A very short, poignant novel. I’m not sure why this was in my audio collection (must have been free!) as it didn’t tick my usual boxes and I’d never even heard of the author (turns out he’s a Pulitzer Prize winner - oops!). However, this bleak little tale had an evocative sense of time and place. Good work from the narrator in this version, too.

Merged review:

A very short, poignant novel. I’m not sure why this was in my audio collection (must have been free!) as it didn’t tick my usual boxes and I’d never even heard of the author (turns out he’s a Pulitzer Prize winner - oops!). However, this bleak little tale had an evocative sense of time and place. Good work from the narrator in this version, too. ( )

A bleak tragic tale of sisters divided by love and reunited by loneliness in Iowa farm country. It's a slight and early effort from Stegner, but has plenty of signs of his subtle, rich writing style, and his psychological insight. Well worth reading for Stegner fans, but if you're not already an enthusiast, perhaps start with the Spectator Bird, or Crossing to Safety, before moving on to the longer novels The Big Rock Candy Mountain, or Angle of Repose. ( )

You can see the makings of Angle of Repose in this first novel by Wallace Stegner. There is adultery, unexpressed passion (and expressed passion) and characters that imprison themselves in negative familial environments full of repressed emotion. These things were all dealt with in Angle of Repose more deftly and that well-written story was more interesting because of it.

Remembering Laughter is not up to that mark in terms of writing style but I still found myself enjoying the book. I had no hesitation or reluctance to pick it up in the evening and I quickly finished this novel of less than 200 pages.

The book was absolutely worth reading and it is interesting to compare it with Angle of Repose. I am looking forward to exploring more of Stegner's fiction and non-fiction. ( )

Wallace Stegner’s debut novella, Remembering Laughter is a study in the misery people can bring upon themselves. It is a story of betrayal, misplaced passion, and a refusal of forgiveness. That any one of those traits can ruin a life is obvious, couple all three of them together and the damage is consuming.

The story is based on a story Wallace Stegner’s wife, Mary, had told him regarding two of her aunts. What gave it additional impact for me was that I was familiar with a very similar situation, that had a much different outcome than Stegner had imagined, but just as destructive.

As I suspected, Stegner burst upon the writing world fully formed. No one would suspect this is a debut. It has his signature style already–a style that is so perfectly unobtrusive that it is hardly sensed at all, but one that is as skillful as any you will ever find.



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A very short, poignant novel. I’m not sure why this was in my audio collection (must have been free!) as it didn’t tick my usual boxes and I’d never even heard of the author (turns out he’s a Pulitzer Prize winner - oops!). However, this bleak little tale had an evocative sense of time and place. Good work from the narrator in this version, too. ( )