From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Some Luck (Last Hundred Years: A Family Saga, #1)

Jane Smiley

Start date: April 15, 2015

Finish date: May 1, 2015

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Carol

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Reading List

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What Members Thought

Apr 25, 2015 Ruth rated it liked it

This was an easy read. I polished it off in a day. Being a west coast person, born and bred, I found all the farming stuff very interesting. I think it gave me a real feel for what it's like.

That said, I kept waiting for something to happen, for some kind of a story arc. Not there. In its place, just a series of evenly modulated events with no discernible end. This may be unfair,since the book is part of a trilogy. I'd be interested if there's an arc over the course of the three books, but maybe ...more

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Apr 15, 2015 Jane rated it really liked it

Shelves: recentfiction

I started out skeptical. Very slow and meditative. And the book grew on me until I couldn't put it down. I wanted to talk about with the Constant Reader group on Goodreads, but I began to care so much about the characters that I was reading it to find out how their lives unfolded. I began to get in sync with the years passing in ten to twenty pages, and some characters being the focus of that year, and others emerging only momentarily or in another year. The first passages of the infant Frankie ...more

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Sep 30, 2014 Jennifer rated it liked it

Some Luck is beautiful as a series of vignettes or character studies; for those looking for a novel with a traditional plot arc, it will probably be a disappointment. I enjoyed the form of the book, though, especially the shifting points of view; I was particularly intrigued by how Smiley imagined children's (especially infants' and toddlers') perspectives. The historical framework gave me some insight into the history of Iowa (a history that I haven't managed to learn in the 8+ years I've lived ...more

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