June 10, 2015
I am 63% done with Some Luck (thank you good reads). A friend gave it to me and said she had enjoyed it and so had her mom. She explained that it gives a very accurate depiction of life in the midwest and is the first in a series of three.
I had been excited to read Jane Smiley. She won a pulitzer for one of her works and wrote a book on one of my all time favorite authors. I had never actually read any of her work but, I figured, this book was in front of me, it was a good place to start.
This is meant to be a family saga. Clearly Smiley is prepared to go the distance with her characters. Taking them from the early days of the twentieth century into modern history is a tall order and you must have a plan.
But I can't see her plan.
It is frustrating to read characters who you don't particularly like and can't relate to. But when the plot is quite dull it makes reading the book almost impossible.
Lately I have been toying with the idea that perhaps Smiley is making a statement on the mundane nature of family life. Or maybe life in the midwest is really that dull and the flat characters are a parallel to the flat landscape and the flat story line. I think I may be giving Smiley too much credit though.
I will push on. I will finish this.
Today I did read my favorite line, though. And I believe it will prove to be my favorite line in the entire book. "On a farm, you knew that you could die from anything, or you could survive anything. 'Why?' was a question that his relatives never asked--they just told the stories, clucked, shook their heads." (page232)
It just perfectly captures farm life and how farmers cope with life and death.
June 15, 2015
I did it. I finished Some Luck. I certainly wouldn't recommend this book. Well, unless you like long stretches of boring prose. Or, if you really wanted to read about the mid west in the early to mid 1900's. If you fell into one of those two groups, perhaps you should read this.
The conclusion wasn't particularly different from the rest of the book, though I did find myself not as miserable as I had been in the first part of Some Luck. Because I knew the characters after 300 pages, I was curious about how they would turn out. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't rooting for anyone to be happy and well adjusted.
One aspect of the last fourth of this book that I found somewhat interesting was the use of memories. Occasionally, a character would reminisce about an episode that had happened earlier in the novel. It rang very true of a family get-together and it's not something you read every day in a book. I do believe it could have been done in a better way, maybe to reveal something (one character's fond memories are really torturing another character), but it did make me stop and think about the nature of holidays with big families.
I doubt I will be reading the next book in the series that was recently released. But, I am curious to see if others had the same experience as me with this book or if it just wasn't meant for me but is widely loved and adored.
Today I did read my favorite line, though. And I believe it will prove to be my favorite line in the entire book. "On a farm, you knew that you could die from anything, or you could survive anything. 'Why?' was a question that his relatives never asked--they just told the stories, clucked, shook their heads." (page232)
It just perfectly captures farm life and how farmers cope with life and death.
June 15, 2015
I did it. I finished Some Luck. I certainly wouldn't recommend this book. Well, unless you like long stretches of boring prose. Or, if you really wanted to read about the mid west in the early to mid 1900's. If you fell into one of those two groups, perhaps you should read this.
The conclusion wasn't particularly different from the rest of the book, though I did find myself not as miserable as I had been in the first part of Some Luck. Because I knew the characters after 300 pages, I was curious about how they would turn out. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't rooting for anyone to be happy and well adjusted.
One aspect of the last fourth of this book that I found somewhat interesting was the use of memories. Occasionally, a character would reminisce about an episode that had happened earlier in the novel. It rang very true of a family get-together and it's not something you read every day in a book. I do believe it could have been done in a better way, maybe to reveal something (one character's fond memories are really torturing another character), but it did make me stop and think about the nature of holidays with big families.
I doubt I will be reading the next book in the series that was recently released. But, I am curious to see if others had the same experience as me with this book or if it just wasn't meant for me but is widely loved and adored.
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