![]() ![]() ![]() While writing her 1988 saga, “The Greenlanders,” she manifested all of those traits: She wore a Viking headdress and moose coat to her desk each day to help her channel her characters’ lives and times.īut what makes a Smiley novel identifiably and deliciously hers alone is a unique brand of impassioned critical patriotism. Smiley is that rare three-fer: meticulous historian, intelligent humorist and seasoned literary novelist. ![]() Her 1992 Pulitzer-winning “Thousand Acres” was a modernized reimagining of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” her 2003 satire of real estate rip-offs, “Good Faith,” evoked the would-be big deals of the hapless Willy Loman. Smiley is a master storyteller, with a penchant for turning archetypal allegories into seemingly straightforward, contemporary narratives. In Jane Smiley’s 14 previous adult novels, five nonfiction books and five young adult novels, she demonstrated the gifts that earned her a Pulitzer (and more recently, a spot on the National Book Award long list) and keeps her legions of fans jonesing for her next book. What happens in the middle-American farm town of Denby, Iowa? Not much. ![]()
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