Some Luck

(Paperback, Large Print Edition)

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Longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award
From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize" " a powerful, engrossing new novel--the life and times of a remarkable family over three transformative decades in America.
On their farm in Denby, Iowa, Rosanna and Walter Langdon abide by time-honored values that they pass on to their five wildly different children: from Frank, the handsome, willful first born, and Joe, whose love of animals and the land sustains him, to Claire, who earns a special place in her father's heart.
Each chapter in "Some Luck "covers a single year, beginning in 1920, as American soldiers like Walter return home from World War I, and going up through the early 1950s, with the country on the cusp of enormous social and economic change. As the Langdons branch out from Iowa to both coasts of America, the personal and the historical merge seamlessly: one moment electricity is just beginning to power the farm, and the next a son is volunteering to fight the Nazis; later still, a girl you'd seen growing up now has a little girl of her own, and you discover that your laughter and your admiration for all these lives are mixing with tears.
"Some Luck "delivers on everything we look for in a work of fiction. Taking us through cycles of births and deaths, passions and betrayals, among characters we come to know inside and out, it is a tour de force that stands wholly on its own. But it is also the first part of a dazzling epic trilogy--a literary adventure that will span a century in America: an astonishing feat of storytelling by a beloved writer at the height of her powers.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Reviews

"A ravishing and defiantly old-fashioned novel set on the same Iowa soil Smiley tilled in her Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Thousand Acres . . . ." Reminiscent of the work of Willa Cather and Alice Munro, "Some Luck "chronicles one family's triumphs and travails as they work to wrest a living from their farm. Opening in 1920, [it] tracks the fates of Walter and Rosanna Langdon and their children over three decades. Their union endures, roiled by doubt at times, yet rooted in a bone-deep connection. "Some Luck "ingeniously spirals outward from the farm and back again, capturing the arc of personal and historical change in forthright prose that unexpectedly takes flight." --Hamilton Cain, "O, The Oprah Magazine "
"Fans of old-fashioned family sagas featuring historical sweep are in (ahem) some luck. Like "A Thousand Acres, " "Some Luck" conveys a deep understanding of both the endless work and worries of agrarian life and the foremost question among children raised on the land--whether to stay or go. "Some Luck"'s narrative shifts focus among various members of the Langdon family, including its youngest. What's it all about, having a family Rosanna's reflections during a Thanksgiving gathering in 1948--a perfectly written scene [and] the climax and beating heart of "Some Luck--"captures the payoff, the sudden moments of grace that can astonish and melt even the most exhausted, unsentimental readers. An intimate, telling portrait of the changing landscape of hearth and home in twentieth-century America . . . The writing positively soars." --Heller McAlpin, "The B&N Review"
"Sweeping, bold, and completely engrossing . . . arguably Smiley's finest work--she delivers with "Some Luck. "It moves swiftly, keeping the reader turning the pages. Smiley's reach is wide and assured. Few authors are able to write equally well about war strategy, Communism, cover crops, and postpartum depression. Smiley can, and does, such that when "Some Luck" closes it feels sudden, despite the novel's length. The reader isn't ready to leave the Langdons behind. Take consolation in knowing there is more to come: "Some Luck" is the first installment of a promised trilogy. In this case, the luck is all ours." --Diane Leach, "PopMatters"
"Sweeping . . . Smiley's most commanding novel yet. She is a master storyteller--that rare 'three-fer' meticulous historian, intelligent humorist and seasoned literary novelist . . . But what makes a Smiley novel identifiably and deliciously hers alone is a unique brand of impassioned critical patriotism. She makes us see, in the kindest, gentlest way, that we're a lot more wonderful, and a lot more screwed up--as a nation, as a people, as families, as individuals--than we think we are. "Some Luck" contextualizes three decades of American history by zooming in on one multi-generational farm family. Births and deaths, triumphs and tragedies are rendered in a [way] that mirrors the Midwestern landscape, language and temperament. The low, quiet hum of the narrative voice provides a contrast for the family's crises, each of which serves to connect the reader to her characters . . . The rolling out of all those life events, big and small, have a cumulative effect, [and] by the end, the attachment to the Langdons is enough to make the reader count down the days to Book Two." --Meredith Maran, "Los Angeles Times"
"Midwestern farm country has proved fertile soil for fiction writers, and no one has cultivated it to such fine effect as Smiley. This new novel, the first in a Balzacian project--the saga of the American family sprung from immigrant stock rooted in farmland--follows a family through major events of the first half of the 20th century. Smiley's range is, as ever, remarkable: she inhabits the heroic firstborn, the diffident little brother, the angelic girl, the bookish boy, the [child who is an] afterthought, always managing to convey the specific nature of each character's experience, even as her narrative balances birth order as fate against character as destiny. The cumulative experiences of these people, all depicted with such convincing care and detail, convey a sense of the relations that create a world." --Ellen Akins, "Minneapolis Star Tribune"
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"Delightfully engaging, a novel full of pleasures both large and small. History makes its way into the story realistically and unobtrusively--the history is personal, told in stories passed down through generations. The chronological approach allows the novel room to breathe . . . Smiley clearly enjoys her characters without being besotted by them. Her writing has an edge of gentle humor about a place that has four seasons: 'mud, heat, harvest exhaustion, and snow.'" --Margaret Quamme, "The Columbus Dispatch"
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"Engrossing . . . While "Some Luck" evokes the Iowa landscape Smiley knows well, the novel is as much about the passage of time as the people inhabiting it. As the years pass and crops grow, so does the Langdon family. Parents Walter and Rosanna have their first child, Frank. Smart, charismatic and restless, he's followed by sensitive, reliable Joe; sweet-natured Lillian; bookish Henry; and baby Claire. From birth, each is an indelible character . . . 'All ordinary people are extraordinary, ' she says. 'I don't actually believe in the concept of ordinary people. I think individuals are always interesting . . . They have unique lives, and things happen to them. They all have adventures.'" --Georgia Rowe, "San Jose Mercury News"
"Fascinating--an impressive accounting of family life . . . "Some Luck" would qualify as Smiley's magnum opus if this, her 14th novel, were a single work and not the first in her trilogy. [As] the story, told from the multiple viewpoints of the Langdon family, moves through history, Smiley portrays her characters with such clarity that we care about their fate . . . The book's message [is] that farm life is a harrowing enterprise, needful of great reserves of fortitude. Frank will grow up handsome, brilliant and heartless--the mesmerizing center of the book . . . No one captures the rhythms of ordinary life like Smiley does: babies, sewing, cooking . . . In 1992 Smiley's "A Thousand Acres "won the Pulitzer for fiction and looked to stand as her epic achievement, retelling "King Lear" in Iowa. Now, with "Some Luck" and a return to the heartland, the remarkable Smiley just got a little more remarkable." --Barbara Liss, "Houston Chronicle"
"A masterpiece in the making . . . intimate, miraculous--the auspicious beginning of an American saga every bit as ambitious as Updike's magnum opus, anchored in the satisfactions and challenges of life on a farm, but expand[ing] to various American cities and beyond . . . Frank is one of the most fascinating and complex characters in recent fiction. The way Smiley gets deep inside [all] the children's heads is a staggering literary feat in which we see human character being assembled in something that feels like real time. An abundant harvest." --Kevin Nance, "USA Today"
"Engaging, bold . . . Smiley delivers a straightforward, old-fashioned tale of rural family life in changing times, depicting isolated farm life with precision . . . It is especially satisfying to hear a powerful writer narrate men's and women's lives lovingly and with equal attention. Subtle, wry and moving." --Valerie Sayers, "The Washington Post"
"Convincing . . . A young couple, Walter and Rosanna Langdon, are just setting out on their own [in] 1920. Eventually they will have five children; Smiley gives each of them a turn in the spotlight, filling in the details of their lives and drawing the reader into a story meant to last a long time . . . Smiley has been compared to some of the great writers of the 19th century, [and] in that tradition, she gives her trilogy the sweep of history. But what interests her most is the way historic events play out in the lives of one family whose roots are deeply embedded in the middle of America." --Lynn Neary, "NPR Weekend Sunday Edition"
"Smiley is prolific [and] seemingly writes the way her idol Dickens did--as easily as if it were breathing . . . She made up her mind at an early age that she was going to master not just one genre, but all of them. Her new book is the first volume of a trilogy--one of the few forms left for her to tackle . . . "Some Luck "starts in 1920 and follows the fortunes of a Midwestern farming family; each chapter covers a single year. What most surprised her, she said, was the way that, more than in her other books, the characters took on lives of their own. 'I got the feeling that I got on a train and sat down, and all these people were talking. I was eavesdropping, and the train was just heading into the future.'" --Charles McGrath, "The New York Times"
"Audaciously delicious . . . Every character here steals our heart. Smiley has turned her considerable talents to the story of an Iowa farm and the people who inhabit it. The suspense is found in the impeccably drawn scenes and in the myriad ways in which Smiley narrows and opens her camera's lens. Her language has the intimacy of a first-person telling; her stance is in-the-moment. Always at the narrative hearth stand Walter and Rosanna and that Iowa farm, a character in its own right, a landscape remembered by those who flee to Chicago, Italy, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and New York . . . We read these lives, and we find our own." --Beth Kephart, "Chicago Tribune"
"Sumptuous . . . A meditation on the things we encounter in our lives that shape our personal histories. Smiley impresses the reader by shifting perspectives that include those of the Langdon children as infants and toddlers learning how to grip, walk--and manipulate their parents and siblings. Readers will find much enjoyment in Smiley's sharp prose and finely observed details. She's in no hurry to get us anywhere, allowing readers to luxuriate in t

Author Bio

Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including "A Thousand Acres, "which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, as well as five works of nonfiction and a series of books for young adults. In 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2006 she received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. She lives in Northern California.