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V '£ AfctiJmj arfc - r J " I 'ii 3 't A-- i IsyuUtfiifa Standard Examiner HORIZONS 4C Sunday June 18 1995 ' r-- 2 -- -- Smiley not troubled by criticism of ‘Moo5 'BOOKMARK ty But it's an intrusion and not an By TM VARREN Te Bdftmor Sji With invasion” “Moo" her first novel the PuLtzer “A Thousand Acres" firmly on the best-selllists Jane Smiley can afford to be d about the critical rereceived has it ception She points out for instance that many critics have appreciated “Moo” a comic novel about a large agriculturally oriented Iowa university not unlike Iowa State University where she teaches Some people were not amused Richard Eder of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “If neither satire nor seriousness entirely work it is because the autho’s hand grows heavy Others have harrumphed that Smiley was writing lightweight stuff not at all up to the level of “A Thousand Acres” the work that was a dark portrait of an Iowa farm family It won the Pulitzer for fiction in 1992 Smiley 45 says she saw it all coming She had a feeling that everybody doesn’t love a clown “It just makes me laugh because I wrote an article for Civilization magazine about changing forms and wnting a comic novel” she says “I talked about what I expected reviewers to write about this novel And I said I expected bad reviews because when I was reading a lot of comic novels and reviews of comic novels a few years ago I was astounded at how bad the reviews were and how mean they were even books I really liked like (Garrison Keillor’s) ‘WLT or (Nora Ephron’s) ‘Heartburn’ “I finally decided that comedy is really a much more complex form - it’s less predictable how people will react to it because humor is much more a matter of personal taste than a ‘serious’ or tragic nover light-hearte- £ ' J 'Rifvi £ £ i 1 I’& -- el” Not a comedy candidate - It should be noted that Smiley vfw was not a likely candidate to write a comic novel All her previous eight works of fiction were straightforward literary efforts often with everyday family life as a dominant theme - Salt Lake City poet G Barnes will conduct a wnting next week workshop ’LocseTak About Writing" win be 1 to 4 p m next Sunday June 25 at the Thought Cortnuum bookstore 710 40th St Ogden Cost is $1 0 9 to register a person those interested can cal! Barnes is the author of three poetry books - ‘Frame Piano" Blaisdetl Buckman and Barnes on Bams' and ‘Something for Nothr g He has been pub! shed in literary pumas magazines and newspapers across America OGDEN 392-394- Nuclear spread subject of reading group and discussion group OGDEN -- The ‘Great Decisions reading continues at the Weber County Library with a discussion on nuclear proliferation The gathenng will be at 7 p m Tuesday at the library 2464 Jefferson Ave Ogden The event is free and open to the public For information and copies cf the reading material contact the library's nonfiction department at Larger point But it's not a complete send-uof academic life and Smiley says “In ‘Moo’ I was wnting about a specific point about a specific type of university” she says "It’s very similar m theme I think to ‘A Thousand Acres’ My overall subject is not academia It’s a larger point about technology and agriculture ‘A Thousand Acres’ has a lot and motifs about of p The Aseocated Press Jane Smiley’s latest bock ‘Moo’ Is a comic novel about a large agriculturally oriented Iowa university “The Greenlanders” published in 1988 was inspired by Icelandic family sagas and is set in the 14 th century It’s a remarkably vivid recreation of a time and place generally thought to be uninteresting As for “A Thousand Acres” it depicts not only the disintegration of American farm life in general but also one Iowa farm family m particular (Larry Cook the scion of the farm commits nicest with two daughters) Then there’s Smiley herself She comes across as bnsk and efficient a keen and intelligent observer but search for not exactly on a g laughs Even when she’s talking about comedy it’s with a certain detached tone that could be just as easily used for say discussing tragedy Consider too how she went about writing “Moo” Known for doing meticulous research for her novels Smiley read dozens of comic novels and dissected them carefully to see what worked and what didn’t You get the feeling she was the kind of student in high school who turned in term papers a week before anybody else life-lon- Yet she allows “In some ways this narrative is much closer to who I really am than say the narrative of Ginny (one of the abused daughters) m ‘A Thousand Acres’ I think the narrators in my novellas were probably close to me as well but this is the side of me that emerges with friends" Domestic at heart Although Smiley seems the soul of Midwestern reserve - she grew up in St Louis and has bved most of the past two decades in Iowa -it there is a aspect to her personality After she got her doctorate m Old Norse literature at the University of Iowa in the late 1 970s she told one interviewer “My plan was to go to England and then wander around the world with my typewriter in one hand my banjo in the other and my backpack on my free-spir- back” But she chose the domestic life instead - she’s on her third marriage She talks with affection about her three children and discusses her relatively recent literary fame with d skepticism - “I view a lot of the Pulitzer aftermath as an intrusion rather than an opportuni good-nature- 'Bathroom Bocks’ creator plans signing SALT LAKE CIT- Y- Stevens Anderson creator of The Great Amencan Bathroom Book senes will sign copies of the popular books at two Salt Lake City appearances He will be at the B Dalton bookstore in Crossroads Mall from 1 to 3 p m Saturday From 3 to 530 pm that same day he will be at the B Dalton at Cottonwood Mall The three volumes that make up The Great Amencan Bathroom Bock’ collection contain condensed versions of literary classics as well as popular contemporary books Among the 500 selections in each book are also biographies of famous people memorable quotes sub-them- es andtnvia HE W BY REGIONAL AUTHORS U er Though a great deal of Carolyn See’s memoir “Dreaming1 Hard Times and Good Luck in America” takes place in Southern California the subject is true to the subtitle: This is an American book fueled by dreams that burned and curled a little at the edges stoked by large doses of alcohol and drugs Wnting in an absolutely clean and unaffected manner - a style honed by five novels including the marvelous “Making History” - See relates the history of her family her ‘T childhood and adolescence and marriages Though filled with public and personal failures See’s account retains the sunmness of her resilient nature and her pleasure in the possibilities of hfe lived in alternate bands of tempest and calm Alcohol is the elixir that burnishes and the disappointments of See’s parents and later of herself and her several marriages We believe in America that “there was supposed to be more to it than this” she writes and our American tendency is to find relief not simple enjoyment in the act of drowning our sorrows or deadening the pain short-circui- ts reprints classic Utah history book The late historian Dale Morgan wrote the definitive book on the history surrounding Utah’s large inland sea And now University of Utah Press has repnnted The Great Salt Lake ($14 95) Onginally published in 1 947 the book remains ’one of the most informative and readable general histories of Utah yet written’ said writer Harold Schindler in the book’s preface The book takes readers from the first Americans through mountain men religious empires railroads and resorts Although it began as a history of a lake the result was a history of western exploration and settlement said Schindler Morgan who died in 1971 wrote "Utah: A Guide to the State’ under the direction of the Works Progress Administration in the 1 930s as well as “The Humboldt: Highroad of the West’ which in 1943 Throughout his life he wrote edited or contributed to 46 books “Histonans and writers two decades and more after his passing are still marveling at how accurate he was" said Schindler or whatever” Writing so many different kinds of books means as she says “I have so many subgroups of fans I have people who are fans of the novellas and a lot of people who liked ‘A Thousand Acres’ who never liked anything else And this group of fans of The Greenlanders they might have read some of the others but they all look small in comparison And I think there are a few people who liked ‘Moo’ more than the others” BESTSELLERS g trade paperback books of the week These were the according to Publishers Weekly 1 Chicken Soup for the Soul Jack Canfield Mark Hansen editors (Health Communications) 2 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields (Penguin) 3 A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (Health Communications) 4 0J’s Legal Pad Henry Beard John Boswell and Ron Barrett 5 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R Covey 6 Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives Laura Schlessmger 7 The Shipping News E Annie Proulx 8 Motherless Daughters Hope Edelman 9 Reviving Ophelia Mary Pipher 1 0 A Map of the World Jane Hamilton (Doubleday-Anchor- ) Resiliency shines through account of hardships DREAMING: HARD TIMES AND GOOD LUCK IN AMERICA By Carolyn See Random House $23 0 627-692- how the world these people has lived in has been destroyed by such things as pesticides in the water supply and this giant machinery “The other side of that thematic coin takes place at the university This university is very closely tied to the farm So I would never have wntten an ivory-towcomic novel I thought that was pretty explicit in this book but others persist in seeing it as a novel about academia rather than a novel about technology Barnes to host poetry workshop G hist-fille- “Lear”-influ-cnc- 1 HEWS FOR BOOK LOVERS In her novella “Or&nary Love" woman the narrator a middle-age- d characterizes her family this way: “We try to maintain a light ironic (though sometimes rueful) atmoOne could sphere around here easily see Smiley running the same kind of household “Light and ironic" would be a good way to describe "Moo" as wed Moo U has professors bumbling and administrators and a generd collection of faculty ally students and staff There’s an enormous hog named Earl Butz whose sole purpose in Lfe it seems is to eat as much as possible and become as huge as possible best-sellin- Though the theme sounds its grim notes (and its poignant and its funny notes) See’s writer’s eye is firmly fixed on the significant details of family life and its corral of emotions the result is a refreshing sense of detachment and delicate irony which she doesn’t hesitate to turn against herself By the end of the book she is experienced and chastened and yet (again) refreshingly resis-teto any deviation from her own way The American dream after all has “given us our stones and made us who we are” By Frednc Koeppel Scnpps Howard News Service nt d v '"’'V M&h Y 3 'hi u t- - 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