Crossing to Safety

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Once upon a time (January of 2009) I needed a book, and I solicited a request from some literary friends. Here was my request:



“I need a book that I can really sink my teeth into. I don't want a cold, overly-intellectualized book. (No reading War and Peace just to say I have. None of that garbage.) I want something that tantalizes and draws me in. I'm already reading at least three books that aren't very gripping. Now, do not misunderstand. I don't want a drivel novel—the equivalent of orange soda and disco lights. Nothing flashy and trashy. I need a book like sunlight on a summer's morning—wholesome as milk or a cozy fire. Something where I feel like the characters are my friends—and I end up knowing them just as well. Something that lingers with me as I go about my day...like Joshua Bell on the violin. Something with philosophical undertones. Something with meaning and richness. I want to drink down the words, savoring their weight and texture—words that are not just a meaning to an end, but art.”



A book that was recommended to me in response was Wallace Stegner’s Crossing to Safety, and let me testify that it does indeed meet my criteria. Take for example this quote from the novel:



"How do you make a book that anyone will read out of lives as quiet as these? Where are the things that novelists seize upon and readers expect? Where is the high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, the death wish? Where are the suburban infidelities, the promiscuities, the convulsive divorces, the alcohol, the drugs, the lost weekends? Where are the hatreds, the political ambitions, the lust for power? Where are speed, noise, ugliness, everything that makes us who we are and makes us recognize ourselves in fiction?"



Clearly this is not flashy and trashy orange soda fiction because Stegner did make his novel out of those quiet lives. This is fiction of clarity and light. And certainly the words themselves are something to be savored. Stegner’s mastery of the language is delightful. And I wholly felt the characters were real people whom I knew well. And the book has unmistakable philosophical undertones dealing with art, friendship, marriage, and death. In every way this novel has met and exceeded my criteria. Read it. Read it now instead of waiting for two years like I did.





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