Fiction Book Review

I have been a fan of author Jane Smiley for a long time – A Thousand Acres was wonderful and Moo was one of the best comic novels I have read – so I was thrilled to find that Smiley’s latest offering is a trilogy. The Last Hundred Years is literally a hundred years of American history seen through the eyes of an Iowa farming family. It is a family saga but with the major events put into context on a personal level. All three volumes were written before the first volume was published but they are coming out sequentially. The final volume, Golden Age is due to be published in October 2015. I have now read the first two volumes – Some Luck and Early Warning – and am eagerly awaiting the third.

The first volume began in 1920’s Iowa and is the story of a farming family through to 1953. Through the Langdon Family we experience the ebb and flow of lives both ordinary and yet also extraordinary, everyday life mixed with the momentous changes of a nation. Each chapter covers a year and involves different characters. I often found myself reluctant to let a character fade into the background, but their time comes round again. Volume two takes you through the Cold War years, the tumultuous 1960’s and on into the 1980’s. The final volume goes through to 2019 and apparently includes the election of the next President of the United States.

It is only fair to warn you that the books are compelling – the sort of read that requires you to clear the decks at home so that you can sit down and disappear into, what we refer to in our house as, “book land”. The only acceptable interruptions involve offers of refreshments. A trilogy requires commitment but the rewards can be great. I gave some thought to other trilogies I have enjoyed and came up three worth mentioning.

Of course, a stand-out trilogy of recent times would be the Stieg Larsson series beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, another literary giant, is a thought-provoking series set in a dystopian future, beginning with Oryx and Crake it continues with The Year of the Flood and concludes with MaddAddam.

The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H Winters is a science fiction/mystery series set in not too distant future. The Earth is threatened by an approaching comet – each chapter is headed with co-ordinates positioning the comet in relation to our planet. When it becomes clear that this is not going to be a “near miss” situation but a direct impact that will destroy all life, world order breaks down. I thoroughly enjoyed this series beginning with The Last Policeman continuing with Countdown City and concluding with World of Trouble. I found the conclusion of the series very satisfying.