Good Faith

Description

Jane Smiley's novel takes a humorous look at what happens when the American Dream evolves into a seven-figure American Fantasy. Joe Stratford is someone you like at once. He makes an honest living helping nice people buy and sell nice houses. But then life selling property takes a turn...Good Faith portrays the seductions and illusions that can seize America during its periodic golden ages...and in this book, Joe is seen wheeling and dealing in real estate.

Jane Smiley was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in St Louis, Missouri. She was educated at Vassar College, receiving her B.A. degree in 1971, and at the University of Iowa, from which she received her M.A. degree in 1975, her M.F.A. degree in 1976, and her PhD in 1978. In 1981 Smiley began teaching at Iowa State University. Smiley's first novel, Barn Blind (1980), tells the story of a severe mother who alienates her husband and children after one of her sons dies in a horseback riding accident. A later novel, The Greenlanders (1988), about a curse that afflicts several generations of a 14th-century Scandinavian family, reflects Smiley's training as a scholar of medieval literature. Two collections of her shorter fiction also have been published: The Age of Grief (1987) and Ordinary Love and Good Will (1989). In 1992 she won the Pulitzer Prize for A Thousand Acres (1991), for which she also won the National Book Critics' Award.

"Smashing. . . . Fascinating. . . . Extremely subtle and nuanced. . . . [It has the] power to beguile and enthrall." --"The New York Times Book Review ""There seems to be nothing Smiley can't write about fabulously well; her insights startle, dazzle." --"San Francisco Chronicle " "An irresistible novel of bad manners, a meditation on love and money that Jane Austen might have enjoyed, if she could have handled the sex." --"Time ""Everything about Good Faith is in perfect move-in condition. . . . [It] displays all the remarkable attention to detail that's the hallmark of Smiley's work. . . . Smiley has invested her best talent in this work, and you can buy it in good faith." --"The Christian Science Monitor ""A vindication of the traditional American novel. . . . It depicts its disquiet by means of rich, seamless prose, scenic immediacy and tight plotting. It's a true winner." --"St. Louis Post-Dispatch ""Only a writer of consummate craftsmanship and sc