This is great big fat 600+ page novel. The 600 pages might have put me off had it not have come so highly recommended by one of the book sellers at the fabulously named Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights.
Some Luck by Jane Smiley is the first novel in the Last 100 Years trilogy. The novel begins in 1920 when Walter and Rosanna are beginning their life together, as a very much in love young couple on a farm in deepest Iowa. Life can be tough and they face many struggles as they endeavour to hold their young family together through the good times and bad.
The 30 years over which this novel is set sees birth and death, joy and sadness, profit and loss and war and peace. Each chapter spans a whole year in the life of Walter and Rosanna. The story and characters are developed and woven together through the events which shape them both locally and internationally as war takes hold in Europe.
This novel is rich in humanity and compassion and human understanding and is filled with love. I felt I knew each character by the end. Cleverly I felt, the characteristics of the children which were so key to their personalities were nurtured and developed so that as adults their actions made perfect sense as they remained true to themselves. As a reader I could see why as adults Walter and Rosanna’s children they made the choices they did.
Rosanna’s story was beautifully told through her growth as a wife and mother, her personal grief and losses, her faith and her growing understanding of her family as they became adults.
“At first you thought of people like Eloise and Frank and Lillian as runaways, and then, after a bit, you knew they were really scouts”
The setting and the landscape all play such a part in the life of the family and the novel ebbs and flows with the harsh weather, and the changing landscape. The land is vital, it provides sustenance and life. The condition and fruit of the land is at the mercy of the weather, whilst Walter and Rosanna and their family are at the mercy of both.
This is an epic of a family saga with so much to recommend it and make it ‘unputdownable. I loved it. I feel sure if you have enjoyed the likes of The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard then you will equally enjoy The Last 100 Years Trilogy. Volume 2 is firmly written on my birthday book wish list!
