Moo (novel) - Reception of Moo

Reception of Moo

"And Moo To You Too" by Jane Smiley explains the experience of her book tour for her new novel Moo. While writing this comic novel, Jane Smiley knew just what she had in mind and how she felt it would be received. However, when it came time for her novel to be circulated, she found that the reception was not what she expected. As it turned out, critics and readers did not seem to know about what Smiley was writing. Critics had two very different responses to Moo. Some felt that the book was extremely funny, hilarious even, while others felt that they "couldn't raise a laugh." Some spoke of characters with no depth or shape, and others would say that they had come to care about the outcome of the characters' lives.

Smiley speaks about how this made her feel irritable because this was an endeavor of which she spent over a year writing. She thought that her feeling and passions were well displayed but none of this was mentioned by critics. In the end, Smiley was still happy with Moo. She was happy that it could be read in two ways. She had intended for it to be tricky and evasive. "And then, it turned out, that's exactly what it was!"