Thursday, April 18, 2013

DNF or hold?: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

February/March Book Group: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. 
Written back in the 80's, about the lives of two couples, friends since meeting at the University the husbands taught at. Different in personalities, wealth and status they become friends despite those differences. 
The book begins in the present day. They are older,  have adult children, and are adjusting to their later years while dealing with the illness and imminent death of one of the four. While waiting for the strictly planned activities during a last get together, flashbacks of their earlier lives are shared.
This was a really hard book for me to get into. It took me over a month to get past the first paragraph. Not quite sure why. It's not written in difficult language but I have gotten used to lots of dialogue and this book doesn't have much of it. It started with a lot of internal thoughts from the main character and descriptions of his surroundings. However, once I got past this, it did get better and I did start to enjoy it. 
Of course, two months after starting, I still am not done. I believe only 2 ladies in my group finished it. Perhaps being younger than the characters, in a different time and place we had a hard time relating. 
Has anyone read this book? What did you think of it? Wondering if I should keep trudging through.
Source: borrowed 
Happy Reading!
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6 comments:

  1. It sure doesn't sound like it's the book for you right now. I'd let it go, if it were me.

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  2. I read it a long time ago and don't remember much about it except I had similar issues as yours. Back then I plowed through books to the bitter end but now there are just so many books I want to read that if I don't enjoy the experience of a book I let it go.

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    1. Exactly. So many books to read, it is hard to want to trudge through.

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  3. I loved this book when I read it in my late 20s and was just thinking of re-reading it. It is slow to get into, but I found it enormously satisfying.

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    1. Maybe I will borrow it again when I am more in the mood for it then. ;)

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Thanks for taking the time to comment! :)