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Good Faith
Good Faith
Good Faith
Audiobook15 hours

Good Faith

Written by Jane Smiley

Narrated by Richard Poe

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

Greed. Envy. Sex. Property. In her subversively funny and genuinely moving new novel, Jane Smiley nails down several American obsessions with the expertise of a master carpenter. Forthright, likable Joe Stratford is the kind of local businessman everybody trusts, for good reason. But it's 1982, and even in Joe's small town, values are in upheaval: not just property values, either. Enter Marcus Burns, a would-be master of the universe whose years with the IRS have taught him which rules are meant to be broken. Before long he and Joe are new best friends-and partners in an investment venture so complex that no one may ever understand it. Add to this Joe's roller coaster affair with his mentor's married daughter. The result is as suspenseful and entertaining as any of Jane Smiley's fiction
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 21, 2008
ISBN9781440798429
Good Faith
Author

Jane Smiley

Jane Smiley is a novelist and essayist. Her novel A Thousand Acres won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992, and her novel The All True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton won the 1999 Spur Award for Best Novel of the West. She has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1987. Her novel Horse Heaven was short-listed for the Orange Prize in 2002, and her novel, Private Life, was chosen as one of the best books of 2010 by The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The Washington Post.

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Reviews for Good Faith

Rating: 3.348484707878788 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

165 ratings8 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A good solid read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Jane Smiley is one of my favorite authors. I have had this book in a drawer for 10 years and finally picked it up. Written in 2003, the story takes place in 1982 in a small town probably in North East Pennsylvania. The story is done with a first person narrator named Joe who is a 40 year old divorcee who is a real estate agent/broker. The book does a good job of describing his background and his simple approach to real estate. Smiley does a lot of real estate lingo so the book drags a little during these descriptions but you get the real feel for the deal making that occurred at that time. Ultimately, this resulted in the Saving and Loan debacle. This story shows how all of the characters in the town get caught up in the high charged energy of the out of town "deal maker". Smiley deals with many different issues in this story and does a great job of character development. She was able to get me to emotionally invest in Joe and actively dislike the slimy characters. A very solid book and not a bad introduction to first time Smiley readers. My favorite of hers is "Moo". She has a large inventory of books. If have never read her, then give her a try. She is one our best authors.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I always approach a Jane Smiley novel hoping it will be another like A Thousand Acres. Similar with the well-crafted characters and property/home issues, it unfortunately falls short of Acres. Still a good beach read and good on audio.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The real estate novel, and of course it is about greed and corruption. An odd man comes to town – Marcus Burns, and finds everyone willing to go along with his plans to get rich with little effort. Of course, there is quite a revelation late in the novel, which I won’t spoil here. It’s well written by Pulitzer winner Jane Smiley.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Maybe less ambitious than some of Smiley's other work ... on the other hand, the narrator is a single 40-year-old man, a real estate salesman who gets into sucked into a development scheme as the 1980s savings and loan debacle is getting a grip on somewhere in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, the countryside where New Yorkers weekend. We even get a few sex scenes from his POV.I marvel at all the real estate research. And the descriptions of houses. If there's a page-turner centered around real estate, this is it. Of course, despite taking place in 1980, it's so timely.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Enjoyable. A little racier than Jane Smiley's other works.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I stayed clear of her books for a long time because I did not like "A Hundred Acres" Why did it win a Pulitzer? But...this was good. More to my interests - real estate, investing, and I liked the characters. I wonder if all her books have affairs and formerly rich people broke in the end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another great great book. Jane Smiley takes on a first-person male protagonist, and she handles it without any problems. Real estate and screwed up families: perfect subject. Excellent!