UID:
kobvindex_ZLB16313714
ISBN:
9780385350396
,
9780385350396
Series Statement:
Last Hundred Years: A Family Saga
Content:
" 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. "
Content:
Rezension(1): "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." Rezension(2): " The New Yorker :This sweeping, carefully plotted novel traces the history, from 1920 to the Cold War era, of a single Iowa farming family. Each chapter focuses on one year, setting the minor catastrophes and victories of the family's life against a backdrop of historical change, particularly the Great Depression. As the children branch out from their tiny town, so, too, does the story, eventually encompassing several generations, cities, and cultural movements. Smiley, like one of her characters contemplating the guests at the Thanksgiving table, begins with an empty house and fills it 'with twenty-three different worlds, each one of them rich and mysterious.'" Rezension(3): "Christine Pivovar, Kansas City Star :What's unusual about Some Luck is how closely it's meant to mimic real life, and yet how important Smiley's gifts as a novelist are to achieving that effect. The way the story unfolds makes it feel not so much like reading a novel as catching up with relatives every couple of months, finding out who's been up to what and comparing stories. Characters reminisce about scenes from earlier in the book that start to feel like our memories, too. Smiley's ability to sketch a scene, to bring to life the quiet incidents as well as the big ones--the moment when something finally makes sense, or a decision is reached, or someone lets slip something they shouldn't--are what transform the family stories into literature . Some Luck draws the reader in with easy charm." Rezension(4): "Amy Goodfellow Wagner, Examiner.com :A magnificent achievement . Pulitzer Prize-winning Smiley has embarked on an audacious project: the first volume of an epic family chronicle that spans the past century. She pulls it off handily,her touch is light and assured. With each passing year, the Langdons respond to the events that shaped America itself . While written with humor and affection, Some Luck is a constant reminder of how fleeting life really is. Babies arrive with little warning. Children die in freak accidents. Families care for their aging and failing elders. Walter and Rosanna both worry constantly--about their farm and their family. In the end, it all comes down to luck." Rezension(5): "Sandra Levis, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette :The fertile first installment of Smiley's century-spanning trilogy of fatalism, farm life and family--a big story of a big family in a big country. [But] the focus is up-close and intimate: Smiley cultivates her characters in scenes that are sometimes lightly comical, touchingly sad, sweet, or slightly strange, and they are always perfectly, beautifully true to life. She gives every Langdon careful consideration--endowing each of them with discrete likes, dislikes, private thoughts, and secret hopes and fears--but it is Frank, the baby born on New Year's Day, 1920, who breaks the mold . The reader longs for the Golden Age of the early chapters and the way of life we know will not survive, even as we eagerly await the sequel. And all we can do is wait, patiently." Rezension(6): "Ellen Emry Heltzel, The Seattle Times :Engaging. . Smiley is a self-assured writer, a skillful stylist who launches her story from a baby's-eye view. She plumbs the drama in ordinary life, hitting all our nostalgia buttons on the way, from the one-room schoolhouse and horse-drawn plow to the TV set. As the landscape changes, from a vista of corn fields and self-sufficiency to green lawns and consumerism, Smiley is a master of the telling detail . Populated by sympathetic characters who take what life brings, [this] is a look back at what feels like simpler times. Family is Smiley's turf, and she plays it well." Rezension(7): "Natalie Serber, The Oregonian :The wonderful first installment of Smiley's The Last Hundred Years Trilogy, which tells the story of an Iowa farm family from 1920 to 2019. As far as I'm concerned, the next two cannot follow soon enough . Over the years, the Langdons will have six children, each with their own interesting life, messy desires and flaws that will compel them out into the world, some far from the farm that the family both loathes and loves. There are deaths, blizzards, droughts, and accidents, as well as births, celebrations and" Rezension(8): "〈a href=http://www.publishersweekly.com target=blank〉〈img src=https://images.contentreserve.com/pw_logo.png alt=Publisher's Weekly border=0 /〉〈/a〉: Starred review from July 7, 2014 In the first volume of a planned trilogy, Smiley returns to the Iowa of her Pulitzer Prize–winning A Thousand Acres , but in a very different vein. The warring sisters and abusive father of that book have given way to the Langdons, a loving family whose members, like most people, are exceptional only in their human particularities. The story covers the 1920s through the early ’50s, years during which the family farm survives the Depression and drought, and the five Langdon children grow up and have to decide whether to stay or leave. Smiley is particularly good at depicting the world from the viewpoint of young children—all five of the Langdons are distinct individuals from their earliest days. The standout is oldest son Frank, born stubborn and with an eye for opportunity, but as Smiley shifts her attention from one character to another, they all come to feel like real and relatable people. The saga of an Iowa farm family might not seem like an exciting premise, but Smiley makes it just that, conjuring a world—time, place, people—and an engaging story that makes readers eager to know what happens next. Smiley plans to extend the tale of the Langdon family well into the 21st century,she’s off to a very strong start. "
Note:
Auszeichnungen: The New York Times:The New York Times Best Seller List
Language:
English
URL:
https://samples.overdrive.com/some-luck-b33c13?.epub-sample.overdrive.com
URL:
http://voebb.lib.overdrive.com/ContentDetails.htm?ID=B33C1351-1B4F-459B-9E81-E10F9CCF6ECB
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