Both Larry and Sid are writers and teachers. ( )Ĭharacter-driven novel about a long friendship between two couples, Sally and Larry Morgan and Charity and Sid Lang, who met at the University of Wisconsin during the Great Depression.

But the phrase 'was his life' suggests a more important factor: love. In different ways, that is true of both couples. 'She not only ran his life, she was his life,' Stegner writes. Even at the end of the novel when she lies on her deathbed with advanced cancer, she manages to manipulate everyone so that she can die her way, whatever Sid or anyone else may think about it. He longs to be a poet, while she demands he focus on serious academic writing to advance his career. She insists on running everything, especially her husband's career. As for Charity, she has a controlling personality that becomes more troublesome as the years pass. Polio cripples Sally while she is still a young woman, and she bravely struggles to maintain a normal marriage and a normal friendship with Charity. The two wives may actually be the novel's key characters. More importantly, his wife doesn't think so. Sid, less talented and less driven, inherited great wealth, so academic success may be less important to him, yet he doesn't think so. Larry is a compulsive worker and a talented writer whose success in publishing begins early. The novel covers decades and the ups and downs of their respective careers and marriages. Sid is another young member of the English department. Larry and Sally Morgan meet Sid and Charity Lang soon after moving to Madison, Wisc., where Larry, our narrator, will teach literature at the university.

So Wallace Stegner's Crossing to Safety (1987) stands out for that reason alone.

Novels about friendship are numerous, but how many of them deal with the friendships of married couples (especially without marital infidelity entering the plot)? Not many. Â€œOf all the people I know, Sid Lang best understands that my marriage is as surely built on addiction and dependence as his is.â€ â€” Wallace Stegner, â€œCrossing to Safetyâ€

William stegner crossing to safety