“What if he sees me? What if SHE sees me? She knows who I am.”
Tim slowed the car. The voice of the justice of the peace rose on the air. The corner of the backyard came into view. Tim said, “If they see you, then wave and smile and wish them well.”
PROFESSOR GARCIA, best man, handed Chairman X the ring. It was a real ring, one that Garcia had persuaded the Chairman, known tightwad, to spring for. The Chairman took the ring, and Garcia saw all of the children’s gazes lock onto it and watch it slip from his grasp onto her finger. Garcia’s own gaze fell on them, the four youthful protagonists, thirteen, ten, six, and almost two, for whom this climactic ceremony would henceforward be the merest backdrop to the infinitely larger dramas of their own lives. That’s what he loved about weddings, the way each one was the beginning of it all.
Garcia licked his lips. Even with the children, the assumption of all their friends that they were married, and the rest of the accoutrements of married life, Beth and the Chairman had never been quite so exquisitely mismatched as they were today and would be from now on, all their disjunctions magnified by the mere fact that they had chosen each other at last and over every other candidate.
The breeze lifted Beth’s hair, the eldest picked up Amy without any prompting, the two boys stopped fidgeting, fragrance from the blossoming apple trees rolled over him, and a very well cared for old Saab eased down the alley and past the couple, whose eyes were closed, and who, Garcia thought, seemed to be lost in an astonishing, and even legendary, kiss.
ALSO BY JANE SMILEY
THE AGE OF GRIEF
The Age of Grief captures moments of great intimacy with grace, clarity, and indelible emotional power. In “The Pleasure of Her Company,” a lonely single woman befriends a married couple, hoping to learn the secret of their happiness. In “Long Distance,” a man is relieved of the obligation to continue an affair that is no longer compelling to him, only to be waylaid by the guilt he feels at his easy escape. And in the wise and moving title novella, a dentist, aware that his wife has fallen in love with someone else, must comfort her when she is spurned, while enduring his own complicated sorrow.
Fiction/Literature/978-0-385-72187-5
DUPLICATE KEYS
Alice Ellis is a Midwestern refugee living in Manhattan. Still recovering from a painful divorce, she depends on the companionship and camaraderie of a tightly knit circle of friends. At the center of this circle is a rock band struggling to navigate New York’s erratic music scene, and an apartment/practice space with approximately fifty key-holders. One day, Alice enters to find two of the band members shot dead. Then when she begins to notice things amiss in her own apartment, it occurs to her that she is not the only person with a key, and she may not get a chance to change the locks.
Fiction/Literature/978-1-4000-7602-4
GOOD FAITH
Forthright, likable Joe Stratford is the kind of local businessman everybody trusts, for good reason. But it’s 1982, and even in Joe’s small town, values are in upheaval: not just property values, either. Enter Marcus Burns, a would-be master of the universe whose years with the IRS have taught him which rules are meant to be broken. Before long he and Joe are new best friends—and partners in an investment venture so complex that no one may ever understand it. Add to this Joe’s roller-coaster affair with his mentor’s married daughter. The result is as entertaining as any of Smiley’s fiction.
Fiction/Literature/978-0-385-72105-9
THE GREENLANDERS
Set in the fourteenth century in Europe’s most far-flung outpost, a land of glittering fjords, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains, The Greenlanders is the story of one family—proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Jane Smiley takes us into this world of farmers and lawspeakers, of hunts and feasts and long-standing feuds, and by an act of literary magic, makes a remote time, place, and people not only real but dear to us.
Fiction/Literature/978-1-4000-9546-9
ORDINARY LOVE AND GOOD WILL
In Ordinary Love, Smiley focuses on a woman’s infidelity and the lasting, indelible effects it leaves on her children long after her departure. Good Will describes a father who realizes how his son has been affected by his decision to lead a counterculture life and move his family to a farm. As both stories unfold, Smiley gracefully raises the questions that confront all families with the characteristic style and insight that has marked all of her work.
Fiction/Literature/978-0-307-27909-5
TEN DAYS IN THE HILLS
In the aftermath of the Academy Awards, Elena and Max—he’s an Oscar-winning writer/director—open their Hollywood Hills home to a group of friends and neighbors, industry insiders and hangers-on, eager to escape the outside world and dissect the latest news, gossip, and secrets of the business. Over the next ten days, old lovers collide, new relationships form, and sparks fly.
Fiction/Literature/978-1-4000-3320-1
13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL
In her inimitable style—exuberant, candid—Smiley explores the power of the novel, looking at its history and variety, its cultural impact, and just how it works its magic. She invites us behind the scenes of novel-writing, sharing her own habits, spilling the secrets of her craft, and offering priceless advice to aspiring authors. As she works her way through one hundred novels—from classics such as the thousand-year-old Tale of Genji to recent fiction by Alice Munro—she infects us anew with the passion for reading that is the governing spirit of this gift to book lovers everywhere.
Literary Criticism/Essays/978-1-4000-3318-8
A THOUSAND ACRES
A successful Iowa farmer decides to divide his farm among his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions. An ambitious reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear cast upon a typical American community in the late twentieth century, A Thousand Acres takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride, and reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity.
Fiction/Literature/978-1-4000-3383-6
A YEAR AT THE RACES
“Every horse story is a love story,” writes Jane Smiley, who has owned and bred horses for a good part of her life. To love something is to observe it with more than usual attention, and that is precisely what Smiley does in this irresistibly smart, witty, and engaging chronicle of her obsession. In particular she follows a sexy filly named Waterwheel and a gray named Wowie as they begin careers at the racetrack. Filled with humor and suspense, and with discourses on equine intelligence, affection and character, A Year at the Races is a winner.
Sports/Horses/978-1-4000-3317-1
ANCHOR BOOKS
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Jane Smiley, Moo
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