This month the Reading Across the Pond book group discussed A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. The book retells the story of Shakespeare’s King Lear in rural Iowa.
Praise for the book could not have been higher! Consensus was that it was a superbly written story that was both moving and surprising. One member of the book group even bookmarked several favorite passages to share (something that doesn’t happen often with this group!) and discussed the way that the brutal honesty of the prose often left her feeling like she’d been punched in the stomach. (But that was a good thing!) The story was both immersive and evocative: We could all feel the isolation of the prairie and the sweeping farmland.
We’re all quite curious to re-read King Lear now… and to see what else Smiley has written.
Up next: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Stay tuned!
American Library 