Crossing to Safety

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The first time I read this book, the defining chapter was Chapter 13 - The chapter with the Tea Box incident, the discovery of Eden, Sid and Sally and Charity and Larry, all together out in the woods.  My gut reaction was:

I know exactly what Sid is going through. 
I've been there. 
I know that feeling of futility and anger and rage at being told to do something over and over again in order to please somebody else who is WRONG.

Many of the other aspects of the plot, including the Great Depression, the fight for literary principles amidst struggling for tenure, how twenty years can pass between seeing someone you respect and love and it seems like twenty minutes...did not rest in my conscious mind quite like Charity.  The thing that stuck with me, and I remember the impact it had on me each time I read it, is the tension in Larry's narration of Sid and Charity Lang, arguing about the Tea Boxes.  How discomforting it is to others to be witness to the spectacle of discord.  Later in the novel, Charity retains her control over Sid, The theme is played out in almost unnecessary extravagance - Larry is left wandering, half in thought and half in purpose, trying to find Sid.
After being familiar with this novel for the past 17 years, it strikes me now as antiquated, homoerotic, male centric, predisposed to misogyny, heavy handed in its portrayal of men as educators and women as nurturers and not without brilliance.  Wallace Stegner persists mainly as a writer of the way things were - the Wild West of the Civilian Corps of Engineers damming great rivers, building monolithic structures never before and never since seen on Earth.  His depiction of the male in books like Big Rock Candy Mountain and Angle of Repose is constant - bracingly arrogant, given to fits of anger, misunderstood in his vulnerability, strong and capable if given the opportunity to prove his mettle.  His tragic flaw is a wondering spirit that will not be settled as the land around him becomes more and more developed.
These key ingredients are in Crossing To Safety, but toned down to meet Lake Monona rather than Lake Powell.  Larry's capacity for creation is something he administers and controls with a passion, cloistering himself in order to write novels and stories, yet only in Sid's presence does he appreciate the Xanadu they find together while camping in chapter 13, the same chapter Charity makes assertions that are incorrect, the same chapter Sally is stricken with Polio.  The strength of the male characters is juxtaposed with the female character's display of infirmity and the reader is left impressed with Charity's great capacity for error.   
This is still one of my favorite novels, because it keeps teaching me things - the platonic search for friendship in male and female form, while also conforming to the biological imperative of reproduction is something I would appreciate a little help with, but I'm not sure this is the right book for a first date with an attractive feminist. 
More than one review I've read quotes Larry discussing the concept of a novel about nothing, about everyday people, how he and Sid and Charity and Sally are too common and uninteresting for introspection - the striking feature of each is how they learn to adapt to their defining characteristics, even when they can't, in order to find success in their personal lives.  After twenty years of not seeing one another, the tension Larry saw during their camping trip is still evident, as well as an eccentricity from Charity that smacks of neuroses or hysteria.  The conclusion rests on Larry finding Sid, with charity on her deathbed and Sally hobbled by polio; one is left to speculate whether their passion for language will suffice.  



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