Abstract
ABSTRACT Jane Smiley’s regional novels offer more than the contemplation of an American landscape, enhanced by the labor of settlers and farmers. Instead, her novels critique both the hidden politics of settlement as well as the destructive legacy of “family” farms. In The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton and Private Life, the acquisition of a wife is essential to a man’s Western quest. However, Smiley portrays these wives less as passive victims than as accomplices to their husbands’ misdeeds, holding them responsible for the consequences of their union. Smiley’s wives may ultimately achieve an awareness of their choices and their roles in history, but it is a pyrrhic achievement as they realize they cannot make amends for the harm their marriages caused others. This essay examines how The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton and Private Life build on A Thousand Acres, forming Smiley’s critique of the foundational American myths of Western settlement. While her novels may fall within the literary traditions of domestic realism, Smiley’s female protagonists are more aware of the privilege embedded within their landscape and homes, fully acknowledging the harm their marriages caused others, deliberately revealing the ideologies entwined in marriage vows.
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