Private Life

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Just finished (last night, during a heavy storm that prevented me from walking the dogs) Jane Smiley's latest, Private Life.  I noticed it is not "A Private Life," and that makes sense.  Although it is about intimate journey of one woman, one wife, it is more about what goes on privately in a woman's heart.  Many women would relate to the character's "struggle" (not sure it's really that); I know I did.  I recommend the book although it starts slowly and it seems that she is trying to write it in the style of novelists 100 years ago (since that is the time period, and it's supposed to be intimate).  The end is especially remarkable; not to give it away, but there is a nice epiphany that the reader doesn't quite see happening but makes perfect sense, even though it seems very late.

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