Ordinary Love & Good Will

by Jane Smiley

Book Overview

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres--and "one of her generation's most eloquent chroniclers of ordinary familial love" (The New York Times)--comes two exquisite twin novellas that chronicle the difficult choices that reshape the lives of two very different families.

In Ordinary Love, Smiley focuses on a woman's infidelity and the lasting, indelible effects it leaves on her children long after her departure. Good Will portrays a father who realizes how his son has been affected by his decision to lead a counterculture life and move his family to a farm. As both stories unfold, Smiley gracefully raises the questions that confront all families with the characteristic style and insight that has marked all of her work.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030727909X
• ISBN13: 9780307279095
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A commentary on family values and the beauty of simplicity...

This book, as you could probably tell, is made up of two stories: Ordinary Love and Good Will, just as the title says. Although they're entirely different stories they have similar themes as well as aspects that contrast and compliment one another. That makes this "package deal" necessary to allow the author to communicate what she envisioned. Both stories are similar in that the protagonists are content with the simple things in life. This seems to be an attempt to evoke an appreciation of the everyday things we take for granted. Both stories also share a strong emphasis on family values. Throughout both stories the results that their family values render allows the reader to contrast the lives of the characters with that of their own. This is also a source of how the stories differ. Ordinary Love has a protagonist that is very laid back and allows her children to become whatever they aspire to be. This often makes her seem uncaring. Ordinary Love shows the family dynamics of such values. Good Will focuses more on the other extreme of family values. The father imposes his ways of a simple life free of money. Though he has good intent, in a modern world it's understandably met with resistance. This story tells of a family that lives such a lifestyle and the results. Both stories are a sort of commentary on the two extremes of family values: complacence and imposition. The author's intent seemed to be to provoke readers to choose a set of family values somewhere between those extremes. Overall both stories were quite good. I had a preference for Good Will but without Ordinary Love much of the message would be lost. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who found what I outlined above intriguing.

Nothing ordinary about this storyteller.

Smiley gives us an intimate view into two very different families and the ways in which their different parenting styles affected their children's lives irrevocably. Smiley is a master of character development. When each story begins, you have a certain view of the protagonist and other characters. As the stories unfold, your feelings about each character change. This is a book to be read more than once.

Good Will, an extraordinary novel

Good Will is by far one of the best novels I've ever read. Ordinary Love was good too. There is nothing ordinary about Jane Smiley's characterizations in Good Will. Those characters could not have been more real if they were real people in the room with me. The psychological, emotional, and moral complexities and motivations they display, the remarkable way in which it was all written and put together..2 years after reading this book, I'm still in awe of it.

Absolutely wonderful; the best

I loved these novellas and think they are some of the best works I have read in years. The first time through I was riveted and struck by Good Will but did not like Ordinary Love as much. I reread them and saw the brillinace of Ordinary Love, too. These are so beautifully written and captivating with profound insights into human nature and what it's like to be a parent and how we can hurt each other and our children without meaning to and so much more. This is the best kind of reading there is with lovely use of language and compelling stories that move, surprise, and shake you, making you see life a little differently. I can't say I've read anything better.

Good Will is great

Ordinary Love is a decent enough novella, but Good Will is just superb. I've never read anything quite like it. The characters are lovingly crafted, and their unusual setting and lifestyle gives Smiley to fully showcase her descriptive powers. The most surprising thing is how well she writes from the main character's perspective. His personality as a father and husband is so clearly defined, so original, and so _masculine_ that I often found it difficult to believe that the author is a woman. Like Smiley's other writings, this story is very much about relationships--familial, neighborly and those between oneself and the world--and how even the most carefully made decisions and choices can dramatically alter an equally well-planned life. This novella originally appealed to me as a story of escape from society and retreat to nature, but I took away a great many lessons about life as well. Within her beautifully woven tale Smiley manages substantive discussions on racism, money, religion, and sexism--but these scenes are unforced. They are simply _there_, as natural as the lifestyle treasured by the main protagonists. I loved this book.