The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton

Another great read by Jane Smiley! I first heard about this novel after an Austrian friend's daughter told me how much she liked it - and that she was writing a book report on this novel for her American history class! I read this while down with a bad flu and enjoyed every page. Some of the comments about the book mention the slow pace of the novel. I thought that this was perfectly appropriate for the time - Smiley's talent brings you back and lets you imagine what it would be like for us to live 150 years ago; daily life was so much more physically difficult and repetitive. Still the people in her novels will remind you of people you know while you learn about another time and place from a woman's point of view. Great book! One comment must be made about the so-called review by "SC" of November 5, 2004. It's fine, SC, if you don't agree with Smiley's opinion piece/political analysis of the red state/blue state divide **PUBLISHED IN SLATE.com, NOT THIS BOOK!** but criticizing THIS book for a political opinion published elsewhere is ridiculous. It is completely inappropriate of SC to leave this sort of negative and completely irrelevant comment about Smiley's OTHER WRITINGS when SC is supposed to be reviewing THIS BOOK! For example, in my opinion (and in my dad's, as well!) William F. Buckley has contemptible political opinions. Nevertheless, my dad loved his books and would never mix his dislike of Buckley's politics with his criticism or praise of Buckley's fiction. SC has posted this "thought-police" comment for EACH AND EVERY ONE of Smiley's books. SC's review has no place here - it is clearly contrary to the intent of the rating program.

I've read this novel twice and listened to it once on tape and found it to be thoroughly enjoyable each reading. The description of the conflict in Kansas Territory between the abolitionists and the Missourians was rivoting and engaging. Smiley provided an immense amount of detailed history--clearly she did her homework. Some readers find this distracting from the story; personally, I find that it added an originality and realism to the narrative. This is not a conversational piece; rather it is the narrative of Lidie's experiences, not her emotions. Lidie is appealing to me as a heroine because she is portrayed so realistically with a mix of passive and aggressive traits. As a reader I sometimes found her inaction frustrating; however, inaction is a part of life. Other readers have complained that the novel is depressing; I object to that analysis. The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton is not an escapist novel and one should not expect it to be. In my opinion, it is a de-Romanticized retelling of Huck Finn with a woman as the lead character. I highly recommend this book as one of my favorite novels and Smiley as one of my favorite authors.

I've read most of Jane Smiley's books, and found this one in hardcover at rock-bottom-remainder prices. I bought it just because I was out of reading material... It was wonderful! I found the archaic prose style to be absolutely appropriate and nothing in this book was too far-fetched or boring. I guess I expected Thomas to bite it; if I may offer any criticism at all, it would be that the character of Thomas seemed to be a little thinly drawn. I wish Lidie would've dwelled on her relationship to him a little more, but I suppose her reluctance to is in keeping with what a nineteenth-century woman would share with the reader. All in all, I found this to be a very good book, and recommend it highly!

Jane Smiley is one of those authors who seem to have the need to reinvent themselves with each new book. In The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, she has adopted the stylistic devices of 19th century writing and speech to bring this story of a young woman's experiences in 'Bloody Kansas' to life. So successfully does Smiley present the character of Lidie Newton that it is hard for the reader to believe this person didn't really live - that these aren't the actual words of a real life. This is a tough book in some ways. What the heroine experiences is not often pleasant. The physiscal and emotional suffering are clear and felt by the reader. I always take it as a sign that an author has been successful when I find myself experiencing anger, disappointment, elation or relief on behalf of a book's charcters, and in Smiley's new book this was a constant. Somehow the story of Lidie Newton seemed personal to me right from the start. I suspect that Jane Smiley modeled the character on herself in some ways, because she lives on the page more vibrantly than any Smiley character I can remember. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant. What is important is that one comes to know and care about Lidie Newton; therefore anything that happens to her or that she thinks about becomes important for the reader. One of the strengths of the book is the main character's intellectual and spiritual growth. Things don't just happen to her, she learns from what happens. Still, the ending may not please some, because it doesn't show her as clearly triumphant. But it is true to life, and that is what the whole book is about.

I have studied the subject of Bleeding Kansas just before the Civil War intensively. My people were the people in this book, both the slaveholders and the abolitionists and Jane Smiley has recreated them all with all their pimples, meanness, dullness, good hearted spite and spots. This is a living book, because it has heart, and if you can't find it in this book it is because you are too damn dull. I think it is an American classic, but you have got to study on it, it isn't an easy book. Put some time in and you will come to understand that although Lidie Newton talks a lot, she really must be measured by what she does. I have a first edition, and I tell you now that it will be worth some money some day. In my estimation it is the best of Smiley's efforts because it conveys the real smell and taste of the times.