Some Luck by Jane Smiley

A family saga that stretches from 1920 through to the early 1950s and covers the lives of a farming family from a remote area of Idaho. It has a slow start, as the author has chosen to record the life of Frank Langdon right from his time in the cradle, and as this is written from his own perspective the early pages seemed a bit surreal. No matter, it picks up quickly, and as the book extends to over six hundred pages there is plenty of time to get to know the family.

Walter and Roseanna Langdon are Frank's parents and they married after Walter returned from fighting in France during the First World War. They came form a generation that did not question the need for hard work and discipline, and those values were impressed upon their children. Young Frank had a will of his own from a very early age and Walter sees it as his duty to take his belt to him on occasion, as was common practice at the time. Frank is only just a toddler when he has his first experience of corporal punishment, but Roseanna accepts this method of discipline for her child and makes no comment to Walter. The author uses this scene to demonstrate the way people bought up children during that time and place, and there is no suggestion that Walter is a cruel man.

The family grows over the years, and in the end Walter and Roseanna have six children, all with very different personalities. The family story reads easily and in some ways I was surprised that it came from an Pulitzer Prize winning author, as some of the writers in that category expect the reader to do a bit more work than is necessary here. That is not to say that the writing is in any way below par. The story line is well put together and draws on the historical events that affected every family during the covered decades.

Even after six hundred odd pages, Jane Smiley has still not got to the end of what she wants to say, and at the back of the book there is a sample taken from the next instalment called 'Early Warning' that goes up to the 1980s, and then there will be another one after that. I will have to look out for them.

Comments

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