Previous Next

Chapters 6–10

Summary: Chapter 6

After church, Ginny wants Caroline to apologize to Larry, something that comes easily to Ginny but not to Caroline. Caroline tells Ginny that her fiancée called Ken LaSalle, Larry’s lawyer, who said he advised against the move and that Larry had concocted the plan only a few days before. Ginny wants Caroline to go along with it for the sake of the family on the farm. She warns Caroline that old grievances linger in these stubborn farmers. The sisters get into their vehicles, and Caroline agrees to think about it more. Ginny imagines a child’s car seat in her truck.

Summary: Chapter 7

At Larry’s house, Ginny talks to Jess, who is pouring coffee. When she asks what he’s been doing, he explains that he’s moved around and done many jobs while he tried to find inner peace. The family gathers. Marv arrives with Ken LaSalle. An air of hope and celebration prevails as the men talk about hogs and tractors. Larry is beaming and proud. The lawyer has set out papers to sign. Caroline arrives at the door. Ginny opens it for her, but Larry slams it in her face. Caroline drives away. 

Book Two 

Summary: Chapter 8

Ginny describes the Ericsons, their love of animals, and Mr. Ericson’s ineptitude with machines. Larry Cook looked down on his college-educated neighbor as inefficient and foolish. Larry kept his farm organized, productive, modern, disciplined, and expanding. In contrast, the playful Ericsons taught their dogs tricks and made ice cream from their own cows. Ginny recalls being in the Ericsons’ relaxed kitchen with her mother and their daughters, one of whom was Ginny’s best friend.

Larry comes to Ginny’s home for dinner on Tuesday as always. When Ty tries to talk to him about the farm, Larry simply tells him to do what he wants. The next day, as Ginny plants tomato seedlings, Jess appears. Jess tells Ginny that after his fiancée was killed in a car accident, he nearly drank himself to death. Now, he doesn’t drink at all. Ginny tells Jess about Rose’s surgery. Jess asks about his own mother, who died of cancer while he was away. Ginny confesses that Jess’s mother was convinced that Jess would return, but he never did. She died sad and disappointed. Jess confesses that he was angry with his mother for not writing back to him after he left for Canada. He tells her about a boy in basic training who banged his head against the wall when his sergeant yelled at him. Jess is angry at his mother for not giving his refusal to fight a chance. Ginny is shaken, and Jess says he should go back to Seattle. 

Summary: Chapter 9

Ginny takes Rose to her three-month checkup in Mason City. The appointment goes well, and they decide to celebrate with dinner at a fancy restaurant. The sisters discuss how hard the last three months have been. Rose felt lost, and Ginny felt out of control. They shop for dresses. They talk about Caroline, who never wanted to be a farm wife. Rose wants to go home because she’s tired. On the way home, Rose admits that she’s not ready to be in a dressing room, and Ginny admits that she still feels awkward around strangers. Rose confesses a recurring nightmare about grabbing things that can hurt. Ginny confesses dreams of being naked in a lunch line.

Summary: Chapter 10

When Ann Cook died, Larry decided the two older girls could care for six-year-old Caroline, so they did. She was agreeable and affectionate, easy to raise. When Caroline was in high school, Ginny and Rose made sure she had dates, magazines, and an allowance. Sometimes, Caroline wondered aloud why her sisters didn’t leave home.

Ginny sees Larry sitting in his chair. Worried that he is dead, she goes back to check on him. Larry gets angry when he hears Ty’s tractor cultivating a field on the farm. Ginny invites Larry for supper, but he does not reply. Back at Ginny’s home, Rose calls and asks if Ginny has seen what their father is doing. They agree that watching Ty and Pete will be his new obsession. Ginny does not call Caroline as she intended, feeling uncertain and shy. She admits that she’s been thinking about Jess Clark. [147 words]

Analysis: Chapters 6–10

The final chapters of Book One (Chapters 6 & 7), are brief, their momentum quick, finally punctuated by Larry’s slamming of the door in Caroline’s face. The initial chapters of Book Two are longer and more leisurely and include information about family history as well as events in the present time. Readers learn more about the time after Mrs. Cook died, when the older sisters take over for their mother with Caroline. They also learn about the Ericsons and their farming methods, which differ so radically from Larry’s. Details about Jess’s past are revealed, too, including his drinking habits after his fiancée’s death and his anger at his mother for not answering his letters.

Tensions build on several fronts. The sexual tension between Jess and Ginny continues during their long, intimate conversations. As Ginny plants tomatoes, they reveal secrets to each other, some of which make her uncomfortable. Unlike Jess, Ginny is not used to openly sharing emotions and private history. Perhaps surprisingly from a woman who still finds her husband likable and attractive, Ginny admits to having many thoughts about Jess Clark that inhibit her from making a phone call to Caroline. Alongside this build-up, Larry’s anger is also escalating, as he sits staring out his window at his son-in-law on the tractor. Perhaps he is thinking his decision to relinquish the farm was premature or, more painfully, foolish. Larry Cook never wants to be considered foolish. For a man of his stature and temperament, foolishness would be the ultimate failure.

The tension between Ginny and her father doesn’t build, exactly. Instead, it seethes, although there are scattered comments about the past that astute readers will notice. For example, Ginny admits that when Caroline was a child, their father would often demand a kiss from his youngest daughter. When Caroline kissed him on the lips, Ginny felt an odd heaviness, like a stone. Her feelings about her father are always a bit dark and foreboding. When Ginny sees him staring out the window, she expects the worst, but she shows no genuine fear or sorrow that he might be dead. When her father remarks that Rose’s kids would be stuck without her, he shows no compassion or love, just a matter-of-fact comment that Ginny considers one of his remarks that one simply can’t be answered or understood. Larry complains that his microwaved meal is cold before he finishes it but won’t accept an invitation for supper that night. Larry Cook is an emotionless man, but his daughters are certainly not. However, Ginny is like her father in that she does not easily reveal her emotions. Sometimes, she does not even admit them to herself.

These chapters also reveal more and more about the relationships among the three sisters, in both the past and the present. The older girls endearingly care for their younger sister and overcome their father’s stern conservatism to make sure she has material treats and gets out of the house for dates, dances, and socializing. Caroline differs from Ginny and Rose because of her age but also because of her easygoing temperament and her lack of interest in the farm. Chapter 9 makes it clear how similar and mutually dependent Ginny and Rose are and how disturbing it would be if Rose were to die. Ginny comments that she appreciates their uniquely “fertile” bond, a fitting descriptor for a pair of farmwives. She also comments that she never argues with Rose and never has. However, this symbiotic relationship between the two sisters is the one that changes the most radically in the novel. At this point, it seems ideal and equal, but it won’t remain so for long.

Author Smiley plants the seed of a theme about environmental concerns, first with Marv Carson’s obsession with toxins in food and the environment and then with Jess’s comments about food cooperatives and organic farming. Also, Rose’s admission that she has nightmares about grabbing things, including poisons, will serve as foreshadowing. Two neighboring women, Mrs. Clark and Rose, have had cancer, and readers don’t know how Mrs. Cook died. The gigantic Iowa farms that focus on monocrops rely on many chemical pesticides, whereas a “farmer” such as Mr. Ericson farms for joy and fun, raising a variety of animals and food, less concerned with efficiency than pleasure. Larry believes that a farmer’s duty is more food, more land, more buildings, and no debt. Ericson and Larry Cook represent two extremes on the farming spectrum, and Larry believes that his way is the only right way.

Previous section Chapters 1–5 Next section Chapters 11–14

Take a Study Break