Fiction_L Archives Thousand Acres Dates: 2/21/01,2:43 PM  through  2/21/01,4:39 PM  (4 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2009-current     2007-2008     1996-2006    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to February 2001 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: Jane Genzel <jgenzel@ci.muskego.wi.us>
REC'D: 2/21/01, 2:43 PM

I find that I have been "volunteered" (I think it's called
conscription) to lead a book group discussion on Smiley's Thousand Acres on
Friday--as in the day after tomorrow. Needless to say, a day and a half is
not enough time to read Smiley's substantial tome even if I had time off,
which I don't. Also, no online book group discussion guide has been found.
Could someone please send a summary of the book and suggested discussion
questions? Thank you. Any help you may offer would be so gratefully
received.

Jane Genzel
jgenzel@ci.muskego.wi.us

FROM: Lesa Holstine <lholstine@yahoo.com>
REC'D: 2/21/01, 2:43 PM

I haven't done this book in years, so I can't really
help except to say I read King Lear at the same time
because it has the same plot, and Jane Smiley even
used the same initials for her daughters as the ones
in King Lear. It's the midwestern version of
Shakespeare's play.

Lesa Holstine
lholstine@yahoo.com
Ft. Myers, FL
--- Jane Genzel <jgenzel@ci.muskego.wi.us> wrote:
> I find that I have been "volunteered" (I think it's
> called
> conscription) to lead a book group discussion on
> Smiley's Thousand Acres on
> Friday--as in the day after tomorrow. Needless to
> say, a day and a half is
> not enough time to read Smiley's substantial tome
> even if I had time off,
> which I don't. Also, no online book group discussion
> guide has been found.
> Could someone please send a summary of the book and
> suggested discussion
> questions? Thank you. Any help you may offer would
> be so gratefully
> received.
>
> Jane Genzel
> jgenzel@ci.muskego.wi.us
>
>
......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L:
http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html


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FROM: "Doxtator, Jan" <jdoxtato@uwsp.edu>
REC'D: 2/21/01, 3:26 PM

One source you could extrapolate some discussion questions from would be the
editorial reviews and customer comments from Amazon.com, including an
excerpt from a review in The New York Times Book Review which was probably
pretty meaty in its entirety. Surely, there must be other websites that
talk about this book as well.

Has she been done in any of the Gale literary criticism series (Contemporary
Authors, etc.), Current Biography?
HTH,
Jan Doxtator

> --- Jane Genzel <jgenzel@ci.muskego.wi.us> wrote:
> > I find that I have been "volunteered" (I think it's
> > called
> > conscription) to lead a book group discussion on
> > Smiley's Thousand Acres on
> > Friday--as in the day after tomorrow. Needless to
> > say, a day and a half is
> > not enough time to read Smiley's substantial tome
> > even if I had time off,
> > which I don't. Also, no online book group discussion
> > guide has been found.
> > Could someone please send a summary of the book and
> > suggested discussion
> > questions? Thank you. Any help you may offer would
> > be so gratefully
> > received.
> >
> > Jane Genzel
> > jgenzel@ci.muskego.wi.us
> >
> >
> ......................................................................
> > Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> > Everything Fiction_L:
> http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices!
> http://auctions.yahoo.com/
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>

FROM: Patricia Gibson <pgibson@fred.tnrdlib.bc.ca>
REC'D: 2/21/01, 4:39 PM

Hi,
There are some excellent critiques of A Thousand Acres on Ebscohost. The
ones written by James Schiff and Catherine Cowen Olsen proved to be
excellent when I led our group's discussion of this book. Also, try the
publishers name in a search engine. Almost every major publishing house now
has discussion guides for the books they publish.

Patricia Gibson
Readers' Advisor
TNRD Library System
100-465 Victoria Street
Kamloops, BC V2C 2A9
pgibson@tnrdlib.bc.ca
http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca

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