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A Thousand Acres Paperback – 4 May 2004

by Jane Smiley (Author)
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling novel from one of America’s greatest contemporary writers.

Larry Cook’s farm is the largest in Zebulon County, Iowa, and a tribute to his hard work and single-mindedness. Proud and possessive, his sudden decision to retire and hand over the farm to his three daughters, is disarmingly uncharacteristic.

Ginny and Rose, the two eldest, are startled yet eager to accept, but Caroline, the youngest daughter, has misgivings. Immediately, her father cuts her out.

In A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley transposes the King Lear story to the modern day, and in so doing at once illuminates Shakespeare’s original and subtly transforms it. This astonishing novel won both of America’s highest literary awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics’ Circle Award.

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  1. ISBN-10
    0006544827
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0006544821
  3. Edition
    Reprint
  4. Publisher
    Harper Perennial
  5. Publication date
    4 May 2004
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    12.9 x 2.54 x 19.71 cm
  8. Print length
    398 pages
  9. See all details
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Review

‘A Thousand Acres is a strong, gnarled shocker of a novel… superb. Its success is down to Smiley’s ambitious gusto, her intuitive handling of the relationship between character and landscape, and her willingness to haul genuine moral freight across the panorama she has so expertly painted.’ Sunday Times

‘Epic fiction of the very highest order, naturalistic , penetrating and wholly absorbing.’ Literary Review

‘Superlative, extraordinary, amazing. A Thousand Acres is a great American tragedy about the failure of a family’s land and the failure of its love. There may have been better novels than A Thousand Acres, but I fear I didn’t read them – a haunting inquisition into the decline and fall of a family.’ Independent

‘A studied, ingenious variation on the brutal clashing of sexes and generations in King Lear. Its style is relaxed, conversational, unhurried; the novel flows gently onwards like a broad river. In its solidity and poise, A Thousand Acres is a book that will outlast this year’s rainy season.’ Vogue
‘Powerful, poignant, intimate and involving.’ New York Times

About the Author

Jane Smiley was born in LA, grew up in St Louis and studied at Vassar and Iowa. She won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award in 1992 for ‘A Thousand Acres’.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (4 May 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 398 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0006544827
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0006544821
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.54 x 19.71 cm
  • Customer reviews:

About the author

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Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley

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Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991). Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from Community School and from John Burroughs School. She obtained a BA in literature at Vassar College (1971), then earned an MA (1975), MFA (1976), and PhD (1978) from the University of Iowa. While working towards her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar. From 1981 to 1996 she was a Professor of English at Iowa State University, teaching undergraduate and graduate creative writing workshops, and continuing to teach there even after relocating to California.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
2,400 global ratings

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Anne
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and tragic reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 May 2016
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This novel is set in the farming communities of the American prairies and is a retelling of "King Lear". Larry Cook decides to split his inheritance between his three daughters but casts aside the one who appears not to love him. Larry's arrogance and his tainted gift begins to destroy his family - if you have read Shakespeare's original then you will know what is coming but it really isn't necessary to have read the original to enjoy this, although when you do know the source material you can really appreciate what the author has done to update and transfer the story.

The story is told through the eyes of Ginny, one of the three sisters, and with her we watch Larry's kingdom decline and fail as well as his mental health. The author does this really well and the feeling that it is all inevitable remains with us throughout the story. The narrative doesn't follow the original slavishly but the key moments are there and they are seamlessly woven into the story so that, even though I was looking out for them, I was still surprised when they occurred and then delighted with how the author had used them.

This is a tragedy. It is a story of power misused, mental health problems, sibling rivalry and jealousy. It is a beautifully written novel and the narrator,Ginny, is a sympathetic character even when she is doing things which don't seem very sympathetic. It is full of tension and leads remorselessly to the end. It is clever and very emotional. I was riveted by this story despite its harrowing nature because of the quality of the writing.
5 people found this helpful
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Katelon
4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping mid-western version of King Lear
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2015
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I'm quite suspicious of "award winning novels" because that can mean they are grim and inaccessible. The idea of reading some recent ManBooker prizewinners gives me the shudders. 1000 acres is certainly grim reading but if you are reading a modern re-telling of King Lear you wouldn't expect a barrel of laughs. Jane Smiley does a brilliant job of translating it to the mid-west and in the process sheds an interesting life on the Shakespearean source material. Her writing is tough but not overwrought and the story has the hideous inevitability of a Greek tragedy. I couldn't put it down - but I won't be re-reading it any time soon.
7 people found this helpful
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Dr. K. E. Patrick
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving, haunting, clever
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 June 2015
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This book is so amazing. I can't believe the effective way that Smiley weaves the story of King Lear into a modern farming family in the Mid-West, and tells it from the character who equates to Goneril. I would dearly love to teach this book to my homeschooled high school students, but there is (sorry -- general spoilers -- look away now) adultery, a couple of sex scenes, and incest, which I think aren't appropriate for the students I teach. For adults, though, yeah -- a modern classic, and the author deserves all her accolades.
4 people found this helpful
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cookie monster
3.0 out of 5 stars ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 April 2013
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it took a few chapters for me to get into this novel, but once it picked up it was alright. i only brought it because someone told me i could use it to comare to king lear
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5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Very Best Recent American Novels
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2016
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This book follows the fortunes and failures of a Mid-Western farming family. The initial situation is based on King Lear with three daughters vying for their father’s favours and affections. But don’t let that put you off. It follows its own narrative with its own plot, revelations and development. The family members are exposed not only to their own internal conflicts but also to powerful forces changing the world around them. An outstanding book that keeps the reader involved every step of the way.
3 people found this helpful
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lyn harbird
4.0 out of 5 stars A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 December 2014
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A reworking of King Lear, this is a well-written modern day take on the Shakespearian play. It is interesting because the events which take place are seen through the eyes of one of the daughters. The father figure is a very strong uncompromising character who treats his daughters as possessions, there to do his bidding. Only the youngest daughter has escaped from the stiflingly rigid way of life in this farming community where everyone knows everyone else's business. The strong family structure disintegrates as events unfold. A really good read.
2 people found this helpful
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Mr. M. Van Blankenstein
5.0 out of 5 stars Tragedy, enhanced by its vivid mise-en-scene and its acute analysis of character. A truly great American novel.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 April 2018
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A superb saga of modern rural America, rich in character and family conflict. The analogy with King Lear is apt and never over-done.
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2.0 out of 5 stars Badly written and rubbish
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 May 2020
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Cannot imagine how this book won any prizes. The beginning is interesting but then the whole story tails with truly unbelievable characters. At the end of the book I wondered why she had written it. Not just me who felt this but my book club felt the same. Badly written and rubbish
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cris
5.0 out of 5 stars Me ha gustado
Reviewed in Spain on 24 June 2023
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Facil de leer y me ha gustado bastante
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Yvonne
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written
Reviewed in Germany on 5 February 2022
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This is a family saga, all can benefit from reading.
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Uitlander
5.0 out of 5 stars Well Placed Contrast Makes for an Explosive Novel
Reviewed in the United States on 10 January 2019
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I finally read this Pulitzer Prize winning novel after many years of reading something else instead. I'm sorry I delayed so long. It has many well crafted features that make it stand out as a literary gem. Clearly, the author has spent considerable time around Iowa farm families. She knows that men are occupied by tasks like moisture levels in corn or gauging the best day to sell hogs. Farm women do drive combines and neuter piglets, but are expected to fix early breakfasts and keep up household appearances as well. I read page after page of this 30 something farm wife going on and on about her cooking, her cleaning, her weeding, her bean picking, her canning, her dosing a jar of sauerkraut with poison to kill her sister...What! WTF?
Jane Smiley knows when to unleash her thunderbolts. Just when the American pastoral setting is at dead calm, she summons one of the deadly sins onto the page. They all show up. Some critics have found this exhibition too atypical to be believed, but I think some people who feel cheated by life resort to extremes when outrageousness is tolerated. Old Larry Cook (the stand in for King Lear), acquired a thousand acres, begot three daughters and destroyed it all. When I read his dialog I heard Chuck Grassley's voice in my head. (Sorry Senator.)
Towards the end of the book the author implants sections that serve as motivation for the next course of action and deserve to be read carefully. The conversation between Ginny and Rose in Chapter 38 is crucial. There are well written summations as well including the epilogue.
13 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Can be compared to The Field
Reviewed in Canada on 18 August 2017
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Conservative farming families are the central characters in this novel. Struggles to achieve a successful farm subjugate all other desires. Throw in infidelity and betrayals and you have a riveting novel that will keep you reading long after bedtime.
One person found this helpful
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Tim_Sydney
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Novel
Reviewed in Australia on 16 May 2020
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Purchased this as part of my study with University. The novel draws from the Shakespearean King Lear and creates a modern interpretation set in contemporary America. It won the Pulitzer Prize and its hard not to see why. Great read.
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