Call number
FIC STE
Collection
Genres
Publication
Penguin Books (1991), 352 pages
Description
Joe Allston, the retired literary agent of Stegner's National Book Award-winning novel, The Spectator Bird, returns in this disquieting and keenly observed novel. Scarred by the senseless death of their son and baffled by the engulfing chaos of the 1960s, Allston and his wife, Ruth, have left the coast for a California retreat. And although their new home looks like Eden, it also has serpents: Jim Peck, a messianic exponent of drugs, yoga, and sex; and Marian Catlin, an attractive young woman whose otherworldly innocence is far more appealing--and far more dangerous.
Subjects
User reviews
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Stegner's eye for "all the little live things" around him is as keen as Annie Dillard's, or Barbara Kingsolver's. Some of those live things are gophers, some are weeds, some are hippies, some are mushrooms...but the most alive of them all is a dying pregnant woman whose brief appearance in the life
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of Stegner's main character, Joe Allston, challenges his resolve to withdraw from both pain and pleasure, into a "twilight sleep" where there are no emotional demands, and where non-involvement serves to blunt the grief he has determined to put behind him. This is a complex novel, emotionally troublesome at times, full of literary allusions, and the symbols roll and tumble over each other. Despite the title, a good bit of what is being explored here involves death. Like Allston's cat with its gruesome offerings, Stegner has left us a gift on the mat, which we are meant to examine, and admire with a shudder. Show Less
LibraryThing member carrieprice78
I know I should really stop posting reviews of books before I've completely finished reading them, but in my most humble opinion, certain things bear notice. After all, it's not so much about the conclusion of the book, for me; the satisfaction comes from the subject matter, the writing style, the
With that disclaimer aside, I must say that Wallace Stegner has done it again.
There goes my copy of All the Little Live Things right up on the shelf of books I mostly read, except for that little bit at the end. Right up there with all the other Wallace Stegner books, save Crossing to Safety. In this and his other books, Stegner completely engrosses the reader with the scenery of Northern California and the minutiae of everyday human life. He paints his characters in most lucid detail, down to the very birthmark. The reader takes interest, noticing the beauty or ugliness of it all, and then: Stegner tightly turns the wind-up key on his characters. The reader has the pleasure (or displeasure) of watching them all unwind over hundreds of pages. I can't exactly state why this bothers me so much, but it does. The minutiae get even more minute than before--characters take offense to seemingly inoffensive remarks, characters have strange epiphanies, write long letters to each other, say silly things, get drunk, make more offensive remarks, and so on. Somehow, the story leaves the reality that has been previously established by Stegner and moves into "Soap Opera Land."
In All the Little Live Things, there's more than enough offense to go around. Reading this story is like being at the center of a human fishbowl. Also, Stegner has done us the service of telling us the end of the story right at the very beginning, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. One of the main themes of the story, the formation of a strange relationship between the main character, Joe Allston, and his pregnant, ill neighbor, Marian Catlin, isn't entirely credible. They get so caught up in dialog and misconceptions that I really question if two real people would behave that way.
Please don't misunderstand me: I like Stegner. Reading him simply requires a great deal of patience that perhaps I haven't found just yet.
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portrayal of a scene, and so on and so forth.With that disclaimer aside, I must say that Wallace Stegner has done it again.
There goes my copy of All the Little Live Things right up on the shelf of books I mostly read, except for that little bit at the end. Right up there with all the other Wallace Stegner books, save Crossing to Safety. In this and his other books, Stegner completely engrosses the reader with the scenery of Northern California and the minutiae of everyday human life. He paints his characters in most lucid detail, down to the very birthmark. The reader takes interest, noticing the beauty or ugliness of it all, and then: Stegner tightly turns the wind-up key on his characters. The reader has the pleasure (or displeasure) of watching them all unwind over hundreds of pages. I can't exactly state why this bothers me so much, but it does. The minutiae get even more minute than before--characters take offense to seemingly inoffensive remarks, characters have strange epiphanies, write long letters to each other, say silly things, get drunk, make more offensive remarks, and so on. Somehow, the story leaves the reality that has been previously established by Stegner and moves into "Soap Opera Land."
In All the Little Live Things, there's more than enough offense to go around. Reading this story is like being at the center of a human fishbowl. Also, Stegner has done us the service of telling us the end of the story right at the very beginning, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. One of the main themes of the story, the formation of a strange relationship between the main character, Joe Allston, and his pregnant, ill neighbor, Marian Catlin, isn't entirely credible. They get so caught up in dialog and misconceptions that I really question if two real people would behave that way.
Please don't misunderstand me: I like Stegner. Reading him simply requires a great deal of patience that perhaps I haven't found just yet.
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LibraryThing member Cygnus555
This is a perfect story. The path to the end of the book was breathless... when I reached the end I gasped for air... I then turned to the beginning and reread the first chapter. I rarely read stories so well constructed and executed. I strongly recommend rereading the first chapter after you
Heart wrenching, difficult and utterly human. Wow.
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finish this amazing story - you will see it in a new light. Heart wrenching, difficult and utterly human. Wow.
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LibraryThing member ehines
There are a number of good summaries of this book on LT already, so I won't bother with that. Just a few observations . . .
I didn't expect to like this book--Stegner always struck me as a bit too finely crafted for my taste, a bit too much of a scenery painter. And there is certainly some of that
I didn't expect to like this book--Stegner always struck me as a bit too finely crafted for my taste, a bit too much of a scenery painter. And there is certainly some of that
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here, but much more important are the people, their frailties and the historic conflict between the New Deal Left and the New Left of the 60s. A very fine book. Show Less
LibraryThing member oldblack
This book was first published in 1967 and it's very much a story of its time, but it is also much more than that. For me it's a story about what it's like to be old-ish and starting to think seriously about your own death and how that context affects the way you look at the way younger people are
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living their lives. I found it to be a sad book - there isn't too much optimism at all. But to me, that's reality. The schemes and ideas of the young idealistic man come to nothing. The optimism and self-sacrifice of the young mother turn out to be entirely mistaken and fruitless. The older narrator is left with a lot of regrets. Although he does end on a slightly upbeat note, this reader was left pondering the loss, the damage, and the waste. Show Less
LibraryThing member sharonk21
Former literary editor, Joseph Allston, instantly falls in love with a young woman who moves to the San Francisco-area rural retreat to which he and his wife, Ruth, have retired. Haunted by his inadequacy as a father to his now-dead son and as a son to his long-dead and self-abnegating mother, Joe
For Joe, the impact is profound. Marian’s lightness of being and deepness of soul is the antithesis of Joseph Allston’s curmudgeonly and oddly nihilist persona. Just as she challenges his world view, she simultaneously provides an antidote to his poisoned existence. His nihilism is the product of a late-in-life review of what his own life has produced. By the time the story is told, Joe’s personality and character have become those of a contemplative 1960’s conservative aghast at the excesses of the young of the era. Much of Joe’s development into the elder he has become was driven by the pointless life and death of his son, who never managed to get on track and who died in a surfing accident three years earlier.
At the same time, Joe’s worst memories of his relationship with his son are reawakened by the bearded Jim Peck, a motorcycle-riding, non-bathing student at counterculture Berkeley who is in full flight to become the opposite of his own father, a Chicago meat-packer. Peck arrives in Allston’s haven and outrageously asks if he can camp for free on a bit of Allston’s land (he is currently sleeping in university auditoriums). Much against his better judgment, and at the silent behest of Ruth, who remembers with grief and love her own errant son’s life and death, Joe gives Peck his churlish permission to camp on a spit of land just out of their everyday view.
Thoroughly caught up in the lives of the pregnant and frail Marian, her ecologist husband, and her small daughter, Joe and Ruth do not confront the offenses of Jim Peck against their hospitality. Peck steals their water and electricity. He turns his spit of land into a meeting place and finally a school for his counterculture followers. He furnishes the place with a tree house, a tent, a deck, and a mail box. Peck seduces the local teens, the sons and daughters of the Allston’s friends and neighbors. In short, Jim Peck behaves as if he were the owner of the land and as if he were there for the duration.
Shortly after meeting Marian, Joe and Ruth discover that not only is she pregnant, but also she is in remission from breast cancer. Everyone, including her husband, but particularly Joe and Ruth, try to live as if there is no question of the cancer returning. The two families develop a parent-child relationship in the few short months they live as neighbors.
In the summer, a visit to her oncologist in San Francisco reveals the truth: the cancer has returned and it is likely to be quickly fatal. Joe, frantic at the idea of her refusing treatment so she will have a better chance of delivering her child, wavers between begging her husband to make her get treatment and trying to accept her own wishes and the idea that he is going to lose her so quickly after finding her. Within a couple of months, as they prepare to take her for her final trip to the hospital, so she can be given pain medication while she dies, an accident brings the whole situation with Jim Peck to a flashpoint.
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falls in love with Marian on the spot--in the sense that one falls in love with one’s child upon its birth. She becomes, both for Joe and for Ruth, the daughter they never had.For Joe, the impact is profound. Marian’s lightness of being and deepness of soul is the antithesis of Joseph Allston’s curmudgeonly and oddly nihilist persona. Just as she challenges his world view, she simultaneously provides an antidote to his poisoned existence. His nihilism is the product of a late-in-life review of what his own life has produced. By the time the story is told, Joe’s personality and character have become those of a contemplative 1960’s conservative aghast at the excesses of the young of the era. Much of Joe’s development into the elder he has become was driven by the pointless life and death of his son, who never managed to get on track and who died in a surfing accident three years earlier.
At the same time, Joe’s worst memories of his relationship with his son are reawakened by the bearded Jim Peck, a motorcycle-riding, non-bathing student at counterculture Berkeley who is in full flight to become the opposite of his own father, a Chicago meat-packer. Peck arrives in Allston’s haven and outrageously asks if he can camp for free on a bit of Allston’s land (he is currently sleeping in university auditoriums). Much against his better judgment, and at the silent behest of Ruth, who remembers with grief and love her own errant son’s life and death, Joe gives Peck his churlish permission to camp on a spit of land just out of their everyday view.
Thoroughly caught up in the lives of the pregnant and frail Marian, her ecologist husband, and her small daughter, Joe and Ruth do not confront the offenses of Jim Peck against their hospitality. Peck steals their water and electricity. He turns his spit of land into a meeting place and finally a school for his counterculture followers. He furnishes the place with a tree house, a tent, a deck, and a mail box. Peck seduces the local teens, the sons and daughters of the Allston’s friends and neighbors. In short, Jim Peck behaves as if he were the owner of the land and as if he were there for the duration.
Shortly after meeting Marian, Joe and Ruth discover that not only is she pregnant, but also she is in remission from breast cancer. Everyone, including her husband, but particularly Joe and Ruth, try to live as if there is no question of the cancer returning. The two families develop a parent-child relationship in the few short months they live as neighbors.
In the summer, a visit to her oncologist in San Francisco reveals the truth: the cancer has returned and it is likely to be quickly fatal. Joe, frantic at the idea of her refusing treatment so she will have a better chance of delivering her child, wavers between begging her husband to make her get treatment and trying to accept her own wishes and the idea that he is going to lose her so quickly after finding her. Within a couple of months, as they prepare to take her for her final trip to the hospital, so she can be given pain medication while she dies, an accident brings the whole situation with Jim Peck to a flashpoint.
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LibraryThing member Arctic-Stranger
This is one my favorite Stegner books and Stegner is one of my favorite authors.
Part of this novel is a thinly disguised retelling of Stegner's moral fight with Ken Kesey, who dropped out of Stegner's writing seminar. Part of it is the self-righteousness of the narrator, who loses his moral
Part of this novel is a thinly disguised retelling of Stegner's moral fight with Ken Kesey, who dropped out of Stegner's writing seminar. Part of it is the self-righteousness of the narrator, who loses his moral
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superiority at a raucus party, but who manages to cling to shreds of it, and part of it is pure theodicy...why do bad things happen to good people. It is tragic. And it is wonderful. Show Less
LibraryThing member Smiley
Stegner takes on the 60's counter culture, old age and every day life. Wonderful.
LibraryThing member silva_44
I disliked the narrator intensely; his inability to "roll with the punches" drove me mad. He constantly second-guessed himself, held ridiculous idea about life and the universe, made firm decisions when he shouldn't have, and failed to make firm decisions when he should have. His wife seemed to be
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a cardboard cutout with zero personality. Having said that, I loved the setting, some of the other characters, the descriptive writing, and the ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member novelcommentary
Written in 1967, All the Little Live Things was a sequel of sorts to Spectator Bird, where 1st person narrator, Joe Allston, reflects on the events of the last half year. This is a beautifully written novel,especially the descriptions of nature and the California fauna. the Allstons, Joe and Ruth
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moved out here as a sort of getaway, after losing their son Curtis. Joe felt he could spend out his remaining years detached and seeking solace in the pleasures of gardening and keeping the house in order. But life creeps in, first in the form of a a philosophical hippie who wants to camp on his property and then in the form of Marian, a young, pretty mother whose smile quickly captures Joe's heart. He and Ruth become fast friends with Marian and John and their daughter Debby. However there is an undercurrent of tragedy that is a part of life and this lesson helps Joe, in the end , realize certain truths. Show Less
LibraryThing member andafiro
(Adding this to my library now though I read it some time ago--this title just now showed up as a recommendation and I want to confirm that yes, it's a good recommendation. ;-)
LibraryThing member Ameise1
This is a wonderful book. It's written with great care for all protagonists. A retired couple is living now in California. They bought quite a big piece of land where there new house was built. This story tells the living together with the neighbours whom are people like everybody knows. Each
Stegner leads us through their lives with a lot of emotions, wonderful pictures of fauna and flora and as a reader I felt like being amongst them.
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family has their struggle be it due to parenthood, money, self-discovery, cancer or finding peace with their past. Stegner leads us through their lives with a lot of emotions, wonderful pictures of fauna and flora and as a reader I felt like being amongst them.
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LibraryThing member Rascalstar
Wallace Stegner is one of my favorite authors, and this book just solidified that. It's beautifully written, the story is mesmerizing, for me. Stegner writes about people and everyday life so quietly stunningly that the reader is unaware of getting enmeshed in the story. Joe Allston and his wife,
Along comes Jim Peck on a motorcycle, seeking to "camp" in the bottom land of Allston's property. After Allston reluctantly agrees, Peck soon builds a tree house, complete with a rickety bridge that draws up into the tree, a shed, installs a mailbox, and commences to invite free-thinking young friends who trash the land. The cult existence of this lot of young people, includes alcohol, drugs, sex, and more and lures in two young local teenagers.
A neighbor of the Allstons is bent on development and begins bulldozing a nearby hill.
A younger couple with a small daughter and a baby on the way move in across from Allstons and the two families become close friends. The fragile wife, Marion beguiles Joe, and his wife as well, with her intelligence and sunny outlook, different from his own.
On the surface, it seems a companionable quiet life away from the city fray. Read the book to learn all the events that happen to this enclave of diverse people. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading Stegner and you enjoy literary fiction, I highly recommend this book.
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Ruth, retired to a small rural town in California after the death of their only child, a son -- an unruly young man who defies his educated parents in every way. The couple seeks peace.Along comes Jim Peck on a motorcycle, seeking to "camp" in the bottom land of Allston's property. After Allston reluctantly agrees, Peck soon builds a tree house, complete with a rickety bridge that draws up into the tree, a shed, installs a mailbox, and commences to invite free-thinking young friends who trash the land. The cult existence of this lot of young people, includes alcohol, drugs, sex, and more and lures in two young local teenagers.
A neighbor of the Allstons is bent on development and begins bulldozing a nearby hill.
A younger couple with a small daughter and a baby on the way move in across from Allstons and the two families become close friends. The fragile wife, Marion beguiles Joe, and his wife as well, with her intelligence and sunny outlook, different from his own.
On the surface, it seems a companionable quiet life away from the city fray. Read the book to learn all the events that happen to this enclave of diverse people. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading Stegner and you enjoy literary fiction, I highly recommend this book.
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LibraryThing member Bookmarque
What a beautifully agonizing book. The writing, as usual, is elegant, poignant and unexpectedly funny. Spectator Bird was the same and I think it's Joe's character and curmudgeonly outlook on life. Some of it is cringe-worthy, but some of his opinions line up with mine. I like him despite his
What I thought would be the ultimate clash turned out not to be and the story moves in a different direction at the very end. The pivotal scene was so horrific that I had to fast-forward through it because I couldn't take it. Yes, it involves humans, but not only them and it was the suffering of another that pushed me out.
It isn't a cheerful book, but worthy even through its sadness and death. What a writer he was.
Oh and what an actor Edward Herrmann was - he makes Joe come alive. His narration was perfect.
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old-fashioned beliefs.What I thought would be the ultimate clash turned out not to be and the story moves in a different direction at the very end. The pivotal scene was so horrific that I had to fast-forward through it because I couldn't take it. Yes, it involves humans, but not only them and it was the suffering of another that pushed me out.
It isn't a cheerful book, but worthy even through its sadness and death. What a writer he was.
Oh and what an actor Edward Herrmann was - he makes Joe come alive. His narration was perfect.
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LibraryThing member stevesmits
This novel is a sequel to The Spectator Bird. Joe and Ruth Allston have returned to California from abroad, trying to find and achieve some measure of contentment in a rhythm of retired life. Joe is still deeply affected by the death of his son and in this book we find out more about his wayward
Into their lives come several neighbors about whom Joe has strong feelings that tell us much about his state of mind and about the complex relationships across age differences. Jim Peck is a hippie-type student who gets permission from Joe and Ruth – very reluctantly from Joe – to set up a camp on their property across from their home. Jim personifies the “new age” ethos of young people with his mystical, and to Joe repellent, approaches to life. Joe sees nothing of any productive value in the way that Jim lives; he considers Jim’s life to be nonsensical and self-absorbed. Jim symbolizes the arrogance of youth who think that a lifestyle counter to the prevailing culture is by its nature superior. Jim becomes a sort of guru attracting young people to his “ashram” and carrying on in ways that irritate Joe. Since the novel was written in the late 60’s it is apparent that the relationship between Joe and Jim is evocative of the generation gap so much in people’s thinking at that time. Jim in his dissolute and, to Joe, rather pointless existence reminds Joe of his son Curtis, a shiftless dilettante whose way of living his life was so troubling to Joe.
The Allston’s have some new neighbors – John and Marian Caitlin – who moved into a house nearby. They are young, closer in age to Jim than Joe and Ruth. Joe has entirely different feelings about the Caitlin’s. John is a research scientist at the university who is frequently away of field expeditions. Marian is a cheerful, tolerant, intelligent woman whose optimistic views of the world and how it should be experienced captivate Joe. He is deeply drawn to her, not in a romantic sense, but as an uplifting contrast to how Curtis and Jim lived their lives. Marian is pregnant with the couple’s second child, but there’s a dark cloud looming. Marian has had cancer and there’s a likelihood it may return.
Joe is irascible and easily irritated by the goings on in the neighborhood. Tom Weld, the owner of much of the land surrounding the homes, has sold off lots to developers and Joe is witnessing the destruction of the tranquil countryside. Jim increasingly takes liberties with his stay on the property, hosting wild parties that draw in neighborhood teenagers and result in a crisis. Joe had been looking for the chance to reconcile himself to the past and his present stage in life and is not finding anything but more unhappiness.
Marian’s cancer does return and the prognosis is poor. She decides not to fight it, but to hold on without medication until the birth of the baby. The Allston’s urge her to take on the cancer, but she refuses. While they are supporting Marian, the clashes with Jim and his commune continue to grow until there is an incident involving a neighbor girl. Joe evicts Jim from the property.
The ending is not revealed here. The themes of the novel connect to the difficulties of finding happiness in the face of powerful cultural currents. The book highlights the generational divide that was so pronounced in the 1960’s and which still now is not resolvable.
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son and Joe’s difficult relationship with him. Into their lives come several neighbors about whom Joe has strong feelings that tell us much about his state of mind and about the complex relationships across age differences. Jim Peck is a hippie-type student who gets permission from Joe and Ruth – very reluctantly from Joe – to set up a camp on their property across from their home. Jim personifies the “new age” ethos of young people with his mystical, and to Joe repellent, approaches to life. Joe sees nothing of any productive value in the way that Jim lives; he considers Jim’s life to be nonsensical and self-absorbed. Jim symbolizes the arrogance of youth who think that a lifestyle counter to the prevailing culture is by its nature superior. Jim becomes a sort of guru attracting young people to his “ashram” and carrying on in ways that irritate Joe. Since the novel was written in the late 60’s it is apparent that the relationship between Joe and Jim is evocative of the generation gap so much in people’s thinking at that time. Jim in his dissolute and, to Joe, rather pointless existence reminds Joe of his son Curtis, a shiftless dilettante whose way of living his life was so troubling to Joe.
The Allston’s have some new neighbors – John and Marian Caitlin – who moved into a house nearby. They are young, closer in age to Jim than Joe and Ruth. Joe has entirely different feelings about the Caitlin’s. John is a research scientist at the university who is frequently away of field expeditions. Marian is a cheerful, tolerant, intelligent woman whose optimistic views of the world and how it should be experienced captivate Joe. He is deeply drawn to her, not in a romantic sense, but as an uplifting contrast to how Curtis and Jim lived their lives. Marian is pregnant with the couple’s second child, but there’s a dark cloud looming. Marian has had cancer and there’s a likelihood it may return.
Joe is irascible and easily irritated by the goings on in the neighborhood. Tom Weld, the owner of much of the land surrounding the homes, has sold off lots to developers and Joe is witnessing the destruction of the tranquil countryside. Jim increasingly takes liberties with his stay on the property, hosting wild parties that draw in neighborhood teenagers and result in a crisis. Joe had been looking for the chance to reconcile himself to the past and his present stage in life and is not finding anything but more unhappiness.
Marian’s cancer does return and the prognosis is poor. She decides not to fight it, but to hold on without medication until the birth of the baby. The Allston’s urge her to take on the cancer, but she refuses. While they are supporting Marian, the clashes with Jim and his commune continue to grow until there is an incident involving a neighbor girl. Joe evicts Jim from the property.
The ending is not revealed here. The themes of the novel connect to the difficulties of finding happiness in the face of powerful cultural currents. The book highlights the generational divide that was so pronounced in the 1960’s and which still now is not resolvable.
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LibraryThing member onefear
This is one of my favorite Stegner books. It is a good example of Stegner's character-development ability.
LibraryThing member breathslow
Not Stegner's best, but still very good indeed. His main character, Joe Allston, a retired educated man living with his wife in the California hills, meditates on the nature of intrusive youth, intrusive disease, intrusive wildlife.
He introduces himself: "I am concerned with gloomier matters: the
As the story shows, sorrow and death find us all out - we can never 'retire' from these - and, in Allston's estimation, makes our life richer for it. It's a sobering and grim book in some ways, but full of 'wild' life too.
He introduces himself: "I am concerned with gloomier matters: the
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condition of being flesh, susceptible to pain, infected with consciousness and the consciousness of consciousness, doomed to death and the awareness of death. My life stains the air around me. I am a tea bag left too long in the cup, and my steepings grow darker and bitterer."As the story shows, sorrow and death find us all out - we can never 'retire' from these - and, in Allston's estimation, makes our life richer for it. It's a sobering and grim book in some ways, but full of 'wild' life too.
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Awards
Commonwealth Club of California Book Awards (Silver Medal — Fiction — 1967)
Notable Books List (1967)
Pages
352
ISBN
0140154418 / 9780140154412