[.ca] Good Faith (ISBN 0385721056)

From Amazon.com:
Opening a Jane Smiley novel is like slipping into a warm bath. Here are people we know, places where we grew up. But the comforting, unassuming tone of her work allows Smiley incredible latitude as a writer, and her books are full of surprises. Good Faith, a novel about greed and self-delusion set in the economic boom of the early 1980s, is no exception. Joe Stratford is an amiable, divorced real estate agent in an unspoiled small town called Rollins Hills. He takes it in stride when a married female friend pursues a love affair with him; he is more suspicious when a high-rolling newcomer named Marcus Burns begins to influence the business affairs of the men closest to Joe. Nevertheless, the promise of easy riches draws Joe into one of Burns's real estate development schemes, and then, ominously, into gold trading. The steps by which a nice guy can be lured into betraying his principles are delineated so sharply in Good Faith that you wonder how Joe cannot see them. Although he never quite manages to understand what has happened to him, he's granted a moment of grace at the close of the novel, a second chance that has nothing to do with money, ambition, or the tarnished American Dream. Since we live with the legacy of the self-serving 1980s, Smiley's novel seems as timely as if it were set in the present. Penetrating, readable fiction by one of our best writers and social critics. --Regina Marler

ignore the doubters!:
I am surprised that many of the reviews for this book are so lukewarm. I adored it, as did my father, sister and brother-in-law, whose collective reading tastes range from Tacitus to Jilly Cooper and beyond. What's more it made me go back and re-read all Smiley's books in my possession and seek out the ones I hadn't already read (Moo, The Greenlanders). They are all terrific, and she certainly knocks other, more feted, American writers into a cocked hat. But whereas some of her other books contain elements which might alienate the sceptical reader (not me - I love 'em all!) - telepathic horses, campus farce, enigmatic Norsemen, coke-snorting wanabee rock stars - I honestly don't think she puts a foot wrong here. One of her most accessible novels, and I mean that in a good way. Read it, then read the rest.

disappointed:
I finish 99 percent of the books I read if only out of vanity. This one I didn't even skim to the end to see if it got better. The excerpt I read on Amazon was promising enough for me to buy the book. I am also a Smiley fan and have read and enjoyed most of her books. And I don't mind reading a novel about real estate in the 80's, although I was quite young then. I would read a book by Smiley about filing tax returns, at least I would give it a decent chance before puttting it aside. This book was just - dull. It made no impression on me, except that I could think of half a dozen things I'd rather be doing. I didn't even care enough to hate it or get angry that it had wasted my time. The three stars are because Smiley on a bad day still writes better than most writers on a good day. It's well-written just not interesting.

beautiful bits, but boring overall:
I, too, am a Smiley fan: the Age of Grief is spectacular (and Moo hilarious), and this book started along similarly spare, beautiful lines. And the goal: to probe big issues of trust, infidelity (as always, with her), and business through reallllly small time real estate in northern PA - it's a noble one. It seemed like she got the details right, and Joe, her flat, dull, straightforward hero, was to me at her most engaging when he talked about the random sales he was making at the beginning of the book. My two largest problems: - too talky. The whole thing is dialogue, essentially, and dialogue ultimately about a particular real estate transaction in far too much detail. We're supposed to get the hang of Marcus (the interloping deal-crazy source of action) and Joe through their talk, but it's just talk, no distinctive voices, no distinctive observations, long paragraphs, etc. The exception here is Felicity, the temptress, but her sing-songy weirdness was, though distinctive, not very plausible. Or alluring. - too flat. Exhibit A here is all the attention given to food. The food's always boring. It's burgers and fries and other sandwiches and potato chips. And yet people are always going to eat, where they can have long, long conversations over uninteresting, uninterestingly described food, which nonetheless earns pages of copy. So in the end, I stopped caring. I did finish the book, and good on Jane Smiley for putting me in a world, and engaging difficult issues, but this book should have been more written. And shorter. Three stars, though, only because I hold her to very high standards. You won't feel like someone stole your time if you read this.

Slow but not bad:
The author makes a dull subject into an interesting story. Ms Smiley knows how to build an exciting plot with a soft touch of the inevitable and surprises. The main character Joe is likable and realistic, a simple man one that most readers would like, of course some may take issue to his cocaine use and extra marital affairs, a spin that made this story enjoyable to read in my view.

Not Pulitzer prize material.:
Good Faith seems to have started out as a social novel, attempting to capture the spirit of America as it led to the savings and loan debacle of the 80's. Along the way it was hijacked by the character of Marcus Burns, visionary, manipulator, master of the new thinking. This could have been a good thing, and certainly Marcus is original, but I found him a bit over the top; also, you never see him from the inside, revealing as some of his conversations are. Smiley is very interested in family and siblings, Good Faith is no exception, and certainly there is a lot to like here. Another focus of the book are the love affairs of the narrator, Joe Stratford, and Smiley does a very good job with the "action". To my taste, however, Smiley seems to too content to make Joe's lovers interesting people rather than interesting, nuanced characters. While Smiley does not devote a lot of time to Joe's parents, religious fundamentalists who live what they believe, I found them surprisingly refreshing. Good Faith is not Pulitzer prize winning material.