At Paradise Gate

by Jane Smiley

224 pages. First Edition. Smiley's second novel. Three generations of women try to sort out their personal histories while attending to a dying patriarch.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction, Family, Audiobook, Contemporary, Death

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained a A.B. at Vassar College, then earned a M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. While working towards her doctorate, she also spent a year studying in Iceland as a Fulbright Scholar. From 1981 to 1996, she taught at Iowa State University. Smiley published her first novel, Barn Blind, in 1980, and won a 1985 O. Henry Award for her short story "Lily", which was published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her best-selling A Thousand Acres, a story based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992. It was adapted into a film of the same title in 1997. In 1995 she wrote her sole television script produced, for an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Her novella The Age of Grief was made into the 2002 film The Secret Lives of Dentists.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel (2005), is a non-fiction meditation on the history and the nature of the novel, somewhat in the tradition of E. M. Forster's seminal Aspects of the Novel, that roams from eleventh century Japan's Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji to twenty-first century Americans chick lit.

In 2001, Smiley was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smiley does here what she excels at, exploring the subtle, complex interactions that create family. It is 1972 and 77 year old Ike is debilitated from coronary illness. His 72 year old wife, Anna, his 3 middle-aged daughters and his 23 year old granddaughter flutter around one another, much as they have done all their lives, but with the added intensity of responding to this medical crisis. In their conversations and in the internal musings of Anna, Smiley peals back the layers of sibling rivalries and spousal tension, of joy and disappointments, of steadfast love and of violent outbursts, of the tectonic shift between generations, of the siren call for independence and the deep longing to be part of family.

[Virginia Pulver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am Iowa born and raised and, like the Anna Robinson, I am in my 70's. And also, like Anna, my ideas about a perfect day are often about time alone to wallow in my various activities and to reflect on my thoughts and memories...time when I can truly just be myself. As I close the cover to this book, I find myself pondering what will unfold for Anna. I was happy to read that she had some rudimentary plans. I hope she is not derailed. Jane Smiley captures a sense of what life is like in the Iowas I was raised in. (At 18, I left for an adventurous life in a few far-flung places...my mother was pleased that I stepped out into the world, but was always glad to hear my stories when I returned.) This book has been a therapeutic read because my own spouse of 50-plus years recently underwent emergency surgery on his brain.It was easy for me to empathize with dear Anna as she dealt with the people in her life and the frightening vulnerability one feels when a spouse becomes frail. (He is happily recovering, but this was a frightening experience for all. I am grateful this book came to me. And as always with a Jane Smiley read, I send her a rousing "Well done, Jane Smiley...well done! - Ginn, Crazy Chicken Lady in SC

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Absolutely no action, but somehow I still wanted to know what was going to "happen." I actually think I liked it better than "A Thousand Acres." I loved hearing Anna think through her life and re-evaluate memories she hadn't revisited in years. Really makes you think about the process of aging and watching your children age with you.

[Valerie Frankel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book I've read by this author, and it was one of her earliest works. It will not be my last. It is uncanny how much I could relate to the personalities, emotions, discord, and ultimately, love that is depicted in this story of a mother, her 3 middle-aged daughters, and 23 year old granddaughter over a period of 3 days at a time of family crisis.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

While seventy-seven year old Ike Robison is dying in his bedroom upstairs, his wife Anna defends the citadel of their marriage from the ill-considered, albeit loving invasion, of their three middle-aged daughters and twenty-three year old granddaughter. Helen, Claire and Susanna claim they have come to help their mother, Anna, and to cheer their father towards recuperation. Although, it appears to their mother that her daughters have arrived only to raid her refrigerator and to gripe and snipe at each other about their recollections of old rivalries.

Bright, fresh-faced Christine arrives and presents the family with a new set of problems - her impending pregnancy and forthcoming divorce. Anna, herself, is reflecting on her life. Her life has been difficult for Anna, her marriage to Ike harshly violent, uprooting and cold. Unburdened by sentiment, Anna acknowledges to herself that she is angry at her husband for abandoning her and that her daughters remain so dependent, even into their adulthood.

Despite the simmering anger and resentment which is directed at her husband, Anna has grown used to Ike and truly can't imagine her life without him. She is confronted by her own frailties, and the imminence of Ike's death has left her in a devastating conundrum about what she should do next. Anna ultimately achieves a quiet certainty about her right to what's left of her world.

I thought this was a very good book. It was an easy read for me, and even though nothing earth-shattering happened in the plot, At Paradise Gate by Jane Smiley was still a very pleasant read. This book was filled with moments of quiet introspection, rather than huge cliffhanger plot twists. The writing was beautiful and I give this book an A+! I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes contemporary fiction.

[Chavelli Sulikowska · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never stop returning to Jane Smiley's novels when I need an assured good read!

One of her earlier works that seemingly sets the stage for her future family sagas. This shorter novel can be seen as test run for the compelling character and plot development that Smiley fans have come to know and love in her novels.

This novel pivots on the delicate relationships between the characters, in this case a band of women, where the matriarch is surprisingly powerless in comparison to her strong willed but diverse daughters and grand daughter and her ailing husband. Nevertheless, Anna is s strong woman - demonstrated through passages detailing her inner musings, frustrations, fears, insecurities and regrets.

A graceful tale where its strength resides in the depth of the very real characters rather than place, landscape or action.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Smiley, and this is one of her earlier novels, before she really found her groove. It takes palce in real time ovr 36 hours in the home of a dying man. The wife, Anna, is the protagonist, and much of the novel is her stream-of-consciousness thoughts.
This is an examination of marriage and what it truly entails. Anna's union of dogged resignaion and putting up with irascible, mercurial Ike, is contrasted with granddaughter Christine's flighty decision to divorce her short-term husband (and abort his baby) because she can't stand to never be alone anymore. Smiley asks the reader to decide which form of marriage is the right one.
This is also a portrait of a dysfunctional family: sometimes violent Ike, the constantly bickering adult daughters, bitter widows and divorcees, failed mothers. None of the family members much like one another, and the question asked is, how far does a mother's love have to go?
Smiley's invocation of Anna's fondly recalled childhood in the Montana mountains and Iowa farm life must be drawn from life--Smiley's interviews of her elderly relatives. The flip side is Anna's refusal to sugar-coat the hard times in her life for Christine.
The final scene, Ike's death, is beautifully handled and familiar to anyne who has endured the death of someone who was an inextricable part of one's entire life.

[KaiAnn Wei · Rating 4 out of 5]

141. "There's no other way to recapture him, really, except in that stillness when a well-known memory kind of stumbles on a forgotten one..."

[Cher · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 stars for the beautiful ways she uses words, but 2 stars for the characters.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Ike is at an end stage of life, his wife Anna and daughters suffer the strain. Recalling memories of family life and the issues of adult children all the while coping with the tiring care of her husband, Anna reflects on the meaning of her life. A realistic portrayal of how old age affects marriages.

[Dyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book brought back memories of my own father's last few hours before he passed away. The family was gathered in his hospital room, while he was in a drug-induced coma, remembering his life, telling stories, laughing, weeping, and holding his hand. This book is essentially character driven with the only plot being a family gathered around a dying man. The time span is 1 and a half days and one night or about 36 hours. It takes place in 1972 in an Iowa farmhouse. It's not a light read - it's a poignant read. The characters are well fleshed out with plenty of descriptive insights and emotional moments. The characters are complex and their relationships are complex and generational. It explores husband and wife dynamics, sibling dynamics including personalities and rivalries, simmering emotions, quiet introspections, intergenerational family issues and dysfunction, animosities, etc.

77 year old Ike Robison is upstairs dying of coronary disease. He is cantankerous, demanding, and won't let anybody but his wife, Anna, fetch and care for him. Anna is overburdened, long-suffering, and sapped of energy and can't sleep. Their three middle-aged daughters and 23 year old granddaughter invade their home with good, but unwanted intensions and advice to offer. They spend their time bickering, reminiscing, and preparing meals with friendly chatter. I don't think they realize that their father is really dying. Anna doesn't really want them there - she hasn't the energy to fend off their enthusiasm and suggestions. They want Anna to bring in a nurse to care for Ike. Anna knows that Ike would never accept that idea. She doesn't even want to tell him what they want.

Helen is the oldest daughter and is cynical and pretentious. Claire, the second daughter, is opinionated and demanding. Susanna, the youngest daughter is overweight, practical, and is dominated by her sisters. Christine, the granddaughter and Helen's daughter, is youthful, energetic, and comes bearing good and bad news. The bad news is that she wants to divorce her husband Todd, and the good news is that she is pregnant but not sure she wants to have a baby. Lots of discussion about that! Christine, also, arrives with her Airedale named Nelson who provides some comic relief. The 1st two daughters are widows (Helen twice), and Susanna is divorced.

Anna spends some time reflecting on her life before, during, and what the future may hold when Ike dies. She is beginning to simmer with anger when she remembers her own troubled relationship with her husband and snaps at him frequently as she cares for him. There were loving times, but they don't outweigh the unloving times. Now his neediness is bringing back their life together in flashbacks including her inner musings, regrets, disappointments and her apprehensions are fueling her anger. He calls her Mother and she calls him Daddy. The daughter's lives are also explored as well as the intergenerational family issues. The author has great insights into all of these complex family tensions and dynamics. Even though I was reading about the mundane ordinary life of this family, I found it a compelling read. Highly recommended. The author's first book too!

[Jim Leckband · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love finding the relevance of titles to the books inside. I am a bit stumped with this one. Smiley has a PhD in English so the odds are that "At Paradise Gate" has a literary reference in addition to the obvious "Guy is dying and will soon be at heaven's door". My five minutes of googling found an excerpt of a poem by Alfred Dixon Toovey called "Eden":

Not for voice weak as mine be the tale of their fall,
Of the sin and the shame which yet cover us all;
Of peace turned to conflict, of love turned to hate,
Of the angel's sword flaming at Paradise gate.

I'm not at all sure this is the reference Smiley intended, but I'll get back to it.

Overall the book is relatively simple. Three daughters and a granddaughter come back home to their dying patriarch Ike and his overwhelmed wife Anna. And that really is about it. As another review in Goodreads mentions, you don't know why you keep turning the pages, but yet you do even though nothing happens. Part of that is Smiley's writing - her characterizations of all six people are wonderfully distinct and lifelike. Probably Ike is the flattest one, oddly enough. Anna is the star of the novel though. Most of the book involves her remembering back through her life.

And remembering the past and not living in the moment and savoring it is one of the themes of the novel. The epigraph from Levi-Strauss sets the tone when he laments that "...I may be insensitive to reality as it is taking shape at this very moment..." Anna and her kids live a lot in the past and seem stuck where they are, there is no future. Only the granddaughter is looking for a way out but she might even be making a mistake by not realizing what she has now! But the ending after Ike's death, when Anna can finally look into the future gives an optimistic stamp to the book.

Excessive remembering paralyzes all the characters it seems. It isn't always of an Edenic past though. Sometimes the past is a cautionary tale that might not be relevant at all to the present. The past haunts them like that angel's sword at Paradise gate - by mourning or celebrating this inaccessible realm they don't see our world outside the Paradise gate, the one we really live in.

[Deborah Vance · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is told through the thoughts of 71-year-old Anna who was born at the turn of the 20th century. She's married to 77-year-old Ike who's upstairs in bed dying. Anna's three daughters and her granddaughter come visit every day, always bringing food and preparing meals.
Through Smiley's descriptions of places and inanimate objects -- masterfully rendered in descriptive, poetic language -- we follow Anna's thoughts as she looks back at her austere childhood with her German parents in the western US mountains.
We also learn her thoughts about her marriage with Ike. She reminisces about his physical strength and sense of humor. Wondering if she ever actually loved him, she remembers longing for him one day seven years into their marriage. Mostly, she recalls him as an abusive bully who beat their daughters too. Although we see him as a whiney, bossy, sarcastic, selfish old man, and amid all her negative thoughts of him, inexplicably she thinks to herself how much she loves him.
The family members don't really like each other. Their conversations consist of resentment and criticism as they talk about food, cooking and memories. The granddaughter distinguishes herself by not discussing food and being critical but rather by describing her albeit shallow thoughts about desiring a single life where she can just be in her own room without her needy husband whose child she's expecting. Grandmother Anna labels her a genius which, compared to the rest of them, she is.
I can't imagine a shallower group of people and had hoped for an ending that would elevate this tedious depressing book into something more than a mundane still life.

[Tim Nason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novel driven by dialog, memories, family transitions. The plot consists of a woman caring for her elderly dying husband and visits by the couple’s three daughters and an adult granddaughter. Time passes slowly: through the first two sections (114 pages) only few hours have passed. Only after 100 pages did I comprehend the underlying structure or pattern of the book, of Anna reviewing and assessing her life in the context of the lives of her parents and the lives of her daughters, and their children and husbands and boyfriends, and how strong a role was played by her dominating husband, a role he continues even in his slow dying. His demands are frequent, petty, obstinate, frustrating; she begins to respond with physical anger, even as she sees his increasing infirmities, even as she knows her responses are based in his lack of attention to her, his self-centeredness, throughout their long marriage. There is great depth of characterization, through description but mostly through exchanges of dialog and through each character’s distinctive actions and movements about the room. Also great depth in the discussions and arguments that take place, described from Anna’s point of view, accompanied by Anna’s reactions, thoughts, feelings. The book becomes a page-turner toward its conclusion not through plot tricks, violence or sex but through an increasing intensity in the dialog as deeply held feelings are at last expressed. The reader learns about Anna’s true feelings through her thoughts and words but also by how her daughters react to challenging situations. Powerful novel.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

So my first thought was "meh..." Then it occurred to me that it would be so much better as a play, with half of the POV character's mental rambling cut out, and the scenes and people she reminisces about drifting in and out like ghosts. The set and clothes would be minimal, and the "ghost" memories would be more elaborately dressed and detailed. And better lit. Then I imagined the stage evenly divided into his and her bedrooms, with Anna in her bedroom, mesmerized by the "ghost" scenes acted out in front of her, while her dying husband calls and calls for her next door, more and more worried... Then I thought, but what about the dog? How would you have the dog onstage? But then I realized that obviously the dog could just be noises offstage--not even dog noises, just bumps, crashes, scratching, etc, only the characters assume it's the dog. Or they can crane their necks and "see" it somewhere off to the side and yell at it, but the audience can't see it, it's just these creepy sounds on the periphery.
So anyway, I totally psyched myself up for this minimalist/surrealist/spooky-awesome play. And then I came down to earth and had to read 100 more pages of the actual book. Which is none of the above. Sigh. Why do I do this to myself? I don't even watch theater... But you know what, I'll just pretend like this was all Jane Smiley's intention all along. To inspire an average novel-reading pleb like me to greater appreciation of theater...

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is set in the late '70s and was published in 1981. Ike is dying, and his loyal but exasperated wife, his three middle-aged daughters, and his wayward granddaughter are there ostensibly to support him, but mostly to have play-like dialogue about the nature of marriage and the single life. The daughters reminisce about World War II, and it occurred to me that 1945 is as close to 1981 as 1981 is to 2017. The middle-aged daughters, born in the twenties, really reminded me of women I grew up with.

While Ike is slowly dying in his room upstairs, everyone talks about granddaughter Christine's decision to get divorced because she hates being married. It's striking how much a woman's right to a divorce is taken for granted now, but was rather shocking in middle America. By the time the book was published, Smiley was on her second of three marriages, and one gets a sense that these are conversations she had to deal with.

The only thing stopping me from giving it five stars is that some of the reminisces of Anna, Ike's wife, run a bit too long. Still, it's a very quick and easy read. It seems like a book that would generate a lot of conversation at a book club.

[Cheryl Petersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book 3.5 stars.

I have been wanting to read a Jane Smiley book since I saw the movie adaptation of Thousand Acres years ago and have never read one. I picked this one up and it was a quick read. Smiley has the ability to articulate what is going on - so many things that you can not see - with grace and efficiency. You quickly gain an understanding of her characters and will love some and hate others. I really enjoyed the multi-generational discussions of this book. The book was written in 1981 and though some of the material now almost makes it a period book - so much is entirely relevant today. I believe my favorite thing about the book was that you could feel the three daughters, mother and grand daughter talking over each other in the conversations, which is hard to capture in writing - but also really enjoyed Anna's reflections over her marriage of 52 years and what that means...both good and bad. I will definitely read more Jane Smiley.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very moving story of a family in the last few hours of their father's life. While he is laying upstairs in the family home, the wife and her three grown daughters, along with an adult granddaughter grapple with memories. As the story unfolds, we learn about their lives growing up and as adults. We learn from the wife about her and her relationship with the husband and with the daughters. There are some enlightening revelations about generational differences as they deal with each other and the care of the father. I always love to read about family dynamics. Also, being in my 60's and having been married for 43 years myself, it was interesting to see the wife's perspectives of her life past, present and future.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I've read this summer. Choosing it for our senior book club choice. Maybe you have to experienced some deaths in the family before you can appreciate this 24 hour of waiting for death to happen. Having three daughters with different personalities and a grandaughter age 23 that doesn't believe in marriage, I could relate to every word. How like daughters it is that when the end came they are out chasing a dog! Ike was so funny facing the inevitable. When he said is there any ice cream in this establishment, I laughed out loud.I too want to die eating ice cream.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really liked this book. There was only one segment in the middle where it seemed to get a little slow, but it turned out the theme was just developing - and both that and the ending were truly excellent. Whether to get married and what you may gain and/or lose of yourself by taking either path were examined by the two ends of 3 generations of a family, and the particulars of the story hit very close to home for me - really great read.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was for a work book club. Even knowing I had to lead the group, I absolutely could not read this entire book. It has to be the most boring book I have attempted to read in a long time with no likeable characters. I ended up reading the last couple of pages just to know how it ended. Of course, it ended with death. Sigh.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read and liked some of Jane Smiley's later novels. This was an earlier one, and it just didn't go anywhere for me. The relationships among the characters, while interesting, were not compelling enough because I didn't like any of them that much.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three generations of women hold vigil at the bedside of the ill patriarch. The story spans only 24 hours, but Smiley fits in the current story, flashbacks, and some very profound statements on relationships.

[Mary sipp rigby · Rating 2 out of 5]

so so

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

She is such a talented writer. Always compelling and just complex enough without being austere. Liked A Thousand Acres a little better but then again so did the Nobel judges

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a couple of chapters to get into it, but once I did I found the book to be a nice family story.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was tedious as several other reviews stated. And it wasn't that long of a book! But it could have been much shorter.

[Danni · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was ok. I have read others I like better.

[Lawanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook performed by Suzanne Toren

[Cascade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rambling, 4*s for thought provoking about the activities & relationships of your life and your feelings about them.