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isabelgb's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
alexisrt's review against another edition
4.0
Jane Smiley almost hits it out of the park with this one. As a whole, this trilogy has been an examplar of the power of realistic fiction--a saga of a family and its branches. It's well written and observed without suffering from the self-consciously clever MFA workshop overwriting that seems to be overwhelming younger literary fiction writers. (Irony, considering Smiley's own pedigree.)
There are two things that make this last novel just short of a five star book. As the expanding family trees on the endpapers show, the Langdons have become quite the clan by the end. This provides a kaleidoscopic cast of characters. Smiley wisely chooses to ignore some almost completely, but she still has some difficulty in maintaining focus and keeping threads tied. There were incidents alluded to and not explained (my personal curiosity was Jonah, though in the end, the ambiguity felt calculated rather than an accident of forgetting), and the balancing act doesn't quite work smoothly.
The larger flaw comes in the final years of the book. Smiley chooses to extend the saga till 2019, which gives the final segments a speculative fiction quality that doesn't meld smoothly with the sharp realism of earlier chapters. The politics are too obvious, and too well hinted at, from the anti-GMO and Monsanto segments a few years earlier. The speculative aspect is amped up by an accelerated timeline for climate change that has Iowa as a dust bowl only 4 years from now. Political background forms an important component of the trilogy, increasing over the course of the books, but the jump lacks ease, and takes focus away from the characters as they become pawns in a wider political scheme. The progress makes thematic sense, but isn't quite pulled off.
Over the course of 1000+ pages, I've come to care about the Langdons; their farm; their tragedies large and small. Smiley has tried to write her own great saga, the tale of how one family's great success also becomes their downfall. She's almost succeeded.
There are two things that make this last novel just short of a five star book. As the expanding family trees on the endpapers show, the Langdons have become quite the clan by the end. This provides a kaleidoscopic cast of characters. Smiley wisely chooses to ignore some almost completely, but she still has some difficulty in maintaining focus and keeping threads tied. There were incidents alluded to and not explained (my personal curiosity was Jonah, though in the end, the ambiguity felt calculated rather than an accident of forgetting), and the balancing act doesn't quite work smoothly.
The larger flaw comes in the final years of the book. Smiley chooses to extend the saga till 2019, which gives the final segments a speculative fiction quality that doesn't meld smoothly with the sharp realism of earlier chapters. The politics are too obvious, and too well hinted at, from the anti-GMO and Monsanto segments a few years earlier. The speculative aspect is amped up by an accelerated timeline for climate change that has Iowa as a dust bowl only 4 years from now. Political background forms an important component of the trilogy, increasing over the course of the books, but the jump lacks ease, and takes focus away from the characters as they become pawns in a wider political scheme. The progress makes thematic sense, but isn't quite pulled off.
Over the course of 1000+ pages, I've come to care about the Langdons; their farm; their tragedies large and small. Smiley has tried to write her own great saga, the tale of how one family's great success also becomes their downfall. She's almost succeeded.
mmsbrooks24's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
krobart's review against another edition
3.0
See my review here:
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/day-1050-golden-age/
http://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/day-1050-golden-age/
rainweaver13's review against another edition
5.0
Not the most riveting book (or trilogy) I've ever read, but it was a good, steady read, and a fascinating way to structure a book. Starting in 1920, in "Some Luck," the trilogy traces one hundred years in the lives of a single Iowa farm family. Each chapter is a single year, so the story moves steadily. Sometimes, big things happen off camera, so to speak, and we see only the reactions or fallouts of those actions, but I never felt cheated at all.
You'd think that with all those characters and over such a great span of time, it would be easy to get lost or confused, but I never had any problems. What I DID have a challenge with was keeping up with who was who as the family got larger and more sprawled out, but a handy family tree in the front of each book kept me on track.
I really enjoyed this trilogy and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys sprawling, multi-generational family sagas.
(The middle book is "Early Warning," by the way.)
You'd think that with all those characters and over such a great span of time, it would be easy to get lost or confused, but I never had any problems. What I DID have a challenge with was keeping up with who was who as the family got larger and more sprawled out, but a handy family tree in the front of each book kept me on track.
I really enjoyed this trilogy and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys sprawling, multi-generational family sagas.
(The middle book is "Early Warning," by the way.)
schray32's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this trilogy. I think the author did a great job of writing a complicated family history set over 100 years. Having farming in my family history made me appreciate this aspect of the story. I loved getting to know all of the Langdons.
cazinthehat's review against another edition
3.0
Brilliant, but should have read it a lot closer to completing the previous instalments - I spent the first half constantly flicking to the family tree. The whole trilogy is definitely worth the investment in time, though, if you have any interest in American writing/history.
lilcoop71's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed the trilogy and was along for the ride but this last one was a bit of a slog.
latenightwriter's review
2.0
While I was enamored with the previous two installments of this trilogy, this one lost me about halfway through. The rest of the novel was, for lack of a better word, skimmed. While the plot of the previous two books focused on the development of the Langdon family and the progression of the twentieth century, this one treaded into familiar territory. This book spoke far too much of politics for my liking and focused on matters such as money, horses, and farming, none of which managed to hold my interest for very long. I skimmed the remainder of the book to see what became of the characters, and how they managed life until the year 2019. Overall, this book was good in the aspect that I got to see the fates of characters I'd come to care about, but the topics that spanned the majority of this books 400-pages didn't hold my attention for very long.