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I very much enjoyed the other Jane Smiley book I’d read (A Thousand
Acres). Not anyone would be able to pull off a King Lear retelling
set in Iowa in the 1980s. But she did. So when I had a chance to pick up this
book, Moo, cheap at a thrift shop, I bought it instantly.
I had a hard time getting into this story about budget cuts at a Midwestern
university, though. Though somewhat hard to
keep straight at first, the characters were interesting. In fact, some of the penetrating insights into human
nature astounded me. The problem, I think, was in the narration. It was as flat
as the plains themselves—too detached to allow you to get attached to the
breathtakingly-drawn characters. And although I can see how a detached narrative
style played into her overall themes, it didn’t help me as a reader to
care as much as I could have.
If I hadn’t read A Thousand Acres first I would have been scared
to try it after this book. Not that it was a bad book. Just rather slow-paced,
like the Midwest itself. Just don’t approach it like a high-volume page-turner.
Even better, approach A Thousand Acres instead—it’s a better
introduction to what Smiley can really do with the Midwest.
