IN IOWA!.Ĭompare Fool, another Perspective Flip on King Lear in novel form, this time taking place in Shakespeare's actual story but from the perspective of the Fool. Eventually, Caroline intercedes.ĭoes any of this sound familiar? It should, because it's actually King Lear. Meanwhile, the Smiths and the Lewises start to turn on each other, and Larry starts to lose his mind, one night wandering out in a storm. Another destabilizing event is the arrival of Jess Clark, prodigal son of the neighboring Clark family, who soon begins to have romantic tension with both Clark sisters. With Caroline shut out, the Smiths and the Lewises take control of the farm.but soon Larry Cook becomes less content with his reduced status and loss of control. Ginny and Rose and their husbands are perfectly willing to sign the deal, but when Caroline expresses reluctance Larry angrily excludes her, literally shutting the door in her face. He will incorporate the farm, and sign control over to his three daughters.

More or less out of nowhere, Larry gets a bright idea. While Ty and Pete work the family's farm along with Larry, Caroline broke free of farm life, and works as a lawyer in the big city. Larry is also a mean, nasty Jerkass, who demands that Ginny and Rose wait on him hand and foot. Larry is the biggest landholder in the region, owning the eponymous thousand-acre farm. The story is centered around the Cook family: patriarch Larry Cook, his daughter Ginny (who narrates), Ginny's husband Ty Smith, Larry's second daughter Rose, Rose's husband Pete Lewis, and Larry's youngest daughter Caroline, who is unmarried. A Thousand Acres is a 1991 novel by Jane Smiley.

A thousand acres smiley