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Book Review
Jun. 21st, 2008 03:54 pmAll the Little Live Things
by Wallace Stegner
All the Live Little Things is a thoughtful, somewhat pessimistic book that covers a lot of ground in its 300+ pages. It is told from the perspective of Joe Allston, a curmudgeonly elderly man who has retired with his wife Ruth to rural northernish California in the 1960s. There, they encounter Jim Peck, a college-aged man who creates a flower-child enclave on some nearby land, and Marian Catlin, and idealistic woman dying of cancer.
Marian and Jim each stand for different sides and manifestations of the cultural shift of the 1960s. Marian represents the drive towards life, peace, and an altruistic progress towards higher consciousness. Jim represents the elements of rebellion, experimentation, freedom, and self-discovery. Both of them affect Joe and Ruth profoundly, and in very different ways.
In addition to exploring the tumult of the 1960s, All the Little Live Things touches on the fragility and value of life, and the ways in which life is utterly intertwined with death. Stegner does an masterful job of describing the natural world and in tying it into the narrative.
by Wallace Stegner
All the Live Little Things is a thoughtful, somewhat pessimistic book that covers a lot of ground in its 300+ pages. It is told from the perspective of Joe Allston, a curmudgeonly elderly man who has retired with his wife Ruth to rural northernish California in the 1960s. There, they encounter Jim Peck, a college-aged man who creates a flower-child enclave on some nearby land, and Marian Catlin, and idealistic woman dying of cancer.
Marian and Jim each stand for different sides and manifestations of the cultural shift of the 1960s. Marian represents the drive towards life, peace, and an altruistic progress towards higher consciousness. Jim represents the elements of rebellion, experimentation, freedom, and self-discovery. Both of them affect Joe and Ruth profoundly, and in very different ways.
In addition to exploring the tumult of the 1960s, All the Little Live Things touches on the fragility and value of life, and the ways in which life is utterly intertwined with death. Stegner does an masterful job of describing the natural world and in tying it into the narrative.
