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Sep 25, 2015DorisWaggoner rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Not up to "A Thousand Acres" or "The Greenlanders," my favorite Smiley novels, but still excellent and heartbreaking. We follow Margaret from her small town Missouri girlhood and spinsterhood to her acquiescence in the matchmaking of two mothers in the 1880s. The mothers hope her life will be enlivened and his will be calmed. Andrew's the most famous man their small town has produced, but his fame as an astronomer plummets as his crackpot ideas and stubborn temper lose him jobs. By the time they marry, he's lost a job at U. of Chicago, and they head to a naval post in San Francisco Bay, where they're still stuck in WW II. Margaret tries to make the best of things, but gradually learns that Andrew's just not capable of looking beyond his telescope and grudges. His ultimate betrayal endangers her and the few friends she's been able to make. I found myself reading this in one gulp, sad as the story was, and the characters stuck in my head long after, even some of the secondary ones. What a strong writer, who knows how to make details count!