Word: newtonism
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...time one reads the last page of Smiley's latest, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, all of these questions remain unanswered--except for the last one. The idea of anyone writing a picaresque novel about a bold, "plain-looking," young woman settling in Kansas Territory with her abolitionist husband during the 1850s, sounds like a difficult sell, even for an extremely popular author...
...sisters fretting over what is to become of the youngest child. "She ain't been properly taught's the truth," interjects one sister as Lidie eavesdrops with great irritation from an upstairs room. Only a few pages later, however, salvation arrives--in the tall, blonde from of Mr. Thomas Newton, who begins "courting" Lidie and whisks her off to Kansas Territory (referred to as "K.T." by most of the characters in the novel...
...fact that no bride knows what layers are in her groom," she debates to herself, "[and] that every wedding is a lottery, too. All weddings are alike in that. But it was also true that...I'd seen what I wanted to see in Mr. Thomas Newton...
Other details of the novel add to its credibility. The quaint chapter titles--from "I Improve My Friendship with Mr. Newton" to "I Go Among the Enemy"--make the tone honest yet personable. The opening quotes to each chapter, from Lidie's beloved book A Treatise on Domestic Economy, for the Use of Young Ladies at Home by Miss Catherine E. Beecher, adds a deliciously straight-faced irony to Lidie's own rather un-ladylike story. In addition, a mini-title that summarizes that page's subject in about five words or less is found at the top of every...
...breaking away from the modern-day Midwestern world with A Thousand Acres and Moo, Jane Smiley has gambled--and won. The title character of The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton is much more than Laura Ingalls Wilder all grown up. Lidie confidently balances wonder and practicality to make herself, if not the most memorable literary heroine in recent times, than definitely an enjoyable one. "No one could describe what was true in Kansas or Missouri," she contemplates as she concludes her story. But with good old-fashioned honesty and a surprisingly plucky star, Jane Smiley manages...