Beyond Deserving by Sandra Scofield

Published 1991 · 322 pages · 92,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction

How hard is Beyond Deserving to read?

Beyond Deserving scores 42 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 35 out of 100
Clear American prose.
Sentence structure: 38 out of 100
Scofield's accessible sentences.
Abstraction: 40 out of 100
Working-class family questions.
Information density: 40 out of 100
Texas family detail.
Narrative indirection: 45 out of 100
Multiple perspectives.
Symbolic density: 45 out of 100
Family, desert carry weight.
Ironic distance: 40 out of 100
Scofield writes with sympathy.
Resolution withholding: 45 out of 100
Family continues.
Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
Family narrative.

How Beyond Deserving is regarded

Beyond Deserving holds a literary regard score of 50 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Sandra Scofield