Jane Smiley, 1949-

Ordinary Love and Good Will

Background

• Born in Los Angeles; grew up in St. Louis
• Educated at Vassar College and the University of Iowa (Ph.D.).
• Currently lives in northern California. Married three times, with two children from the second marriage and one from the third.

Career

• Taught at Iowa State University from 1981 until 1992. Retired from teaching to devote her time to writing.
• Received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Heartland Award  in 1991 for A Thousand Acres.

Major Writings

Barn Blind: A Novel. (1980)
At Paradise Gate: A Novel (1981)
Age of Grief (1988)
Greenlanders (1989)
Ordinary Love/Good Will (1989)
A Thousand Acres (1992)
Duplicate Keys (1993)
Moo (1995)
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Linda Newton (1998)

Critical Sources and Reviews

• For reviews of the novel, see The New York Times, November 5, 1989. ("Perfect Family Self Destructs" by Josephine Humphreys and "Pleasures and Hazards of Familial Love" by Michiko Kakutani, [book archive search: "Ordinary Love"]
• From the Carl Jung homepage, "A Better Place Than Paradise" by Dolores E. Brien. (on Good Will)
• Review of a play based on Good Will in Curtain Up Review