

Sinossi
Quante vite si nascondono in una sola? È la domanda che assilla Lyman Ward, malato e in esilio volontario nella casa di famiglia a Grass Valley, California. Alle spalle ha una brillante carriera universitaria e una vita appagante. Ora che ha perso tutto, un istinto primordiale lo spinge a cercare una risposta - un principio di ordine - tra le carte lasciate in quella casa da sua nonna, Susan Burlino Ward, artista e scrittrice. Emerge così il mosaico di una vita consumata tra i paesaggi sconfinati del West della corsa all'oro, al fianco di uno sfortunato ingegnere minerario cui la legavano un matrimonio difficile e un sentimento contraddittorio e profondo. Susan è di volta in volta moglie docile, indomita pioniera, ospite perfetta, madre ansiosa, artista apprezzata, compagna ribelle, amante delusa, stoica custode di una famiglia. Intorno a lei ruota un universo di equilibri e affetti che un solo passo falso potrebbe infrangere per sempre. Tra le catastrofi e i miracoli che costellano la vita di Susan, Lyman ritrova il filo della propria, e la risposta che stava cercando.
- ISBN: 8830102768
- Casa Editrice: Bompiani
- Pagine: 768
Recensioni
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1972, this book is considered by some to be Stegner’s masterpiece. It’s a great read that is largely based on the true story of a woman pioneer in the west when so many other books about this era tell the stories of men. Layered on the frontier story is th Leggi tutto
Fellow Goodreaders know that feeling of exhilaration when a new entrant pushes its way onto a top-ten-of-all-time list. Wallace Stegner’s Pulitzer Prize winner from 1972 is my most recent example. Of course, Goodreads reviewers also know the pressure involved in justifying the choice. So what makes Leggi tutto
I read this book based largely on the Goodreads reviews. Maybe I'm not as smart as other reviewers, or maybe other reviewers give it high praise because it was a Pulitzer Prize winner and they didn't want to look dumb (something to which I have no aversion), or maybe this was just a fluke, but I did Leggi tutto
“What interests me in all these papers is not Susan Burling Ward the novelist and illustrator, and not Oliver Ward the engineer, and not the West they spend their lives in. What really interests me is how two such unlike particles clung together, and under what strains, rolling downhill into their f Leggi tutto
Update.... geeeezzz Marie!!! Another $1.99 Kindle gem this morning- ( I bought it myself) ... and I own an old paper copy! It’s true I never wrote a review- read it before I did such foolish things ... haha.. But if readers have not read this book yet - TIMELESS ( and Crossing to Safety by Wallace St Leggi tutto
This book started out great, but quickly got repetitive for me. Learning on Wikipedia that Stegner derived (with permission!) large parts of it from real letters published the next year certainly took winds out of my sails. Several critics have mentioned that Stegner's version of Mary Hallock Foote
Little did I expect that the taming of the Wild West could be so intricately reflected in the ongoing evolution of a marriage, with all its tensions, compromises and sporadic moments of exultation; a marriage that seemed doomed to failure from the start. Lyman Ward, retired historian and scholar, now Leggi tutto
I have read this book twice so far. The first time, I was a single college student. The second time, I had been married about five years. I'm sure I will read it again a few more times. And I'm sure that the more years of marriage I've logged, the more I will get out of this book. Marriage, and what Leggi tutto
”I am on my grandparents’ side. I believe in Time, as they did, and in the life chronological rather than in the life existential. We live in time and through it, we build our huts in its ruins, or used to, and we cannot afford all these abandonings.” ”I can look in any direction by turning my Leggi tutto
Wallace Stegner was once quoted as saying " It’s perfectly clear that if every writer is born to write one story, that’s my story", this was referring to the tour-de-force novel that is 'Angle of Repose' which just about ticks all the boxes in terms of literary perfection, containing masterful writi Leggi tutto
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