Crossing to Safety (Modern Library Classics)

by Wallace Stegner

Book Overview

Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams Afterword by T. H. Watkins Called a "magnificently crafted story . . . brimming with wisdom" by Howard Frank Mosher in The Washington Post Book World, Crossing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 037575931X
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Modern Library
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.7" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

Personal and emotional

I adored this book. I knew a little of the semi-autobiographical nature of the story going in, but little else. What a kind and open story about friendship and growth. One of my favorite Stegner pieces.

great book

great read

Brimming With Wisdom And Love

I was about to be captive on a 7 1/2 hour plane trip- I went into Powell's bookstore in the airport, and somehow I was drawn to this book. I had heard about this book from a friend, and as soon as I saw the title I knew this was it! What a wonderful plane trip- I was on the next to last page as we landed and read the last two pages while waiting for my luggage. Whoopee, what a book, what a read, I hated for it to end. It is one of those kinds of books. "Crossing to Safety" by Wallace Stenger is the kind of book that you read once in a life time. The characters become so real and so alive. You like these people; you do not want any of life's mysteries and sadness to befall on any them. Well, maybe that couple that was so nasty, no, no, not even them. Larry and Sally Morgan move to Madison, Wisconsin in the 1930's to start their life. Sally is pregnant, and Larry is about to start a teaching job at the university. They have little money and his job is a lifesaver. Larry's dream is to be a writer and he has published one article. At a faculty party they meet Charity and Sid Lang. Sid comes from big money and they have all they need besides two children and one on the way. Charity and Sally get along famously, and Sid and Larry develop a bond. This novel follows these two marriages, the ins and outs and the personal issues they each face. We are rarely allowed into a marriage to see all the warts. Over the next many years we follow both families from Wisconsin to Vermont and Cambridge and Italy. We see the friendships between the couples develop. We learn that Charity must manipulate and control- and that Sid needs the push she gives him. Larry becomes a well read author with several books and articles. Sally is happy to be a wife and mother until tragedy befalls. Sid is a wonderful teacher but really wants to write poetry. How do these couples help each other discover the truth within them? What does each of these people bring to the group? Why are they destined to love each other for their life? What is so special about these 4 people? How do they react when the greatest tragedy of all hits one of them? Wallace Stenger allows us to see the real people below the exterior trappings. I came to love these people, to really care about what happened to them. I think what if that had not happened, or what if this had happened? This is the way we think in real life with our memories. Wallace Stenger is a literary genius. Highly recommended. prisrob

Crossing to Stegner

I had not read Stegner before. I will be reading him again! I found the start slow at first and in fact had to pick it up several times. Once I persevered, here's what I found: A beautiful and well written book. What I found was a well made novel--both in narrative structure and figurative language. There were no strained metaphors (so common in most modern fiction) and no lack of insight. I found a story of friends, more than that the most rare of friends; two married couples. I say that couples this close are rare for the very same reason that the Morgans and the Langs eventually fall out of close contact. The people we choose to love, to "fuse" our lives together with are ours because no one else would choose them. As much as Sid could not live without Charity, Larry would never choose to live with her. As a result it becomes difficult for Larry and Sally to watch the various strains of Sid and Charity's relationship. And while it may not strain the couple's friendhsip per se, it stretches it a bit. This story does not fall into the predictable. It moves you to tears and laughter and jealousy. How wonderful to have found besides spouses that you love even in the tough times, friends who are more than willing to help see you through the tough times. Don't be put off by the fact that it moves slowly at first, don't be put off by the lack of glamor, drugs and violence. Hopefully, glamor, drugs and violence are not commonplace events in any of your lives. Read instead this book that talks of quiet lives that recognize the need for both sorrowful and "sunny hours" in order to make them beautiful.

instead, the world has left marks on us

'Crossing to Safety' is a novel about the intertwined lives of two couples. More generally, it is about the various ways we express the search for meaning, about gradually lost causes, about vulnerability and kindness, about the complicated dependencies of marriage, about coming of age, slowly, over the course of a lifetime. The plot is simple -- two couples meet because the husbands teach for a time at the same campus, and the four become lifelong friends. Although the story spans decades, there are very few dramatic incidents. This lack of external drama may disappoint those who like plots which move steadily forward, driven by significant events and bold action. However that very lack of action and heroism is part of the novel's essence. Our lives are generally prosaic, not epic. Our stories do not end tidily in fifty minute prime-time segments. The narrator speaks to this: "How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, the death wish? [...] Where are speed, noise, ugliness, everything that makes us ... recognize ourselves in fiction?" From these quiet lives, Stegner vividly sketches the emotional landscape in which the characters move, making for all its lack of fireworks a surprisingly compelling story. The book has been praised as a wonderful and uplifting portrayal of friendship developed over many years. That might sound a little maudlin or simplistic on the face of it, but it does not come across that way at all. It is difficult to summarize the philosophical tone of the novel. It is at the same time wry, realistic, and sympathetic, generally optimistic about our native toughness and the possibility of grace, and ambivalent about questions of grand purpose. In fact, the story is marked from the beginning with undertones of retrospective melancholy. "[We meant to] leave a mark on the world. Instead the world has left marks on us." In addition to evoking a finely shaded spectrum of emotions, the book is beautifully written. In grade school writing classes we were told to "show, don't tell", but the author both shows and tells with consummate skill. This book strikes me as being the distillation of a lifetime of experience by an acutely sensitive and intelligent writer and a profoundly decent human being. It feels like Wallace Stegner's carefully considered gift to us, and is well worth giving, in turn.

Wallace, we miss you

This is a remarkable piece of work, from one of the truly American voices in literature. A story of enduring friendship and loyalty, an intelligent search for the meaning of it all. I suppose one could find it "boring" (see below), in that there is no gratuitous sex, car chases, foul language or scatalogical humor. Just exquisite prose, and a story told with love and grace. I wonder if this book is ever assigned to high school students. It would be a refreshing antidote to the depressing dreck that passes for popular culture these days. Or am I just passing into curmudgeon-hood? A similarly wonderful book by Stegner is "The Spectator Bird".If one is seeking an in-depth historical piece, there is his award-winning "Angle of Repose". I plan on eventually reading every word written by Mr. Stegner. Talent like his is rare.

Required reading

This is the book my wife and I fell in love with after we fell in love with each other more than 12 years ago. Whenever we talk with friends about favorite books, we INSIST that they read Crossing to Safety. We've had to buy several copies over the years because we keep lending copies out -- and we can't blame any of our friends for not returning this book. It's a keeper. Wallace Stegner said this novel was the closest he came to writing autobiographically, which explains a certain brightness not found in, say, Angle of Repose (although AOR is an equally beautiful story).This is simply a beautifully told story about how a friendship formed and aged, so powerfully written that you will come to appreciate your own friends -- and how you came to be friends -- all the more for having made the journey with the couples in Crossing to Safety. This is a book you fall in love with and return to. I'm actually online right now to buy another copy.