SOURCE: “Truly Interesting Horses,” in Spectator, Vol. 272, April 30, 1994, p. 39.

In the following review, Forster lauds Smiley's Barn Blind.

Marvellous, isn't it, how an author's first novel can suddenly be worth the risk of publishing when their sixth has hit every kind of jackpot? I bet Jane Smiley's Barn Blind was offered to UK publishers when it appeared in her own country. I bet it got turned down as ‘too American,’ that handy euphemism used both sides of the Atlantic to save a publisher from any real critical opinion and always meaning simply they don't like it. But once A Thousand Acres was such a success, hey presto, Barn Blind gets ‘discovered’.

But that's publishing, folks, and why complain, especially in this instance? I'll tell you why. It spoils the delight a first novel always brings—that terrific feeling of recognising, yes, here is talent, here is skill, here...