I found a kinship with Joe, this man with more life behind than in front of him but with no desire to exit the play before the final curtain. I understood his sorrow over both the present and the past; his respect for the life he lived and his nostalgia for the life he might have had.

A postcard from a friend causes Allston to return to the journals of a trip he had taken years before, a journey to his mother's birth­place where he'd sought a link with the past. The memories of that trip, both grotesque and poignant, move through layers of time and meaning, and reveal that Joe Allston isn't quite spectator enough urn:oclc:762017002 Republisher_date 20120705013909 Republisher_operator [email protected] Scandate 20120704073942 Scanner scribe28.shenzhen.archive.org Scanningcenter shenzhen Source I think so. Stegner is an older man. Maybe I can't relate so much. His morals and the world view probably are different than mine. Guilt, regret, and selfishness were secret emotions Joe carried inside him. With a gentle push from Ruth, Joe reads Ruth the all that he wrote. It takes many evenings. Much gets exposed - not particularly comfortable - but Ruth was wonderful. I think she knew it had to be painful forJoe to read them to her. ( hard for her to hear too- but there was no hardening or accusations coming from her). Joe didn’t deny being smitten with Astrid - he wanted to do something for her. He hated to leave her behind.

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An early environmentalist, he actively championed the region's preservation and was instrumental-with his now-famous 'Wilderness Letter'-in the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act. Honest and straightforward, educated yet unpretentious, cantankerous yet compassionate, Wallace Stegner was an enormous presence in the American literary landscape, a man who wrote and lived with ferocity, energy, and integrity. I did think the kiss incident was a little overblown. To me it was more that Joe was getting intersted in Astrid and that with time something might have happened between them. To an extent I think he also wanted to protect Astrid, take her away from her suffering, maybe being able to make a diffeence in her life, something he feels he was not able to do with his Son. Just a thought. Stegner was a master at creating characters that feel utterly normal because nothing much really happens to them. They’re quietly despondent and repressed. They don’t usually blow up, but accept the finality of the circumstances. It’s not the most inspirational message, but it sure is realistic.

The man writes beautifully and this book touches on things that I think cannot be appreciated until one hits these Golden Years of life. We have a book that discusses aging, health, relationships, as well as lives and past loves (or at least past desires). Even though written in the 1970's the book does not feel dated and the feelings that Stegner writes about are as fresh and worthy of review now. Maybe it is because I retired rather early, but I have spent quite a bit of time reviewing my own life and there is something about taking the time to contemplate ones life that makes this a perfect book for a retired individual to read.

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To a limited degree. I sympathize with the getting older part. I think the adultery part was way overblown. I felt the husband had a case of not counting his blessing for having a loving wife and a good life. And perhaps thinking the grass is always greener on the other side. What is the central question of the novel? I'm not sure. Is it don't be a spectator in life? Is it why the son killed himself? This isn't explored at all so that can't be it. Is it his marriage to his wife? Is it the love that got away? That last sentence is a reference to his wife wanting him to write his memoirs. After all, he was an agent for some of the most notable writers of the day. And most important, she thinks that it will keep his mind active and alert and will help cure him of his depression. Joe Allston is a literary agent, perhaps polishing brighter stars. If he was in Denmark, one or more poets might call him “an attendant lord.” So it is not just chance that takes Allston in fact to Denmark. Well, it’s a postcard actually, a postcard that arrives now that Allston is retired. The postcard is from a countess he once knew in Denmark and it gets him to rummage through his boxed memories for a journal he kept of those days. His wife, Ruth, who was there in Demark with him, shared Denmark with him, wants him to read his journal to her; just a bit, every night. The reader immediately feels Allston’s discomfort. I really enjoyed listening to other audiobooks written by Wallace Stegner, so I added this one to my WTR list;

But at its heart this is a story about an old married couple, and how they survive things. How they share. At one point they are having a conversation about another couple, the husband dying. And Joe Allston, who only appears heartless, starts: Edward Herrmann’s narration of the audiobook is fantastic. There is not a question of my rating his performance with anything but five stars. He knows when to pause. He never over-dramatizes. He captures exactly how this couple would have spoken to each other. The speed is perfect, and every word is easily heard. I don't think it is necessary for one to "like" a book, the characters or even the writing to make it a great discussion book. The book on Alaska (sorry the title escapes me) that we read here was a non fiction book where we didn't like the main characters and felt the writing was just OK. But the characters and their actions provoke strong feeling in us. And we were able to debate their actions. The result was a good discussion. For me, that's what makes a good discussion book. One that provokes strong reactions in the reader. One of the nice things about getting something talked out is that it brings on a spell of pampering”. He says that when he is asked if he feels like an old man he replies that he does not, he feels like a young man with something the matter with him.

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Wallace Stegner defines the relationship between a long married couple, Joe Allston and his wife Ruth, so well it truly resonated with me. I loved how the story quietly unfolded. Narrator, Edward Herrmann read the characters beautifully in his mellow voice, which was a pleasure to listen to. It was a perfect marriage of book and narrator. I also like what you said about possibilities. I hadn't thought of that in terms of the son, but you're right on with that. There were possibilities on two sides. On Joe's side, he could have been more directive as a father, but chose not to. He could have been more clarifying about what to do with some of the values he conveyed. On the son's side, he could have made other choices which wouldn't have put him in the place where the accident happened. He coulda been sumboddy. He coulda been a contendah. ;-0