Crossing to Safety: Wallace Stegner (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Well, maybe not Sally. She is strong and long-suffering, first as a pregnant faculty wife and later as the victim of polio, and seemingly without personality flaws. The novel is dedicated to Stegner’s own wife, and maybe that’s why Sally isn’t given any rough edges. They’ve been distant, in part, because of geography. They live in New Mexico where the weather is better for Sally’s polio, the malady she first suffered in one of the early summers at the Lang compound — and survived, in part, because of Charity’s support and encouragement. But there’s more, as Sally tells Hallie:

Showcasing a talent often as breathtaking as the landscape that was Stegner's lifelong muse, this first posthumous essay collection by the novelist, historian and biographer who died in 1993 confirms Continue reading » Yet, the proof, I think, is in the way the participants see the relationship. Larry and Sally needed help to get on their feet and make their way in a difficult world. Charity and Sid found joy and delight at helping the Morgans. This could be ascribed to authorial chutzpah or even authorial arrogance. But I think Stegner is communicating a deeper insight here. Want to learn the ideas in Crossing To Safety better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner here. Fiction Book Review: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Earle Stegner". PublishersWeekly.com. 1987-08-04.

Part 1, Chapter 1

Where are the things that novelists seize upon and readers expect? Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, the death wish? Where are the suburban infidelities, the promiscuities, the convulsive divorces, the alcohol, the drugs, the lost weekends? verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Everyday life can be compelling in the hands of someone like Stegner because it is shown to be lived by complex people with a mix of good and bad, people who are attractive and also disappointing. In writing Crossing to Safety, he has made all four of his main characters attractive and disappointing.

Indeed, the scene with Hallie takes place in 1972 at the Vermont compound that Charity and Sid have maintained as a summer gathering place for their large extended family, including Larry and Sally as honorary members. These 31 classic stories record much of the cultural climate of 20th-century America, its West in particular, constituting, as the NBA and Pulitzer Prize-winning author affectionately notes, not an Continue reading » An undistinguished writing professor at Stanford when he was commissioned by the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) in 1955 to write ""an approved history of the oil venture's early days,"" future Continue reading » Larry only partially succeeds at becoming a successful novelist, and he does so late in life. Sid spends his life trying to get tenure writing articles that he doesn’t care about, but it’s all because of Charity. The couple is an ironic one: They are unsuccessful from the perspective of American literature because they don’t make much progress despite their idealist beginnings. The Langs remain unstable and alienated, even from each other, unable to conceive of a life that isn’t driven by the accumulation of capital. The Morgans never transcend their core struggle to find a community they naturally resonate with or find true satisfaction in their work.I think what he’s saying is that something as seemingly mundane as the friendship of two couples can be as riveting and universal as tragic choices or spectacular heroics. That everyday life — the life each of us lives — can be the subject of great writing.

The American West is ``less a place than a process,'' asserts Stegner. In these 17 graceful essays, most previously published in magazines or books, the novelist explores the dynamic tension between Continue reading » Boswell, Evelyn (2006-10-05). "New Stegner professor to hit the ground running". Montana State University. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

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Retirees Joseph and Ruth Allston find their placid, rural California life disrupted by a hippie who builds a treehouse on their property and by a young married couple tragically affected by pregnancy Continue reading » There are rough edges galore among the other four. Charity is one of those highly competent people who likes to organize herself and everyone around her, particularly, in her case, her husband Sid, an English professor. She has great ambitions for him, but, although he looks like a Greek god, he’s a dreamy kind of a fellow, rich enough not to have to work hard.