Crossing to Safety (Modern Library Classics)

Beautifully written
“Talent lies around in us like kindling waiting for a match, but some people, just as gifted as others, are less lucky. Fate never drops a match on them.” What a joy it was to read Wallace Stegner who chronicles two couples and reveals each in his/her strengths and weakness. Magically, he does so with glorious sentences and the one above. His poetic, thoughtful prose compliments his readers’ intelligence and joy of reading.The Langs and Morgans were an unlikely pairing. Opposites and contrast abound throughout the novel. The Langs, wealthy privileged easterners, products and producers of large extended families, seemingly have it all. They are adventurous, intelligent, and healthy. In contrast, the Morgans come out of the west from nothing—no money nor families, prone to difficult childbearing and diseases. Yet, these two couples form life-long bonds that survive (although not always so strongly) for their entire adult lives. In some ways, it would seem that the Langs gave more to the Morgans than visa versa. Charity’s exuberance to Sally’s gentle ways; Sid’s worldliness to Larry’s naive world view. But this is a story of the strength of a fired professor and his polio-ravished wife and their ability to overcome.Stegner could have devoted much more time to the “others” in the story: professors and wives, children and other relatives, but the essence of his novel was the Langs and the Morgans. As the novel opens, we know that Charity is dying and doing so in her own way. “Isn’t it typical? At death’s door and she wants it like old times, and orders everybody to make it that way. And worries about us being tired. Ah, she’s going to leave a hole.” And perhaps the “meta-essence” is Charity. Her personality drives those around her, and in that drive we see both the positive and negative effects. She decides that they will be friends; she decides that the Morgans will be assisted when times are tough. She wills the polio stricken Sally to live.Sally: “Except for Charity, I wouldn’t be alive. I wouldn’t have wanted to be.”Larry: “I know.”Sally and Charity bond immediately. Yet, Larry is not so enchanted with Charity. The two often spar, much to Sally dismay. Sally often defends Charity. Likewise, Larry bonds with Sid, becoming his champion. It seems to me that Larry understands the price that Sid pays to his determined wife. Sid never measured up to Charity’s father; couple that with never measuring up to his own father: “My most vivid memory of my father is the total incomprehension—the contempt—in his face when I told him I wanted to major in English literature at Yale.”In the story as Larry interprets it, we see Charity becoming more dogmatic from the “compass” for their camping adventure to Sid’s career. “Charity’s family are all professors. She likes being part of a university. She wants us to get promoted, and stay.”Her vision of how things should be (and how Sid should be) grows more rigid over the years. There is no room for personality, desire, or hope different from Charity’s vision. As ulta-generous and loving as she is to the Morgans, especially to Sally, her charity does not extend to Sid. To Charity (and probably to his father), Sid is a disappointment, too emotionally driven like the poet he wants to be.For me, the ultimate cruelty was Charity’s exclusion of Sid in her dying “plans.” As the widow of a cancer victim, I do not believe I could have recovered if my husband had banned me from his side. We nearly made it to 25 years, not quite. Langs more than likely were 40 or more. The role of spouse/care giver is difficult. Often, I felt I could never say the “right” thing: if I tried to be cheerful, I was told that I didn’t understand the fatality of the situation. If I was down, I was told that I wasn’t helping to be positive. Do I blame him? Absolutely, not. His burden was far heavier than mine. It was merely difficult to provide the comfort needed at the moment. In the end, we understood that our love, as human as it may have been, was true and strong. To have been excluded from his bedside would have been emotionally and spiritually fatal to me. I was often the emotional one to his reserve as Sid was to Charity. I call that balance.Charity’s expectations and determination were not totally unexpected. Stegner masterfully developed each character making their flaws and strengths human and real. I may have been disappointed in a character’s choice, but each time those choices stayed real. Crossing to Safety was a joy to read.

worth the reread
Although this book is clearly a period piece, I still love to read the beautiful descriptions and to ponder life from Larry’s pint of view. I read the end after returning from a sad but lovely funeral, and it was the effect way to spend the afternoon.

This book is about the lifelong friendship between, and the constrasting fortunes of, two men: one, unable to achieve his full potential because of blind devotion; the other, successful despite the weight of tragedies. The book is all about characters, the story only serving to open them up to us.It took me more than two months to read this book, not because it is boring, but because it has to be savoured. This is one of the best books that I have read in a long time. It is beautifully written.

This book may be the finest book I have ever read. The author is brilliant and insightful. Worthy of reading every ten years or so. Perspective of age would only add value to the quality of the read.

Item as described