Customer Reviews

Years of Grace

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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This story is probably one of the greatest novels I ever read. I first discovered it as a child, and read with fascination about Jane, who grew up in a different time, yet had hopes and dreams so similar to my own. How she fell in love and carried the image of her teenage crush Andre through all her life, how she married a good, oridnary man and had the expected children are all told in wonderful detail as we never lose little Jane, the girl in the beginning of the novel. Then as Jane grows older, and her children grow up, and do and do not fulfil her expectations, she and her husband travel to Paris, and she has a chance to see Andre again. I have been able to read and re-read Years of Grace at many different stages of my own life and to identify with Jane at the different stages of her life. This book contains no explicit sex, no violence, no horror, no supernatural elements, no serial killers and no autopsies done in graphic detail! Yet it is like other great novels, a book one can get lost in and believe in and open up at any point to live in the lives of the characters.I would have loved to have seen a movie of this book, but I doubt if it would have been a blockbuster, as the book was not a bestseller. But it sure is good and it's about my speed. Ordinary people, extraordinary only in their loves and lives and humanity.

The review below is wonderful enough to give you a good idea for the plot of this charming novel. What happens to Jane makes you consider the way you live life - do you just keep things in order and calm, or do you toss in a radical upheaval here and there? Barnes has written with beautiful description and the story flows quickly. Definitely worthy of its Pulitzer...

This lovely novel is the coming of age story of Jane Ward, a young woman at the end of the nineteenth century. It details her loves, her hopes, dreams, and disappointments throughout her life. It is a story of a fairly affluent life told against the backdrop of a bygone era with different social mores and values. Even then, however, changes abounded, as the twentieth century brought profound social changes that would impact on Jane's life.

As her life unfolds, the reader discovers that Jane's inner life is similar to those of many people even today and that many of the decisions that Jane makes, no matter how small, often have the power to shape the lives of others. It is sometimes the small gestures, rather than the grand ones, that may have lasting impact.

This is a somewhat slow moving, well-written novel that won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize. I confess that while I enjoyed the book, I was a bit surprised that it had been the recipient of this award. Those who enjoy well-written family sagas, however, and want a glimpse into a bygone era in America, will certainly enjoy this book.

Last week my mother-in-law let me borrow her beloved tattered copy, saying she and her sister read it as teenagers and loved its romantic themes of loves found and lost. It's a thumping good read, but I DON'T understand Amazon's statement that it's intended for ages 9-12. I know it's tame stuff by today's standards, but the book does contain a suicide, adultery (real and implied), and racism consistent with the mores of the day. I enjoyed it for its unvarnished peek into middle-class America of 80-100 years ago, but think a 9-year old girl would be better served by the "American Girl" series for glimpses of that lost world.

This lovely novel is the coming of age story of Jane Ward, a young woman at the end of the nineteenth century. It details her loves, her hopes, dreams, and disappointments throughout her life. It is a story of a fairly affluent life told against the backdrop of a bygone era with different social mores and values. Even then, however, changes abounded, as the twentieth century brought profound social changes that would impact on Jane's life.

As her life unfolds, the reader discovers that Jane's inner life is similar to those of many people even today and that many of the decisions that Jane makes, no matter how small, often have the power to shape the lives of others. It is sometimes the small gestures, rather than the grand ones, that may have lasting impact.

This is a somewhat slow moving, well-written novel that won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize. I confess that while I enjoyed the book, I was a bit surprised that it had been the recipient of this award. Those who enjoy well-written family sagas, however, and want a glimpse into a bygone era in America, will certainly enjoy this book.

This 1931 winner of the Pulitzer Prize is a reading must for those who wish to get a glimps of life in America at the turn of the 20th century as it is lived by well-to-do segment of society. The story revolves around Jane Ward beginning as a school girl in Chicago and her early encounter with love and the objections of her parents who will not allow it. She never forgets Andre, her first love, as she eventually settles for a tidy but unexciting marriage to Steven. She just excapes what will surely be a disaster when she comes to her senses about Jimmy, the free spirited drifter husband of Agnes, her long-time friend and former roommate at Bryn Mawr. Jane witnesses life going on around her as she matures into a middle-aged lady but she always feels unable to influence events as her own children take on lives of their own. "I don't act at all...I just drift."