SOURCE: “Speaking Less than She Knowest,” in Spectator, Vol. 269, October 10, 1992, p. 38.

In the following review, Christiansen asserts that Smiley's “A Thousand Acres has a moral weight, a technical accomplishment and a sheer eloquence that demands some special recognition.”

Jane Smiley's latest novel has just been honoured with two of America's most prestigious literary prizes, and for once you feel the pundits may have got it right: A Thousand Acres has a moral weight, a technical accomplishment and a sheer eloquence that demands some special recognition. It is not comfortable to read. There are no modernist tricks, no quick gratifications. It has none of Updike's polished glibness and is unlaced with the sugar that sweetens Anne Tyler's fictional pills. Smiley's style is austere, her themes almost terrifyingly serious, yet so taut is the threading of narrative, character and scene that she never seems pretentious or portentous. Since her unforgettable...