Re: I've been trying to learn
bethany edstrom (bethanyedstrom@hotmail.com)
Sat, 09 Oct 1999 12:04:04 -0500 (CDT)
Right
>now I
>have to read A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley for that contemporary lit
>class. I've only read 50 or so pages so far but I would enjoy any comments
>or help I might need later on.
> I really love school.
> I just have to find a date for Homecoming. ;)
>
>
>
It's a feminist retelling of _King Lear_, with the main character and her
sister (Ginny and Rose) as parallels for Goneril and Regan, and their
youngest sister (Caroline) representing Cornelia. The idea is that the
reason the youngest sister apparently loves their father more than the older
two is because the older two sisters had shielded the youngest from the
physical and sexual abuse the father had inflicted on them. Therefore the
youngest did not have the conflicting love/hate feelings toward the father
that the older ones do.
Does this matter to your reading of the novel? At least for me, I would have
gotten very tired very early on of the "boo hoo, my daddy abused me" plot if
I hadn't been so interested in the Shakespearean parallels and in the way
Smiley makes certain elements of _Lear_--madness, betrayal, poisoning,
etc.--work plausibly in this late-20th century setting. Yes, feminism can be
tiresome too, but this novel, at least in my opinion, seems to transcend
mere feminism to offer a plausible and engaging alternative reading to a
classic work, similar to the way Jean Rhys does in _Wide Sargasso Sea_.
Bethany
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