Understanding Jane Smiley
By: Neil Nakadate.
Series: Understanding contemporary American literature
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: [Columbia]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 281
Subjects: Smiley, Jane -- Criticism and interpretation.; Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Description: In this comprehensive study of Jane Smiley's fiction, Neil Nakadate offers insight into the strikingly imaginative and intellectual range of a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer best known for A Thousand Acres. He provides close readings - from the early Barn Blind to The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton - and presents the first extended account of the connections between her life and her work.

Drawing on the critical record, previously unpublished interviews with the novelist, and Smiley's own prolific commentary on literature, writing, and American culture, Nakadate examines her intellectual interests, social and philosophical concerns, and penchant for taking up different creative challenges with successive books.

He traces the ongoing themes of her work, including those of family, environmental integrity, social institutions, economic and political dynamics, and the efforts of women to recover their identities in an often harsh and unreceptive world. Nakadate finds that Smiley's work has been influenced by her attention to the issues and interactions of family life but also owes much to a critical intelligence that ranges adventurously across topics and disciplines.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-271) and index.
Table of contents: title: Editor's preface; title: Acknowledgments; title: Understanding Jane Smiley; title: Barn blind; title: At Paradise Gate; title: Duplicate keys; title: The age of grief; title: The Greenlanders; title: Ordinary love and good will; title: A thousand acres; title: Moo; title: The all-true travels and adventures of Lidie Newton; title: Notes; title: Bibliography; title: Index.