Crossing to Safety Part I: 1-7
(w/ podcast links and a poll)
Good Morning Readers,
I hope you are having a lovely Saturday morning so far and enjoying a bit of leisure after a busy week. We had an especially busy week over here and I am planning/hoping to enjoy some rest and good literature this weekend.
This past week (or the one before) we finished and met to chat about Father Brown. I hope everyone enjoyed their meetings and chatting about these delightful stories. I would love to hear which was your favorite below…
If you read the whole book (or even just a few other stories) I would love to see other favorites in the comments section. I would also love to hear if there is another collection of stories to read next (or a favorite story from another volume). I definitely plan to continue enjoying Father Brown and can’t wait to share it with my kids as well.
If you wanted to collect the books Warbler Classics has the first four in the series published….
The Innocence of Father Brown
The Wisdom of Father Brown
The Incredulity of Father Brown
The Secret of Father Brown
Next up we are starting Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. This is the first book I ever read with
back in 2018. Someone mentioned their podcast in a Facebook group and I wanted to be in a book club, but I couldn’t find an in person one so I joined their virtual one (turns out sometimes you have to start the book club you want and that’s how we got here). This was the next book in their schedule so I dutifully got it from the library and jumped in. I was in love (with the podcast and the book). I had never heard of Stegner before and I am so thankful to Close Reads for introducing lesser known (but still beautiful) books to me. I read this book again in 2021 when I was postpartum with my fifth and on a roadtrip and I enjoyed it again, maybe even more than the first time. So I was excited to put it on the list and introduce you all to one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!I read the first half or so of Part I this week and have enjoyed it so much. I intended to sit down and read it all because it feels like such a leisurely book that I really wanted to soak in it. But life happened and I realized that there was no way that was going to happen during this busy week if I wanted to be ready to stay on the schedule I announced. So I got the audio version (which is included in an audible membership) and have been listening to it and I have enjoyed that so much.
I used to think that I didn’t “read” as closely when listening to an audiobook, but I think that is an over simplification. I used to listen to an audiobook like I listen to a lot of podcasts, I put my headphones in and go about whatever task I need to do. The book could easily become background noise and I would miss key plot points and then feel lost. Now if I am going to listen to an audiobook (especially for a Book Club pick) I make sure that I can be fully focused and even have the physical book and a notebook close by in case something strikes me that I want to think or write about later. This has made it so that I almost think I get more from listening than I would from just reading. This could have to do with personality or learning style or anything really, but I wanted to share in case it is helpful to anyone else’s reading life!
My copy has a short literary biography of Wallace Stegner in the front of the book that I recommend everyone read. The key points are that Stegner grew up moving around the western United States. He started writing novels in college and became a literature professor. He taught at the creative writing program at Stanford and taught Wendell Berry, the author of Hannah Coulter (August 2021). Most of his novels are set in the West so this one is different in being set mainly in the Northeast and Midwest. The only other work I have read by Stegner is Angle of Repose (which I also love and recommend). After this reread of Crossing to Safety I am planning to read some more Stegner very soon!
Okay, this newsletter has gotten long and we haven’t even gotten to the chapter musings so I will try to keep it short and not give you every single thought, but maybe just some themes I see running through that are worth paying attention to.
Chapter Musings
1
Larry and Sally are at The Compound after years of being away. We find out that Charity is dying, Sally has some sort of long term illness/injury, and Sid and Larry are writers. It seems that there has been some sort of falling out that has kept them away.
The dilapidation of the cottage seems to mirror their friendship, it is not depressing
“I have spent too many good days and nights in this cottage to be depressed by it” (3)
Nature itself reflects Larry’s feelings about being back.
I am so interested in the themes of time and memory in this novel (and others).
“In fact, if you could forget mortality, and that used to be easier here than most places, you could really believe that time is circular, and not linear and progressive as our culture is bent on proving…each generation repeats its parents…Here everything returns upon itself, repeats and renews itself, and present can hardly be told from past.” (4)
Pay attention to the first description of Charity (pgs 6-7).
The difference between Charity and Sally is striking…
“Long-continued disability makes some people saintly, some self-pitying, some bitter. It has only clarified Sally and made her more herself.” (7)
The Cicero that Larry mentions about old age and friendship seem to be setting us up for the rest of the book.
2
We go back in time to when Larry and Sally show up at University of Wisconsin for the first time. They are poor and happy.
There are so many similarities between this chapter and the last which seems to prove the point that Larry made about time in the last chapter (see quote above).
Traveling
Eating Simply
Sally in need of Larry’s care (this time for pregnancy)
I love the way Larry describes writing his story (page 16)
So much of Stegner’s prose is quotable
“We ate the stuff that was good for the budget, but not exactly good for the soul.” (18)
3
We meet Charity and her and Sally become fast friends. They are both pregnant and the Langs are rich.
The opposite gender of each couple has a special liking toward the other…is it because they are similar or because they like them back? Larry asks himself this very question after I wrote that note. Good writing leads you to ask the right questions.
The pregnancy removes the separation between the women. They are going to race…I have a feeling Charity will win knowing her personality (and Larry’s).
4
The Langs have a dinner party to remember. Lifetime friends are made and some people are left out.
“There’s nothing like a doorbell to precipitate the potential into the kinetic.” (32)
The question about the Elrichs is so interesting. Was it about indifference or dislike?
Sid is transformed by being with Charity…he is compared to Clark Kent/Superman.
“I have heard of people’s lives being changed by a dramatic or traumatic event- a death, a divorce, a winning lottery ticket, a failed exam. I never heard of anybody’s life but ours being changed by a dinner party.” (36)
5
The Langs and Morgans go on a picnic to celebrate the Lang’s anniversary. Larry gets a story in the Atlantic. Sid gets moody. Later they go iceskating.
“Madison. It comes back as broken scenes.” (47)
Larry is said to be carrying life in his pocket because he has gotten his short story published. Stegner seems to be making the connection between Sally’s pregnancy and his vocation as a writer. One that Aunt Emily and Charity will talk about later as well.
“Why is it so important to be safe?” (54)
This question seems to be connected to the title of the book. What will make Sid safe? Or who is crossing to safety?
Should I be making the connection between the independence Sid will gain with tenure and the fact that Charity is dying in “present time” and she is the one with the rules. Is Stegner leading me to make that connection or am I reading into it too much?
We have the first Eden reference in this chapter I think. It seems that there is trouble in Eden after all. Sid and Charity aren’t the perfect couple they first appeared to be…
Stegner draws so much attention to the couples “switching” throughout the story. Seems to be drawing our attention to the similarities between Sid and Sally and Charity and Larry.
Do Sid and Sally both need Larry’s protection?
Sid’s glasses seem like a mask. His personality and appearance are totally changed. It seems to correlate with being with Charity. Does she make him better or worse?
6
Larry imagines Charity and Sid’s love story.
“Recollection, I have found, is usually about half invention.” (61)
I love this narrative device of imagined history. I think it is so interesting.
Is there a connection being made that memory works the same way? Larry relating his own memories may be just as inaccurate as him trying to relate Sid’s?
Aunt Emily has so much power….she passes this to Charity. She is even living with them at Madison.
Is there a significance in Charity and Comfort’s names?
The poetry and teaching argument has been happening since before their marriage.
Should we see a connection between Charity and Sid’s dad…is he just finding a new person to disappoint?
Sid has a disguise in this chapter too!
The chapter ends with Charity asking her mom, “would you?”…I think that is significant.
7
We are back at University of Wisconsin where Larry details their life before the baby comes and their growing relationship with the Langs.
“If I had kept a journal, I could go back through it and check up on what memory reports plausibly but not necessarily truly. But keeping a journal then would have been like making notes while going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Eventless as our life was, it swept us along. Were we any less a Now Generation than the one that presently claims the title? I wonder. And it may be just as well that I have no diary to remember by. Henry James says somewhere that if you have to make notes on how a thing has struck you, it probably hasn’t struck you.” (104)
I would love to hear any thoughts and connections you are making as well. Please comment or post in Slack! I love that we can all learn from each other as we read!
Close Reads Podcasts
Like I said above,
did a series on this book back in 2018. I remember loving the podcasts years ago and I have not started them yet this time, but I plan on listening to them again. I hope you enjoy and they enrich your reading as well!Part I: 1-4
Part I: 5-6
Part I: 7-10
Part I: 11-13
Part II: 1-3
Part II: 4-5
Part III
Q&A
Other Things I’m Enjoying
I am about to finish Post After Post-Mortem by ECR Lorac for the Detective novel series that
is doing this year for their subscribers (as well as their long series, which is Kristin Lavransdatter right now). It is a really fun detective novel by an author I had never heard of before. If you are in need of a page turner mystery to solve I recommend this. It is set in Oxfordshire as well which makes it extra fun!
Leif Enger just released a new novel, I Cheerfully Refuse. One of his other novels, Peace Like a River (February 2021) is one of my favorite modern novels so I am very excited to check this one out. I have it on hold at the library currently!
I just saw in
’s latest newsletter that she has edited a new book called Women of the Catholic Imagination. It is essays about Catholic women novelists including a lot that we have read or have chatted about. I am very excited to read this!
- is at it again with this article, The Introvert’s Guide To Tech Resistance. I cannot get enough of her articles so I will keep sharing them with you.
”Overuse of tech not only steals time from in-person social connections, but also from healthy solitude. Reclaim solitude boldly, and don’t apologize! Solitude is a deep human need.”
”Women are not meant to be endlessly energetic. We have monthly cycles that include times in which our energy bubbles outward and times in which our energy is directed inward toward the amazing work of our bodies in maintaining our fertility.” - put out a new Common Mom video (which are always lovely) about Books to Read as a Postpartum Mom. I know we have some pregnant ladies, but also these are just lovely books for any time as well! She specifically mentions Middlemarch (March 2024) and The Code of the Woosters (July 2023) and possibly some future books as well!
Well that is all I have for you today. I outlawed the TV for my kids on this beautifully cool morning and after the riots were over they very nicely went to go play outside and bugged me way less than normal (which makes me rethink the whole Saturday morning TV thing a bit). But, a tiny child just came up to me with a face covered in mud so I am going to go deal with that and then hopefully will enjoy some leisure and literature with and without kids. I hope you continue to enjoy Crossing to Safety and whatever else you are currently reading. I love this community and it is so fun to read together!
Enjoy your reading until we meet again!
“At any rate that year of reading novels was the only real education, in the sense of book-learning, that I've ever had. It did certain things to my mind. It gave me an attitude, a kind of questioning attitude, which I probably wouldn't have had if I'd gone through life in a normal sensible way”
-GEORGE ORWELL
A Few Reminders
If you haven’t taken the survey for this year yet, please do so here!
Next up we have Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner for our May book. I am very excited to chat about this one and maybe introduce you to a new author that I love. Feel free to read the book at any pace that works for you, but below is how I am planning to read and the dates I will post about each part if you’d like to read along.
April 20th: Part I: ch 1-7 (pgs 3-104)
April 27th: Part I: ch 8-13 (pgs 105-195)
May 4th: Part II (pgs 199-271)
May 11th: Part III (pgs 275-327)
After that we have The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro for June.
If you are part of a group, but you’re not on our Slack page, please contact me. That is where people share thoughts and logistics for each in person group.
Book lists from previous years can be found here.
We are on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (with links to Substack) in order to spread the joy of the reading life to more people...if you want to like or share with any friends that want to start their own groups (or follow along virtually) please do!
*As always, some of the links are affiliate links. The few cents(literally) earned with each purchase you make after clicking links (at no extra cost to you) go toward the time and effort it takes to keep Literature Book Club running and I appreciate it!
Thank you for sharing my piece, Kelsie! I'm so glad you continue to enjoy my articles.
Thank you for the shout out about the new book! ❤️ Can’t wait for you to read it!