Smiley's curious decision to write a novel about a long and dull marriage is, sadly, a long and dull read. I have enjoyed two of Jane Smiley's other books (Moo and A Thousand Acres) and until now I rated her highly as a novelist.The problem with this book is the central character, Margaret Mayfield: an ordinary and deeply unexciting woman trapped in a marriage that doesn't contain any joy. But how to sympathise with a woman shackled (of her own volition) to a crackpot scientist, when that woman makes no effort to change her circumstances? Margaret is the oddest heroine I have encountered in a long time.For all his faults, Margaret's husband, Andrew Early, is at least an interesting character: engaged in the world and passionate about subjects that trigger his native curiosity. The plodding Margaret, meanwhile, seems unable to rise above her circumstances in any way, and is therefore no more than a passive observer of the other more dynamic lives around her - notably the rakish Pete and their mutual friend Dora, has the chutzpah to forge an exciting career as a journalist.There was something dead at the heart of this book, and although it was beautifully framed around a fundamental betrayal and a moment of self-realisation, there was little narrative drive and I often felt I was following the fictionalised life of someone who had actually existed, rather than a creation of Smiley's imagination. But that said, I had the same reaction to Carole Shields' The Stone Diaries, which so many people loved.I will stick with Jane Smiley, but I can't recommend this book.

Good read but not as enjoyable as I had hoped

This was our summer book club read....oh dear......depressing or what? None of us 8 had anything positive to say about this, some of us didnt even get past half way......not a book to relax with on the beach.

This book is great for cold winter evenings when you just want to escape into something that is soft and cozy.

Not my preferred style of reading