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| Plot Summary of A Thousand Acres |
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"In her Pulitzer Prize winner, Jane Smiley tells about an Iowa farm family broken apart by death, time, and their dysfunctional relationships with one another. Zebulon County has been home to Larry Cook all his life as he toils on his farm and raises his family, eventually amassing a large parcel of land of more than a thousand acres. Cook is hardened to the world around him by this rough farming lifestyle and the difficult seasonal routine of harvesting the land for a living. For more than twenty years he has been forced to raise his three daughters by himself after the death of his wife.
One day Cook announces he will divide the farm and go into retirement. It is a decision that shatters the solidarity of the family as daughters Rose and Ginny are left in the will while youngest daughter Caroline is cut out. Rose is recovering from a bout with breast cancer. She is married to Pete and has two daughters but has sent them to boarding school. Ginny, married to Ty, but is broken hearten for her inability to carry her pregnancies to full term. Neighbor Jess Clark has reappeared into their lives after dodging the draft many years earlier, spending the Vietnam War living in Vancouver and Washington. The lives of this extended family move at the slow pace of the plains; watching each season change. Tragically, they continue to live without bringing resolution to their problems and communicating to one another how they feel."
David Fletcher, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of A Thousand Acres |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- depressed
Time/era of story
- 1960's-1970's
Family, struggle with
Yes
Struggle with:
- Father (or standin)
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- homemaker
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 60's-90's
Profession/status:
- farmer
Eccentric/Smart/Dumb:
Yes
Eccentric:
- deluded
- emotionally unstable
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 8 (a significant amount)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Midwest
Farm/Ranch?
Yes
Farm/Ranch:
- farm
- lot of descript of crop raising
- lot of descript of animal care
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Click here for more information about this book
Jane Smiley Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 David Fletcher
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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