Crossing to Safety (Modern Library Classics) (urspr publ 1987; utgåvan 2002)

Relationship novels are not typically my thing but I truly enjoyed this one. It has beautiful language, mostly well-drawn characters and just enough interest in what will happen next to make one want to keep reading even though not that much ever really happens. Of course I pretty much hated Charity at the end, but I really think we are supposed to. She has spent a lifetime running everything and always getting her way, of course she will be the one to decide how she dies even if it means leaving Sid out of it. You are left wondering if he truly will be able to go on. I wish Sally were a little more fleshed-out as a character. Before the polio, she’s primarily the fun but overshadowed friend. Afterward she is the long-suffering but still faithful-to-the-end friend.
Additionally I wanted to see each of them grow just a little bit out of the roles they established early in the relationship. But none of them really ever did. Charity was the ringleader, Sally was the devoted friend and wife, Sid was the rich provider who can’t ever quite satisfy his wife’s ambitions and Larry was the faithful and supportive workaholic. They were all just about the same at the end as they were all along, and I guess that’s my main complaint. Their relationships were maintained throughout the years despite their various hardships and physical distance, but they never really evolved. You think in that last scene in Charity’s bedroom, something will change, someone will break the mold and do something different, but it doesn’t happen. So I was unsatisfied with the end even though I enjoyed the whole very much.
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Wow, I had never even heard of Wallace Stegner and how amazing for me to learn of a writer of this stature and now have all of his books to look forward to. The prose was magnificent and the book exudes a love of the natural world. I loved all of the characters and their very human flaws. Thanks to @annebogel #wsirn and @tarajoy90 for the suggestion. ( )

This is my fourth read of Mr. Stegner and again, I marvel at his mastery of character and the way that he presents fascinating, subtle nuances of just being human, in a relationship and friendships. This is a measured telling of the growth, changes and discoveries made by two couples about themselves and the other couple over their lifetimes. Stegner’s writing is unsurpassed in its exquisite detail and feeling. ( )

This is a powerful character study with beautiful writing. It is candid in its assessment of both marriage and friendship. ( )

I had the pleasure to spend some time with Larry and Sally and Sid and Charity. Two couples who meet early in their adult lives, shortly after marriage, as so much about their futures is yet to be determined. A bond forms, they feel lucky to have found each other. But no individual is perfect, and few if any marriages are perfect. Just as each of the foursome comes to learn about their self and their partner, so the couples will come to learn about each other. Stegner does another excellent job of creating characters I want to get to know, characters that seem real because they are not perfect, characters that I can like and dislike, often at the same time. I know some readers feel that nothing much happens in this novel, and I can appreciate that, but for me “life happens” here, wth its frequent mixture of joy and sadness, highs and lows. Crossing To Safety displays the subtle details of life that remind me of Stoner and Remains of the Day. ( )