Book Summary and Reviews of Golden Age by Jane Smiley

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Cathryn Conroy

This Three-Book Family Saga Is Truly the Great American Novel
The power of this book—as well as the other two books that comprise this gripping family saga trilogy—is the wisdom, compassion, and human insight of Jane Smiley's imaginative story arc.

This is the 100-year story of the Langdon family. Each chapter is titled with a year, covering 1920 to 1952 in the first book, "Some Luck," from 1953 to 1986 in "Early Warning," and from 1987 to 2019 in "Golden Age."

Rosanna and Walter Langdon had six children from 1919 to 1939, which means the family tree has greatly expanded its branches by the end of the 20th century. The children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren live not only on the farm in Denby, Iowa where it all started, but also New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Palo Alto, and San Francisco. While this puts them in the center of the action for political and current events, the book is far more about the minutiae of life—the hopes, heartbreak, and dreams of human existence that define who we are as individuals and where we fit into a family.

A Disappointment: Since everything that happens to the characters right from the first page of the first book is mirrored by corresponding current events of that year, Jane Smiley took a leap of faith by publishing this book in October 2015 (and presumably finishing the writing as much as year earlier) but still continuing the story through 2019. Beginning with the 2016 chapter, she creates current events that didn't happen from a president who was not actually elected to international skirmishes that are figments of her imagination. She was writing about an unknown future. It was disappointing to me in that it violated the basic premise she herself created at the beginning of the series—for the life of one American family to reflect the current events of the time. She should have waited the five years to publish the third volume or stopped the story in 2015. (Even so, it's still a five-star book.)

Two pieces of advice:
No. 1: You absolutely must read the books in order or they won't make sense. This really should have been one book. If you start with the second or third book, it's like starting halfway through a novel. It will be very confusing.

No. 2: The Langdon family tree is quite complex. Bookmark that page so you can easily refer to it later. If you are reading this on a Kindle, here is the most efficient way to figure out the characters: Search the name of the character (and first name is enough). The first search result you'll get is on the family tree. Go there. That puts you right where you need to be within the multipage family tree so you don't have to hunt. I was still doing this 70 percent into the story! THAT is how complex these relationships are.

This is an extraordinary family saga that almost serves as a mini-history of the United States, as well as quite the writing achievement for Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley. When you view all three of the books as one, it truly is the Great American Novel.

Other books by Jane Smiley at BookBrowse

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