Crossing to Safety

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

I enjoyed the first part of the book, but gradually lost interest as it progressed. It is a semi-autobiographical tale of a writer. It starts with experience during the great depression. He is a struggling academic, trying to get any work he can. He takes a yearlong appointment in Madison. To make ends meet, he takes any writing gig he can find. He also befriends another member of the faculty and they and their wives become lifelong friends. We learn the background of the friend - he is a trust-fund boy who shunned his trust to live as a poor academic. He eventually marries the girl he loves. (The family first rejected him on monetary means, but with knowledge his wealth, that argument fell apart.) 

The lives just become more boring as they get older. There are struggles with childbirths, health and other issues. They also experience the war and the "boom" afterwards. The couples look out for and support each other.  Often the friendship is just nudging somebody in the right direction when they want to give up. (e.g. jobs were wide open to teach the boomers after world war 2.)  The ends with death of one of the women from cancer.