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    A Study Guide for Jane Smiley's "Long Distance"
    A Study Guide for Jane Smiley's "Long Distance"
    A Study Guide for Jane Smiley's "Long Distance"
    Ebook38 pages27 minutes

    A Study Guide for Jane Smiley's "Long Distance"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Jane Smiley's "Long Distance," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJul 15, 2016
    ISBN9781535827560
    A Study Guide for Jane Smiley's "Long Distance"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Jane Smiley's "Long Distance" - Gale

      1

      Long Distance

      Jane Smiley

      1987

      Introduction

      Jane Smiley's Long Distance was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in January 1987 and then published later the same year in Smiley's short-story collection, The Age of Grief. Smiley wrote this book after she divorced her second husband, historian William Silag, an event that influenced the content of the stories—all of which deal with marriage and family in some regard. In the case of Long Distance, which won Smiley her third O. Henry Award, the story examines one man's reaction to a failed relationship. During the course of a family holiday gathering, he is forced to confront his views of love, marriage, and responsibility, and in the process he realizes that his selfish actions have cheated others—and himself. Smiley wrote the story during a time when the concept of the American family was changing. Evolving roles of men and women—due in part to the influence of the modern women's movement and freer sexual attitudes for both men and women—were changing the structure of many families. Although The Age of Grief is not as well known as Smiley's novels, particularly her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, A Thousand Acres, it has received overwhelmingly positive criticism. A copy of Long Distance can be found in the paperback edition of The Age of Grief, published in 2002 by Anchor.

      Author Biography

      Smiley was born on September 26, 1949, in Los Angeles, California. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and the author was raised by her journalist mother, Frances, in St. Louis, Missouri. Smiley benefited from the close contact of her mother's large extended family, whose stories have appeared in many of Smiley's own works.

      After graduating from high school in 1967, Smiley attended Vassar College in New York, where she graduated in 1971 with a bachelor's degree in English literature. During this time, she also met John Whiston, a student at Yale University. The two were married in 1970. After graduation, they moved to Iowa City, where Smiley eventually began graduate work in English literature at the University of Iowa, earning her master of arts degree in 1975. At the same time, Smiley applied for admission to the university's prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop but was initially turned down. After honing her technique, Smiley reapplied and was accepted in 1974, graduating in

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