Good Faith

Jane Smiley’s Good Faith only gets better with time. I first read it in the early 2000s, shortly after its release, but its relevance hit even harder on this second read. Set in the early 1980s, the novel masterfully explores America’s shift from small-town businesses and personal banking relationships to the early stages of today’s transaction economy—where money feels intangible, the wealth gap grows, and essential workers toil while others seemingly conjure riches from thin air. Through sharp storytelling, Smiley examines the Savings & Loan boom and the divide between those who struggled to adapt and those who eagerly chased easy wealth. It’s a tale rich with lessons: the dangers of greed, the importance of hard work, and the value of simplicity and relationships over fleeting connections. Though we can’t turn back time, this novel challenges us to reconsider smaller, community-focused values. It is a timeless, insightful read.

I listen to the audiobook. The story is a great for mixed adult male/female audience as it identifies with work, buying a house, not too romantic, but inticing with its high stakes property investment. Joe is in ordinary guy who is humble but grew up by white collar people and has a modest real estate job. Good Faith tells the story of the eventual whirlwind of Joe's life after he comes into contact with Marcus Burns. Marcus Burns with his air of know-it-all attitude takes Joe on ride of persuasion. The pursuit of money, pride, 1980s arrogance and confidence of real estate development intersect in this great book.

Jane Smiley has written so many good books now, that one good one or another is bound to slip through the cracks. I'm sorry that this is the fate of Good Faith, because it's a very good novel, and it's about the one thing that yanks every last American's chain: money. Oh, sure, there's plenty more, too: love affairs, friendships gained and lost, betrayals, reversals, the Eighties real estate boom and bust, the great American get rich quick scheme, the lonely man . . . This novel has more than a little in common with Richard Ford's Independence Day, but it's a good deal darker, and its canvas is a little bigger, and its aspirations are smaller but not so small as to inhibit pleasure, and not so big as to inhibit the plain-spoken and pleasing telling of the story.

I've read several of her books. All are different and all are very good. Her characters are extremely well drawn and believable. The plot moves along and is interesting. I think that she is one the best authors writing today. I especailly liked this book.

Jane Smiley tackles different material with almost every novel. Her Pulitzer-winning novel A Thousand Acres was a deft portayal of the demise of a family farm, her last effort explored the world of horse racing, and now she brings us into the 1980s world of real estate development in Good Faith. While her novels are captivating cultural history, it's her characters that remain her strength.I know Joe. Sure, my friend isn't named Joe and isn't a real estate agent, but I know decent people like Joe who have a gift for the largely unrecognized jobs they do and who realize, at some point, that they're doing pretty well financially. In fact, recent polls suggest the vast majority of us, even those who are statistically lower class or in the upper percetages of incomes consider ourselves middle class but still not as well off as our friends. And I know a Marcus, too, who's a smooth-talking, good-natured fellow who inspires loyalty in people for no logical reason. And I know a Felicity or two who married because nearly everyone does but who doesn't quite fit the frat house her homelife seems to be. I know a few Betty and Gordon couples and the Davids as well. So, Smiley's characters have a vague familiarity, even as they each are distinct and engaging.Even more importantly, Smiley understands the small, odd traits that people find attractive or off-putting in each other. When, for instance, Felicity reveals that she's not kind but that she is affectionate, we understand something about human behavior that we hadn't quite noticed before. Little moments like this one drive the novel seemingly effortlessly.While I had no knowledge of and little interest in real estate, the characters and the impending demise or success of their business dealings drew me in. By the end, I even found the so-called topic of the novel relevant to recent economic events in the stock market and to political issues such as allowing for individual investment choices for social security. Now, thanks to Smiley, I also understand anew how people are shaped by economic events and how we make some of the major decisions of our lives.Good Faith is a great read. The overt topic may be real estate development, but the novel's real subjects are relationships in many varieties. Just as you didn't need to know about Iowa farms to appreciate A Thousand Acres nor know about dentistry to enjoy The Age of Grief, if you're interested in a good story with realistic characters, you'll like Good Faith.I hear, by the way, that a film version of The Age of Grief is forthcoming. To my mind, her novellas (that one and Ordinary Love & Good Will) are Smiley's strongest writing.

Outrageous versatility is not something we readers look for in our favorite authors, but Jane Smiley, in book after book after book, refuses to be pinned down. She can write pathos, tragedy, slapstick, satire, mystery... Where will it end? Never and nowhere, we hope. This is a novel about greed in the 80s, that decade when it seemed the Good Times would roll on forever. The story concerns an amiable, trusting, 'good' man who is lured down the shady paths of easy money. It's a story about principles, ambition viewed through the gauzy curtain that hides (not very well) The American Dream.Smiley scores again.