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A review by book_concierge
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
4.0
Audiobook performed by Richard Poe
Sally and Larry Morgan arrive at the Vermont compound of their long-time friends, Charity and Sid Lang. They have come to celebrate Charity’s birthday, and to say their goodbyes, for she is dying of cancer. As they settle in at the guest cottage, Larry begins to reflect on memories of a friendship lasting over four decades.
The couples meet in 1937 in Madison, where both Sid and Larry begin their academic careers on the English faculty at the university, and their wives are both pregnant. Larry and Sally are struggling to make ends meet. Sid and Charity are independently wealthy. Still, they form an instant bond despite their differences, and the novel follows them from Wisconsin to Vermont to Cambridge to Italy. Over the years the couples help one another during tough times, and enjoy one another during times of plenty. They are intimately aware of the difficulties each is having, and of the strengths (and weaknesses) in each individual’s character as well as in each couple’s marriage.
This is a work of literary fiction in the best sense. The writing is elegant and the prose simply beautiful (and beautifully simple). If you are a reader who needs a strong plot, with a dramatic storyline and major twists, this is not the work for you. The lives of these two couples are like the lives of most of us … without epic drama, but full of the joys and sorrows of a decades-long existence. Larry, as narrator, is thoughtful and contemplative, not simply observing what happens but trying his best to explain dynamics of the relationships. Stegner has Larry voice the writer’s difficulty: “How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where are the things that novelists seize upon and readers expect? Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence …?” In the end we have a novel about love and vulnerability, about kindness and forgiveness, about the complicated relationships we call marriage and friendship. There may not be anything particularly special about any one of these four people, but the story of their friendship is special indeed.
My only complaint is that I thought Charity really bore the brunt of negative characterization. Stegner almost belabors the point that she is a control freak, who repeatedly bullies those she purportedly loves into doing things HER way. How many examples do we need to get it? The sailing trip, the tea bag, the compass, the dishwashing assignment, etc. Just overkill. On the other hand, her determination is also a saving grace in several situations, and it is clear that everyone loves her in spite of (and perhaps a little because of) this flaw.
I should point out that this was Stegner’s last published novel, and he, himself, called it: “…a sort of memoir more for Mary and myself than for anything else, and I wasn’t at all sure I was ever going to publish it.” I, for one, am glad that he did.
Richard Poe does a fine job narrating the audiobook. His pacing is good. I did find his deep voice somewhat challenging when portraying the women, but that is a minor quibble.
Sally and Larry Morgan arrive at the Vermont compound of their long-time friends, Charity and Sid Lang. They have come to celebrate Charity’s birthday, and to say their goodbyes, for she is dying of cancer. As they settle in at the guest cottage, Larry begins to reflect on memories of a friendship lasting over four decades.
The couples meet in 1937 in Madison, where both Sid and Larry begin their academic careers on the English faculty at the university, and their wives are both pregnant. Larry and Sally are struggling to make ends meet. Sid and Charity are independently wealthy. Still, they form an instant bond despite their differences, and the novel follows them from Wisconsin to Vermont to Cambridge to Italy. Over the years the couples help one another during tough times, and enjoy one another during times of plenty. They are intimately aware of the difficulties each is having, and of the strengths (and weaknesses) in each individual’s character as well as in each couple’s marriage.
This is a work of literary fiction in the best sense. The writing is elegant and the prose simply beautiful (and beautifully simple). If you are a reader who needs a strong plot, with a dramatic storyline and major twists, this is not the work for you. The lives of these two couples are like the lives of most of us … without epic drama, but full of the joys and sorrows of a decades-long existence. Larry, as narrator, is thoughtful and contemplative, not simply observing what happens but trying his best to explain dynamics of the relationships. Stegner has Larry voice the writer’s difficulty: “How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where are the things that novelists seize upon and readers expect? Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence …?” In the end we have a novel about love and vulnerability, about kindness and forgiveness, about the complicated relationships we call marriage and friendship. There may not be anything particularly special about any one of these four people, but the story of their friendship is special indeed.
My only complaint is that I thought Charity really bore the brunt of negative characterization. Stegner almost belabors the point that she is a control freak, who repeatedly bullies those she purportedly loves into doing things HER way. How many examples do we need to get it? The sailing trip, the tea bag, the compass, the dishwashing assignment, etc. Just overkill. On the other hand, her determination is also a saving grace in several situations, and it is clear that everyone loves her in spite of (and perhaps a little because of) this flaw.
I should point out that this was Stegner’s last published novel, and he, himself, called it: “…a sort of memoir more for Mary and myself than for anything else, and I wasn’t at all sure I was ever going to publish it.” I, for one, am glad that he did.
Richard Poe does a fine job narrating the audiobook. His pacing is good. I did find his deep voice somewhat challenging when portraying the women, but that is a minor quibble.