A Thousand Acres
(Jane Smiley)
This very well written novel recreates Shakespeare's masterpiece of King Lear in a modern-day setting. Set on a prosperous farm in America, the comparisons to Shakespeare's work are plain to see. A father plans to split his Thousand Acres of land between his three daughters. His two eldest offpring, Ginny and Rose, accept with an eagerness. His youngest, Caroline, however, voices her trepidations about the whole thing. The father immediately deems her dead to him, and splits the land between two instead. As the story unfolds, the reader gets to know more about the history of the farm in question. They learn that the two elder daughters were sexually abused by their father whilst they were children. The reader also learns of Ginny's desperate yet failed attempts to have children with her husband Ty, and of Rose's antipathy towards their father, and who also deems her part of the farm to be 'Hers by right'.We see the slow but steady progession fo the father into madness and hysteria. The two eldest daughters also end up having a love affair with the prodigal son of neighbouring farmer. Jess Clark ends up sleeping with both of the daughters, but staying with neither of them, instead moving away from the farm once more nearer the end of the book.When the husband of Rose, (Peter) learns that Rose has had an affair, he goes into a drunken rage and takes his shotgun and truck, with the purpose of killing Roses' father, of whom he blamesfor the whole sorry mess. The result is that he crashes his truck in the marsh and dies.Ty, meanwhile, doesn't learn of his own wife's fling, but still enlists the help of the youngest daughter, Caroline, (who is a lawyer) and attempts to sue Ginny and Rose on behalf of their father. Their claim does not win. Eventually, without the father's guidance, the farm falters and Ginny, (who is the base for the stories point of view) takes a thousand dollars from her husband and moves to the city. A few years later, she learns of her oldest sisters' cancer and subsequent death. The book ends with Ginny looking after her two orphaned neices. The farm had been sold off to pay some debts, and the circle of destruction is complete.
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