Good Faith

Joe Stratford, who sells nice houses in a beautiful place, and whose not very amicable divorce is over, is ready for his life to begin again. It is 1982, morning in America, and temptation is everywhere. And, as Marcus Burns (Joe's new friend from New York) says, the old rules are ready to be broken. Marcus should know: he's just quit his job with the tax man. But are his ideas about how to get rich - really rich via a local real estate development - too big and risky for Joe? And there's Felicity - the daughter of Joe's business partner. But, Joe wonders, is this winning, free-spirited (already married) woman really the one he's been waiting for?

"Smashing. . . . Fascinating. . . . Extremely subtle and nuanced. . . . [It has the] power to beguile and enthrall." --"The New York Times Book Review
""There seems to be nothing Smiley can't write about fabulously well; her insights startle, dazzle." --"San Francisco Chronicle
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"An irresistible novel of bad manners, a meditation on love and money that Jane Austen might have enjoyed, if she could have handled the sex." --"Time
""Everything about Good Faith is in perfect move-in condition. . . . [It] displays all the remarkable attention to detail that's the hallmark of Smiley's work. . . . Smiley has invested her best talent in this work, and you can buy it in good faith." --"The Christian Science Monitor
""A vindication of the traditional American novel. . . . It depicts its disquiet by means of rich, seamless prose, scenic immediacy and tight plotting. It's a true winner." --"St. Louis Post-Dispatch
""Only a writer of consummate craftsmanship and sc

Jane Smiley was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in St Louis, Missouri. She was educated at Vassar College, receiving her B.A. degree in 1971, and at the University of Iowa, from which she received her M.A. degree in 1975, her M.F.A. degree in 1976, and her PhD in 1978. In 1981 Smiley began teaching at Iowa State University. Smiley's first novel, Barn Blind (1980), tells the story of a severe mother who alienates her husband and children after one of her sons dies in a horseback riding accident. A later novel, The Greenlanders (1988), about a curse that afflicts several generations of a 14th-century Scandinavian family, reflects Smiley's training as a scholar of medieval literature. Two collections of her shorter fiction also have been published: The Age of Grief (1987) and Ordinary Love and Good Will (1989). In 1992 she won the Pulitzer Prize for A Thousand Acres (1991), for which she also won the National Book Critics' Award.

Joe Stratford, who sells nice houses in a beautiful place, and whose not very amicable divorce is over, is ready for his life to begin again. It is 1982, morning in America, and temptation is everywhere. And, as Marcus Burns (Joe's new friend from New York) says, the old rules are ready to be broken. Marcus should know: he's just quit his job with the tax man. But are his ideas about how to get rich - really rich via a local real estate development - too big and risky for Joe? And there's Felicity - the daughter of Joe's business partner. But, Joe wonders, is this winning, free-spirited (already married) woman really the one he's been waiting for?

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