A Thousand Acres

infobox Book |
name = A Thousand Acres


image_caption = Cover of the hardcover first edition
author = Jane Smiley
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Domestic Realism
publisher = Alfred A. Knopf
release_date = October 23, 1991
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 367
isbn = ISBN 0-394-57773-6
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"A Thousand Acres" is a 1991 award winning novel by American author Jane Smiley. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name.

The novel is a contemporary deconstruction of Shakespeare's "King Lear" and is set on a thousand acre (4 km²) farm in Iowa that is owned by a family of a father and his three daughters. It is told through the point of view of the oldest daughter, Ginny.

Plot summary

Larry Cook is an aging farmer who decides to incorporate his farm, handing complete and joint ownership to his three daughters, Ginny, Rose, and Caroline. When the youngest daughter objects, she is removed from the agreement. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions, as the story eventually reveals the long-term sexual abuse of the two eldest daughters that was committed by their father.

The plot also focuses on Ginny's troubled marriage, her difficulties in bearing a child and her relationship with her family.

imilarity to King Lear

There are many similarities between "King Lear" and "A Thousand Acres", including both plot details and character development. For example, the names of the main characters in the novel are reminiscent of their Shakespearean counterpoints. Larry is Lear, Ginny is Goneril, Rose is Regan, and Caroline is Cordelia. The role the Cook's neighbors, Harold Clark and his sons Loren and Jess, also rework the importance of Gloucester, Edgar and Edmund in "Lear."

The novel maintains major themes present in "Lear", namely: gender roles, appearances vs. reality, generational conflict, hierarchical structures (the Great chain of being), madness, and the powerful force of nature. Larry Cook, however, is an incest rapist. Lears' malicious daughters are portrayed as hapless victims of his perverted lust.

Characters

*Larry Cook (King Lear)
*Ginny Cook Smith (Goneril)
*Rose Cook Lewis (Regan)
*Caroline Cook Rasmussen (Cordelia)
*Ty Smith (Duke of Albany)
*Pete Lewis (Duke of Cornwall)
*Pammy and Linda Lewis
*Jess Clark (Edmund)
*Harold Clark (Earl of Gloucester)
*Loren Clark (Edgar)
*Marv Carson (The Fool)

External links

* [http://www.pprize.com/BookDetail.php?bk=74 Photos of the first edition of A Thousand Acres]