Customer Reviews

The Age of Grief

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I think Jane Smiley is similar to Anne Tyler in her ability to understand ordinary people and the significance of home and family. Her characters have exceptional (sometime unbelievable) abilities of introspection and self-examination. They also seem to live somewhat muffled lives. Emotion is there, but it is observed rather than felt.

These stories move slowly, building up layers of character and atmosphere through observations and spare dialogue. The last story, "The Age of Grief", made me think of Henry James novels like "Portrait of a Lady." Here we are looking very closely at daily behavior, signals and symbols that pass between people, the subdued drama of everyday life.

I first read this book ten years ago and loved it. Rereading it was just as rewarding. Now I am married and a mother and I find the story "The Age of Grief" captures aspects of marriage not usually described. What is it like to be knocked down by illness as a family, parents needing to muster up energy to care for sick children when they are wracked with aches and exhaustion themselves? Jane Smiley delineates such moments and portrays marriage with great insight.

I picked this up after the end of a relationship in the same spirit that I listen to sad songs-- to amplify my own emotions, remember that others have been there too, and gain some release. "The Age of Grief" was good therapy!

The most wonderful story, in my opinion, was a heartbreaker called "Long Distance," in which a man released from a visit from a girl he no longer loves by circumstances realizes how her grief will be something he never gets over. This story is short and clean and unforgettable.

The title novella is powerful on so many levels-- told from the pov of a man who realizes his wife has fallen for someone else and is desperate not to let her tell him about it, it is such a convincing portrait of a marriage, of family, of the layers of fear and forgiveness that intimacy brings. One of the children gets a dangerously high fever and the terror and the bonds of love remind us that infidelity is sometimes part of a relationship, not its definition.

The only reason I didn't give this five stars is because while all of the stories are quick reads, well-written-- as is all of Smiley's work-- and occasionally even very funny, not all of them seem as grounded in the poignancy of emotional turning points. I was rather bored with "Dynamite," in which an aging underground movement protester from the sixties decides to reconnect with her family. That is to say, I didn't really think we needed that bit of plot-- I was far more interested in the family dynamics than the dynamite.

"Jeffrey, Believe Me" is a bit lightweight, doesn't seem to be a part of this volume really, though perhaps it provides some comic relief. "The Pleasure of Her Company" though is right up there with "Long Distance"-- friendship has its own jealousies and betrayals, and no happy couple can ever really be known except by themselves, as the lonely nurse who falls in love with her neighbors discovers.
"Lily" also lays out the issues of friendship and marriage-- friendship within marriage-- and how marriage is both more and less than romance.

Ultimately, read the book just for "Long Distance" alone. It's a masterpiece-- and it will haunt me.

With all that has come after, I hope no one forgets the quality of Smiley's early work. If you start out with her later books, returning to this one will have its rewards.

The Age of Grief is the novella that concludes this collection of six works. It takes the reader into a marriage and shows the somewhat shaky structure that sometimes holds people's lives together. Perl and Dana were students in dental school; now they are practicing dentists with daughters who demand regular attention. When Perl notes signs that Dana is having a relationship, he tries to ignore them, but the children can't. This is a fine analysis of a marriage at work. Although he knows Dana is seeing someone else, Perl is convinced that if he ignores it--that if the marriage and family continue on--Dana will have to give it up. A bout of flu saves them all. The five short stories vary, but The Age of Grief is prime.

The title story of this book is the last story, and the most charming. The first paragraph alone is a complete and wonderful tale, with irony and full charecters. The male and female characters are both written with a delicate understanding and sensitivity to what the diferences between them are. Reading this book created a feeling of comfort within the world and modern experience, and took away from any sence of lonlyness.

This is a collection of 5 short stories and a novella.
I found the first 3 stories so stilted and mind-numbingly boring, that I nearly put the book down. The fourth story (Long Distance - my favourite) was interesting enough to keep me reading; the emotion in it was not as restrained, but interestingly the real emotion came from a foreigner (rather than an American) and was shocking to the person who has caused it.
The final short story was on the verge of being interesting but didn't quite go there for me. I found most of the characters to be unaware of their motives, even though they all examined what was happening in their emotional worlds and they often came to fairly large conclusions.
I was not far into the novella when I realized it had been made into a movie, "The Secret Lives of Dentists"; which I found to be one of the most painfully tedious movies I've ever sat through; I remember watching and just hoping, believing it had to get better - it had to go somewhere, it didn't. I'm not sure why I kept reading the novella when I realised it's relation to the movie but I am sort of glad I did. The novella is much better than the movie, which was not translated to the screen well and the inevitable changes lost the good qualities from the story.
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

This book is comprised of short stories and a novella.

I especially enjoyed the short story, 'The Pleasure of her Company'. It is about a young woman who becomes enamored of her neighbor's life and tries to be a part of the couple who move in next door to her. She finds them very distant and hard to get to know. Insidiously, she finds out that things are not as they appear (are they ever?), that an outwardly wonderful marriage is seriously fraught with problems. She loses her identity in her attempt to be a part of others' lives, gaining nothing and knowing less in the process. Nowadays, I think we might call her behavior 'stalking'.

'Lily' is a short story about a couple whose marriage is is dire straits. The visit a friend who is extremely beautiful but unable to sustain a long-lasting relationship. During the visit, their relationship faces its final demise.

Several of the other stories are good. One is about a young woman who gets her homosexual friend and lover inebriated in the hope that he'll impregnate her. In another story, a radical from the 1960's who has been on the run for two decades under a false identity, makes her first contact with her family.

The novella is about a married couple, both dentists. The story draws a lot thematically from dentistry. The woman is unfaithful. The husband refuses to confront it.

The book had some high points but overall was uninspiring.

I recommend this volume for the title novella, which has recently been made into a movie titled "The Secret Life of Dentists." Told from the point of view of a suspicious husband, it's a warm, very believable story which manages to carry some suspense until its resolution (no spoiler here). The narrator manages to be very interesting despite the humdrum surroundings. Highly recommended.

The short stories that precede the novella are good but not particularly noteworthy. Unlike the most recent reviewer, I actually liked Dynamite the most. Smiley is a gifted craftsman and an interesting writer. I've managed to overcome my first reading of her -- the dreadful Duplicate Keys -- and her idiotarian op-ed current affairs writing to have real respect for her as an artist. On a side note, "Moo" has to be one of the best comic novels I have ever read. "The Age of Grief" isn't quite up to that level of quality and imagination but it's a very accomplished and affecting novella. Go read it!

It's hard to explain. This book is a masterpiece. I have nothing more to add. It's a master work. Highly recommended!!!