Kindle
$12.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$23.99
Paperback
$16.00
Kindle Price: $12.99

Save $9.01 (41%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $13.62

Save: $6.13 (45%)

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Wallace Stegner
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

All the Little Live Things (Contemporary American Fiction) Kindle Edition

by Wallace Stegner (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 401 ratings
See all formats and editions
Joe Allston, the retired literary agent of Stegner's National Book Award-winning novel, The Spectator Bird, returns in this disquieting and keenly observed novel. Scarred by the senseless death of their son and baffled by the engulfing chaos of the 1960s, Allston and his wife, Ruth, have left the coast for a California retreat. And although their new home looks like Eden, it also has serpents: Jim Peck, a messianic exponent of drugs, yoga, and sex; and Marian Catlin, an attractive young woman whose otherworldly innocence is far more appealing—and far more dangerous.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Part of series
    Contemporary American Fiction
  2. Print length
    354 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  6. Publication date
    December 1, 1991
  7. Reading age
    18 years and up
  8. File size
    5425 KB
  9. Page Flip
    Enabled
  10. Word Wise
    Enabled
  11. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  12. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card
Next 5 for you in this series See full series
Total Price: $47.95
By clicking on the above button, you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of Use

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Retirees Joseph and Ruth Allston find their placid, rural California life disrupted by a hippie who builds a treehouse on their property and by a young married couple tragically affected by pregnancy and cancer. "Quite simply, a beautiful novel--strong, moving, wise, funny--as topical as today's newspaper," said PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Quite simply, a beautiful novel-strong, moving, wise, funny-as topical as today's newspaper.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

The Great Gastby captures the twenties and yet transcends them. All the Little Live Things is a comparable achievement for the sixties...Stegner's craft is here at an apex.

-- "Virginia Quarterly Review"

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B002CIY8GK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (December 1, 1991)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 1, 1991
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5425 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 354 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0140154418
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 401 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Wallace Stegner

Wallace Stegner

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Book Award in 1977.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
401 global ratings
Product picture was incorrect
2 Stars
Product picture was incorrect
The picture associated with the book showed a cover however my book came without a jacket cover. It arrived on time though and I bought it because of the amazing story inside, but beware that if you buy from this seller you may not get the book in the picture-or they might just keep the book cover for some random reason. IDK. I highly recommend Wallace Stegner though..5 stars..easy.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Wilson W. Wyatt, Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Journey Through Life
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2002
Verified Purchase
This is one of the most powerfully emotional books I have ever read. It is not third-person entertainment. It is a book that makes a reader think about how to accept, if not submit to life, with all of its fullness, including both joy and pain.
The story is set in the late 1960's, around the retiring life of Joseph and Ruth Allston. Joe tells the story in first person, over a period of about one year. It opens with a dreary October day as Joe and his wife, Ruth, return home after a somber event. The rest of the book traces what led up to that event, and the overwhelming affect a young woman had on Joe's life.
The woman, Marian Catlin, is Joe's opposite. Joe is a highly responsible, controlling kind of man, with traditional values, who has recently retired and moved to the hills of Northern California to build his perfect life and to escape from the painful memory of the death of his 37-year-old son. Marian, the same age as his son, is his new neighbor and welcomes life openly, with all of its vitality. Joe loves Marian as his own daughter, and he reluctantly learns to accept life much more openly, and with a far deeper degree of sorrow than he has ever known.
There is another interesting character who plays a key antagonist role, a dysfunctional hippie named Peck. Peck has all the irresponsible qualities of Joe's deceased son, and he hates him for it. The interplay of emotions created in Joe by the rebellious, irresponsible Peck with the openness and acceptance of life by Marian results in a gripping tension that builds flawlessly throughout the book, to the powerful end.
There are some dramatic scenes in the story, but the real drama is what you will feel tugging within your own heart. This is an exceptional book, one of a few to remember over a lifetime...and you will.
As a writer, myself, I could not recommend this book more highly. Wallace Stegner, the accomplished, deceased author, gave us a treasure of a book.
41 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
BostonMike
4.0 out of 5 stars Stegner Mails it in
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
Beautifully written, but haphazardly plotted. Old friend Joe, now older and more cynical, still has not come to grips with the tragedies (death of son), regrets (almost-affair), and mediocrities (career, legacy) of his life. Gently prodded by his patient, protective, and purposeful wife, he finally gains some insight and realizes that - at least - he has a marriage that can be truly fulfilling (if he only stopped whining). Along the way fireworks of word craft with short lived effect.
Helpful
 Report
Michelaneous by Michele
5.0 out of 5 stars "Life is One New Position After Another."
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2008
Verified Purchase
Reading this novel was often like looking at an impressionist's painting. It's incredibly rich in scenic description, character nuances and, most importantly, mood setting tone. Wallace Stegner lives on through his writing and we shall all be richer for this reading experience. This novel, while focused on a socially turbulent era (late 1960s), is timeless. Generational and political conflict, as well as the matters of preservation and development, life and death, and the persistence of human crisis will always be relevant topics.

And so we have the characters portrayed in All the Little Live Things. Joe Allston, the narrator, is much like a diarist recording his keen and colorful observations from his five-acre hideout in glorious California. With his wife Ruth at this side, together they grieve the loss of their 37-year-old son, and try to fit in as key players in their new community. Meanwhile, a freethinking, anti-establishment sort named Jim Peck squats on Allston's property--first with permission--however, Peck takes extreme liberties. Joe's distain for him (and his beard!) is the focus of much of the novel, and it leads him to come to terms with his feelings toward his son. Meanwhile, there's another neighbor, a young woman named Marian, who helps enable Joe to come to terms with his feelings about both life and death.

This is the most beautifully written novel I've read all year. Highly recommend for those who appreciate fine, sensory-based literature.

Michele Cozzens is the author of  It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club .
14 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
L. V. Sage, Author
5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting Prose
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2015
Verified Purchase
Just finished this novel last night. Wow! An all-encompassing emotional ride from beginning to end, this story pulls you into the small, intimate world of a few key characters. Joe and Ruth are keen to live a relatively sheltered retirement in a small, rural Northern California town where they can nap, bird watch and take long walks. Enter Jim Peck, a young, hedonistic demi-God who wears a wild beard, unkempt hair and flashing eyes. After convincing Joe to let him camp on the land, a succession of events follows wherein Joe and Ruth's idyllic world is transformed into a strange battle of wills and dangerous confrontations. We learn that Joe has lost his son, an only child, in a strange surfing accident and this intrusion of peck triggers a jumble of emotions and questions for Joe regarding his son and the relationship (or lack thereof) that they had. As Joe grapples an spars with his inner turmoil while battling wills with Peck, a young couple moves in nearby. Marian, a wildly optimistic woman with views that are sympathetic to Peck's, quickly endears herself to both Joe and his wife, Ruth. The two couples begin spending a lot of time together. At the same time, Marian befriends Peck and his growing band of fellow free-thinkers, leaving Joe with even more to think about. Without giving too much away, a building sequence of events results in a crazy spiral of tragedies that will leave you reeling. Stegner is one of my favorite authors and I must say that this is by far my favorite book of his. Really sets your emotions and thoughts into play. Not a light read, by any means, but a moving and thoughtful one that you won't soon forget.
12 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

EDNA
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful writer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 10, 2020
Verified Purchase
I have only recently discovered this author and I am devouring everything he has written.
His characterisation is wonderful, he shows people in the complex way that all human beings can be.
This book is one of four written about the same characters but it can stand alone.
I have moved on to the “Big Rocky Candy Mountain” which has a very different situation and new characters but just as good.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report