Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock
and Finding Myself on a Farm
Jeanne Marie Laskas, 2000
Random House
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780553380156
Summary
Jeanne Marie Laskas had a dream of fleeing her otherwise happy urban life for fresh air and open space — a dream she would discover was about something more than that. But she never expected her fantasy to come true — until a summer afternoon’s drive in the country.
That’s when she and her boyfriend, Alex — owner of Marley the poodle — stumble upon the place she thought existed only in her dreams. This pretty-as-a-picture-postcard farm with an Amish barn, a chestnut grove, and breathtaking vistas is real ... and for sale. And it’s where she knows her future begins.
But buying a postcard — fifty acres of scenery — and living on it are two entirely different matters. With wit and wisdom, Laskas chronicles the heartwarming and heartbreaking stories of the colorful two- and four-legged creatures she encounters on Sweetwater Farm.
Against a backdrop of brambles, a satellite dish, and sheep, she tells a tender, touching, and hilarious tale about life, love, and the unexpected complications of having your dream come true. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1958
• Where—Western Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—M.F.A., University of Pittsburgh
• Currently—lives in Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania
Jeannne Marie Laskas is a columnist for the Washington Post Magazine, a GQ correspondent, and the author of Fifty Acres and a Poodle and the award-winning The Exact Same Moon.
A professor in the creative writing program at the University of Pittsburgh, she also writes the "My Life as a Mom" column for Ladies Home Journal. She lives with her husband and two children at Sweetwater Farm in Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania (From the publishers.)
Book Reviews
A delightful memoir about love and relocation... [by] an accomplished journalist and also a deft storyteller.... Hilarious....a pleasurable read indeed.
Newsday
Humorous...this true-life tale charts a big-city girl’s transformation to farm gal.
People
Jeanne Marie Laskas is the thinking woman’s Erma Bombeck ... [with] a talent for finding wisdom in daily life.... Even the most entrenched urbanite will be charmed by this book.
Time
One damn fine writer...a charming memoir about buying a farm in the country.
Esquire
In this spunky memoir of a dream come true, Laskas (columnist for the Washington Post Magazine, author of The Balloon Lady and Other People I Know, etc.) recounts her first year of living the country life after buying a farm. Before the move, Laskas lived comfortably with her beloved cat, Bob, and her mutt, Betty, in a small house set on a quarter-acre plot only 15 minutes by bike from downtown Pittsburgh. Her boyfriend, Alex, a devoted urban dweller, was a shrink and owner of a pet poodle who lived separately from her in the city. Her childhood dream of living on a farm unexpectedly became a reality after she found the embodiment of her dream—complete with a barn, a chestnut grove and breathtaking vistas—while looking at farms for sale as an excuse for a Sunday outing with Alex. Their first year together on the farm makes for an amusing and emotional tale, told in loving detail as Laskas recalls her own and Alex's adjustment from single, urban life to a committed relationship in wide-open spaces. She describes clearing the farm, meeting the neighbors, Alex's illness and the death of one of their animals with heartfelt honesty, offering many fresh pleasures for any city dweller who has ever dreamed of buying a farm.
Publishers Weekly
The back-to-the-land movement, as exemplified by the account in Helen Nearing's Living the Good Life, has often appealed to urbanites longing for a simpler, sustainable lifestyle. Magazine writer Laskas, too, had a farm dream, but hers had its roots in a desire to emulate the cuteness of the TV comedy Green Acres. So, at age 37, she purchased a farmhouse on 50 acres located an hour's drive from Pittsburgh and moved in with her commuting boyfriend. Her subtitle "Farm Lessons" is misleading; in reality, she merely moved her office to a rural area. There, she connected a plethora of telecommunications devices, added a few more pets to her household, and hired local handymen to do work around her property. Laskas's attempts at injecting humor into her narrative consistently fall flat. Her slang, repetition, and staccato sentences are as corny as her descriptions of her dogs' antics. She enjoys comparing herself and her boyfriend to various sitcom characters ("We've been behaving like Samantha and Darren") and, in boring detail, rehashes their dull conversations. City dwellers looking for farm lessons would get more inspiration from such memoirs as Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska's Simple Living, about the couple's move to a Virginia farm, and Eugene Logsdon's You Can Go Home Again, about starting a homestead in Ohio. Not recommended. —Ilse Heidmann, San Marcos, TX
Library Journal
A professional, city-living woman up and moves herself and boyfriend to a farm, where everything is way different from what she's used to. Eventually, she and boyfriend find true happiness. It really happened, she says. The End.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Fifty Acres and a Poodle:
1. Is this a cautionary tale of "be careful what you wish for"? Or is it a "follow-your-bliss" tale?
2. Does Laskas really retreat to the country, given all her modern communications hook-ups?
3. What insights does Laskas gain from her experiences in the country?
4. Reviews of this book are mixed—some love it, find it funny, while others find it hackneyed and its humor clunky. Which side do you fall on?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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