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Interviews | May 16, 2013

Jill Owens: IMG Claire Messud: The Powells.com Interview

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Claire MessudClaire Messud's new novel, The Woman Upstairs, is fiercely intelligent and urgently intimate, written with precision, humor, and an incredible... Continue »
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1 Local Warehouse Literature- A to Z

Good Faith

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Good Faith Cover

 

Review-A-Day

"Ultimately, it's clear that the great tragedy of this period for Joe is the loss of emotional, not financial opportunity. Readers over 30 know his real estate project will fail, along with the nation's banking system, but the value of an average joe's character requires a risk/reward evaluation that only a fine novel can calculate. Smiley has invested her best talent in this work, and you can buy it in good faith." Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire CSM review)

"Admittedly, reading Good Faith requires a bit of the titular quality; you need to be willing to entertain the notion that a book in which the characters argue about interest rates and 'the shakeout of the banking system' can be entertaining. It can....As with most of Smiley's novels, the writing is fresh and breezy if not beautiful. And has she yet received the credit she's due for writing terrific sex scenes — earthy, profane, joyful and detailed, but never self-important? Good Faith is rich in them; sex matters a lot to Joe in an entirely believable way, but he doesn't need to get, well, hysterical about it....Good Faith is an inventive and generous investigation into the joys and perils of building something — a house, a trusted local business, a marriage, a community — and well worth the investment." Laura Miller, Salon.com (read the entire Salon review)

Synopses & Reviews

Review:

"Smiley?s amusing plot is charged with energy, her sense of time and place is on target, and her research into the ways and means of real estate development is seamlessly integrated....This absorbing book will appeal to a wide variety of readers." Library Journal

Review:

"Smiley's range as a writer is always surprising....What makes the story beguiling is Smiley's appreciation of the varieties and frailties of human nature. Every character here is fresh and fully dimensional, and anybody who lived through the '80s will recognize them — and maybe themselves." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Review:

"Joe's sense of who he has become is oddly muffled, a quality that infects the novel as a whole — as if the author were unable to decide what, finally, her characters are guilty of, or how hard they deserve to fall." The New Yorker
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About the Author

Jane Smiley is the author of many novels, including A Thousand Acres, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and Horse Heaven. She lives in Northern California. In 2001, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780375412172
Author:
Smiley, Jane
Publisher:
Random House
Location:
New York
Subject:
General
Subject:
Success in business
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
Real estate agents
Subject:
Divorced men
Copyright:
2003
Edition Number:
1st ed.
Series Volume:
55B
Publication Date:
April 22, 2003
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
432
Dimensions:
9.44x6.64x1.35 in. 1.65 lbs.
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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

Good Faith Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$5.50 In Stock
Product details 432 pages Alfred A. Knopf - English 9780375412172 Reviews:
"Review A Day" by , "Ultimately, it's clear that the great tragedy of this period for Joe is the loss of emotional, not financial opportunity. Readers over 30 know his real estate project will fail, along with the nation's banking system, but the value of an average joe's character requires a risk/reward evaluation that only a fine novel can calculate. Smiley has invested her best talent in this work, and you can buy it in good faith." (read the entire CSM review)
"Review A Day" by , "Admittedly, reading Good Faith requires a bit of the titular quality; you need to be willing to entertain the notion that a book in which the characters argue about interest rates and 'the shakeout of the banking system' can be entertaining. It can....As with most of Smiley's novels, the writing is fresh and breezy if not beautiful. And has she yet received the credit she's due for writing terrific sex scenes — earthy, profane, joyful and detailed, but never self-important? Good Faith is rich in them; sex matters a lot to Joe in an entirely believable way, but he doesn't need to get, well, hysterical about it....Good Faith is an inventive and generous investigation into the joys and perils of building something — a house, a trusted local business, a marriage, a community — and well worth the investment." (read the entire Salon review)
"Review" by , "Smiley?s amusing plot is charged with energy, her sense of time and place is on target, and her research into the ways and means of real estate development is seamlessly integrated....This absorbing book will appeal to a wide variety of readers."
"Review" by , "Smiley's range as a writer is always surprising....What makes the story beguiling is Smiley's appreciation of the varieties and frailties of human nature. Every character here is fresh and fully dimensional, and anybody who lived through the '80s will recognize them — and maybe themselves."
"Review" by , "Joe's sense of who he has become is oddly muffled, a quality that infects the novel as a whole — as if the author were unable to decide what, finally, her characters are guilty of, or how hard they deserve to fall."
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