This is the first book in a trilogy about a farm family in Iowa. It begins in 1920 and runs for a hundred years, with a chapter per year. I’m among its many fans. As the LA Times says, the significance of moments “becomes clear only with the passage of time.” The Guardian says this series doesn’t simply observe family life, it’s also “a dissection of the idea of family, and of the truths its facade will shield from view.” The New York Times says it may be “fashioned loosely after ‘The Divine Comedy,’ itself a trilogy of 100 episodes.
Jane Smiley, Some Luck (Anchor Books, A Division of Penguin Random House LLC: New York: 2015), 256.